Goshen Board of Finance: Regular Business and School Funding
08/27/25
Present: Chairman Ned Bixler, Vice Chairman Bob Valentine, Scott Tillman, James Korner, Paul Collins, Patrick Reilly, Russell Murdoch. Excused: Carl Contadini
Chair Bixler called the meeting to order at 7:30pm. By unanimous vote the Board approved the Minutes from both the August 6 Special Meeting and the July 23 regular meeting.
In reviewing the Financial Report for the year ended June 30, 2025, Chair Bixler noted that while there was a $40,000 contingency in the budget for overages, in the year ended June 30 overages totaled $79,596.50. Major categories contributing to that spending above budget were Building Official (35,901.57, offset by extra revenue in that department), Election spending ($22,401.64) and Professional Services ($14,876.52, mainly Legal Fees); other overages were each under $1,000 for the year. Spending for Waste Removal was sharply under budget. As a result, Vice Chair Valentine made a motion, seconded by Collins, to cover the overages for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2025 by using the $40,000 Contingency and allocating $34,596.50 from the savings in Waste Management Removal budget; the motion passed unanimously.
There was a question from First Selectman, Carusillo, as to the timing of the payments to the Region 20 school district that are in the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) approved by the four towns. Vice Chair valentine indicated that, using Rule 7-1, once the Board of Finance and the Town approved the MOU the timing of the payments is at the discretion of the Goshen Board of Selectman. The First Selectman indicated Goshen would move forward to pay its year-one share under the MOU of $162,933.00
The focus then switched to the overages due to Region 6, which has ended its operations but has past bills and pension liabilities for which Goshen, Morris and Warren have responsibility. Warren and Morris have paid their share of previous bills; the pension liability will be paid over a longer time period. James Korner asked about how the $3.5 Million pension liability is broken up among the three towns. Carusillo stated that the three First Selectmen agreed to appropriate $300,000.00 per year to the pension fund; Goshen’s portion is $141,720.00 (47.24% of the $300,000 per year). The auditor, Geroge Sinnamon, recommended to the First Selectman that there should be a budget line item for RSD 6 pension debt. Valentine asked the First Selectman to confirm the final amount due to Region 6 from Goshen before calling a Town Meeting to approve that payment. There was a question from Valentine as to whether the Unemployment Insurance payment to the prior Superintendent is complete; Carusillo will confirm at a future meeting.
Finally, it was brought to the attention of the Board of Finance that there is a Title 45 Agricultural Land Preservation Fund. Vice Chair Valentine noted apparently there was a lot of discussion of farmland preservation around 1986. That program has never been funded nor have there been any requests for funding; no action was taken.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:05pm.
