001Um good afternoon everybody. Uh it is Wednesday. Let's see, today is the uh 29th. Um my name is Michael Herbert and uh I'm the town manager here. I'm here with our assistant town manager for administration and operations, uh Katherine Bird. Um and we're here today to cover the annual town meeting warrant that's going to be held next Wednesday on May 6th uh starting at 7:00 p.m. at Ashland High School. Um annual town meeting is something that happens, like again, as you can tell, annually. Um town meeting is the town of Ashland's legislative body. Uh meaning that uh it goes through parliamentary procedure and things such as the budget and things such as uh warrant articles and zoning bylaws and things like that are debated and voted on by uh registered voters. Um a- anybody can
002sh- any registered voter can come to town meeting and participate. And that's why they call uh open town meeting one of the purest forms of democracy. Um so this year is a little bit different than current or than other years. Um and why is that? Well, this year is different because although we cover a budget every annual town meeting in May, this year is a little bit different in that we will be having an override related budget on the warrant article. And that is going to change a little bit on how we do town meeting. So, I want to explain that a little bit first. So, article four is actually the budget. And the budget, as you will see it in the article, um has the override baked in, so to speak. So, it's it's
003already got it in the numbers. Um and so, if it passes at town meeting, it needs to subsequently pass at the ballot, which is just a simple yes or no vote to raise taxes to meet those expenses. If it passes at the ballot, all we'll do is convene town meeting on June 3rd simply to um uh basically end town meeting and adjourn town meeting. However, if on May 19th, um that ballot vote fails and the override doesn't pass, we will come back on June 3rd at town meeting to reconsider a budget that is a non-override budget. Um so, just want to make sure that that's uh clear for everybody, cuz that's a little bit unique this year compared to what we what we typically do. Um so, I wanted to say that. Katherine, did you
004have anything you wanted to add um related to maybe some of the logistics or or town meeting itself? Sure. So, as Michael mentioned, um this year will be a little bit different. So, we will have town meeting on May 6th at 7:00 p.m. Uh we will go through all of the warrant articles as will be presented to you um tonight, and then we will continue the meeting um to June 3rd at 7:00 p.m. at the high school. And then, on May 19th, we'll have the [music] ballot question, so the override question uh will be on the ballot. And if the uh ballot question for the override passes, we will go back to town meeting on June 3rd and adjourn our town meeting, close it out. If the ballot measure fails, we will go back to
005town meeting on June 3rd with a revised budget and a revised general stabilization number and close out the meeting. All right, thank you. Um Okay, if there's no questions from the audience, and give everybody an an opportunity, I'll just move forward and I will go through each of the articles, discuss it a little bit, and then just open it up for questions if anybody has any. Um So, the first article, Article 1, is to hear town reports. This is an opportunity for boards and committees um or or other interested stakeholders to just give an update to town meeting on the activities that they're working on. Um I'll give an update just on a lot of the projects that we're currently undertaking or some that have been recently completed since our last town meeting. Um I
006believe the Stormwater Committee is going to have a report. >> Yes. And is anybody else going to have a report, do you know? I believe CPC will speak. I don't think they have a presentation, but they will speak. Um that's all I know of so far. Okay, so we plan on having three town reports, um myself, the Stormwater Committee, and our Community Preservation Committee. Um and Adam, who is the moderator, tries to encourage us to keep those as brief as possible. Um we challenge him each time we can to uh to see how how much we can push it. Um so, Article 2 um is the first of our money-related articles. Article 2 is a transfer from the General Stabilization Fund. Our General stabilization fund is also our rainy day savings fund. Um we have
007through careful financial policies that we have followed over more than a decade, um we have built that stabilization fund up to where it's considered a healthy balance. However, the way our budget is currently configured is that we have more expenses, operating expenses, than we have operating revenue. So, unfortunately, we find ourselves in this for the second year in a row taking money out of our rainy day fund in order to balance the budget. Um this is not a good practice. Um I think that's pretty uh pretty self-explanatory. I'll just make an analogy compared to your household budget. You know, anytime you have to use your savings to meet ongoing operating expenses, and again, the the keyword being ongoing, meaning that you're going to see them uh year after year or month after month, anytime you
008have to use one-time funds to help cover that, you're not in a good situation. You want to bring things back in balance to where you have your operating expenses uh meet the operating revenue. Um unfortunately, this is the second year in a row, like I mentioned, where we haven't been able to do that despite some of the money-saving strategies that we've implemented. So, this transfers $1.6 million from the rainy day fund to defray charges and expenses of the town, um mainly the FY27 general fund budget. So, for Article 2 on Wednesday night, um again, the amount is 1,640,000. 750,000 of that is to go to town departments um for their operations, notably 400,000 for our police and fire department for um staffing. Um and additional to almost $260,000 to um build out a buildings and
009grounds fund. Um and also another big ticket item is a 60,000 in cemetery, parks, and trees to help make up for the revenue that we would be losing from the field enterprise fund, which is actually going to be dissolved. Um 200,000 I That leads me to the next item uh that makes up the 1.6 million, which is 200,000. Um and that is to go towards capital, specifically for the schools. And that is because um the schools are going to take over the maintenance and scheduling of their school fields. So, currently it's being done by our cemetery, parks, and trees department in the DPW. Um And so, once that moves over to the fields, or excuse me, to the school department, we can't use that um enterprise fund anymore. So, we need the the school department
010needs the revenue or the funds in that in order to make capital purchases associated with their taking on the maintenance of the fields. So, that is why 200,000 of uh rainy day funds is going over towards the school department to help um to help them get the equipment that they need to maintain the fields. Now, what will happen, and this becomes very complicated mechanically, um is next year we will put on the warrant a motion to dissolve that enterprise fund, and then the money into that will flow back to free cash through a series of mechanics. So, essentially this will be a wash, but we um um the school department needed the funding now in order to make those capital purchases in time uh to to take over the fields. Any questions associated with that?
011Okay. Um and I should say the rest of it I I accounted for 750 and 200 out of the 1.6. The rest of it is to just go and fill the gap in between our operating expenses and our our continuing operating expenses and our revenue. So, Article 3 is to transfer money from our special education stabilization fund um to the general fund. So, we have, in addition to our rainy day stabilization fund, we have a couple of funds that are associated with specific purposes. One of them being out-of-district special education costs. Uh and so, what we try to do and what the superintendent and his team does a good job of is really try to identify um where those uh those costs are are going to come or try to anticipate what those costs are.
012And so, that 300,000 is what they have identified as what they're going to need uh from that general or excuse me, the special education stabilization fund. Um and so, that transfer happens on Article 3. Any questions associated with that? Yes, ma'am. Is that capital or is that expense? Um so, with the special education stabilization fund, excuse me, the question is is would that money go towards capital-related items or more operating expenses? This money goes towards operating expenses. The the special education stabilization fund. So, when you hear me saying that you can take this field funding that's in the other department that's expense. >> So the question is is could you and and please correct me if I'm wrong, could you offset that with the 200 that we just talked about with capital? Potentially you could
013except then you wouldn't be able to make the capital expenses capital purchases necessary to maintain the fields. See, you'd be making a choice of one over the other if I understand your your your question correctly. Okay. Enterprise, it was an enterprise fund. Yes. Correct. So you can't transfer it uh from this fund to the fields because it's dedicated to special education costs. The special education stabilization fund. Correct. Fields budget is sitting um in a fields enterprise fund right now, correct. We can't transfer money from an enterprise fund to a general fund department like the schools. Yeah, finally I finally understood the question. That was my fault. So, okay. Thank you. Um Okay, so that brings us to the budget FY 27 budget. Okay. Also, I just want to make sure any So, I didn't realize
014we had people over Zoom, and I just want to give these people an opportunity Looks like Adam and Beth an opportunity to ask questions if they had it as well. And I'm So, Catherine is going to start sharing her screen. So, Article 4 is the um the budget uh for the next fiscal year. Um And so, Catherine's pulled it up on the screen. So, just to explain what you're seeing here, um so, the budget uh obviously a very, very big number once you roll it up, but it's made up of different expense accounts. Uh it's made up of different departments. It's made up of different items that we have to pay for. Um just like uh things like uh health insurance, pension assessments, other types of insurances as well. So, it's not just departmental expenditures.
015And so, this budget um again, it it takes into account the override that's on the ballot, which is 2.75 million that goes towards the Ashland Public Schools. Um And so, I will hone in on that first of all. So, that is about um that is about a a quarter of the way up the page from the bottom. You'll see that uh org number in the left, 0130. Um Ashland Public School or it says school department. And you'll see the FY27 proposed budget is 47,236,000, which represents a $2.75 million increase or 6.18% increase over the previous year. That 2.75 million is the amount of the override um that would be uh And so, let me explain a little bit what an override is uh briefly. Um an override, Well, let me back up. In 1980, uh,
016the Massachusetts legislature established a law called Proposition 2 and 1/2. Uh, what that did is that limited municipalities um, in their ability to increase the total tax levy that they assess uh, taxpayers. It limited that increase to 2 and 1/2% each year. Now, what was happening before is it would be going up wild amounts, like 5 or 6%, or they would game the system and actually play around with the assessments, so um, the assessments would go up a lot and you wouldn't see a huge increase in the tax rate, but the tax bill would go up a lot, too, because people were um, basically uh, uh, what's the best way to say, uh, kind of, um, working, let's just put it this way, the numbers uh, both on the assessment side and the tax rate
017side. Proposition 2 and 1/2 put a stop to both of those practices. First of all, like I said before, it said it could only in the tax levy could only increase 2 and 1/2%. And number two, um, the properties must be valued at full fair cash value. So, there has to be a methodology behind it. Um, and so what has happened over the years is as uh, as expenses have increased beyond the 2 and 1/2%, um, communities have faced pressure in how to balance their budgets with their main revenue source being the tax levy only going up to 2 and 1/2%, everything else going up more than that. And so, communities have the ability to what they call override Proposition 2 and 1/2 by taking a vote at the ballot. Um, and that vote raises
018taxes above that 2 and 1/2% by whatever amount the community determines. Or, excuse me, the select board determines and puts on the ballot. Um so, in this case, the tax levy would be increasing $2.75 million more than the 2 and 1/2 percent increase. Is everybody following along with me so far? Okay. Um finance is is not a fun or an easy topic to discuss. Um municipal finance in Massachusetts can just sometimes sound nonsensical sometimes just cuz of the way the rules are. Uh so, if if people have any questions, please just raise their hand and I'll I'll pause. Um so, that is what an override is. It allows a community to go above the 2 and 1/2 percent increase um allowed under Proposition 2 and 1/2. And so, again, the number that we're using is
019$2,750,000 going towards the Ashland public schools. But, if you look at our budget, you'll see increases associated with other departments as well. And just to tie it back into the stabilization fund article from Article 2, when I talked about the $750,000 um that would be going towards town departments, um that's what is essentially um paying for some of the other increases that you see here. Um and I will just go over some of the larger ones. So, for example, our assessor's office is going up $57,000. Um and from a percentage basis, it's almost 20%. And that is because they're moving to a new software system that ultimately is going to be making us more efficient and will eventually save us um time and money. The police and fire department, as I mentioned, would be going
020up $400,000. So, $100,000 to add an additional officer and $300,000 to add an additional four five fire Excuse me, four firefighters in the fire department. Um four firefighters would allow us to put on one additional firefighter per shift. Um and we're doing that because we're seeing the increase in population. Um our firefighters are also paramedics. Um and so uh you know, their ability to manage simultaneous calls is limited based on their staffing. Um so that is why we are looking to increase that. Um veteran services, you'll see increase this $34,000. And I want to be clear, that is for direct services to our veterans. Um which we actually get reimbursed from the state um a significant amount of, but it doesn't happen until the next fiscal year. Um I mentioned before the public buildings and
021proper in uh public buildings and grounds department. Um and s- basically standing up a um a legit department as opposed to um basically um a division within a department. Um and that would be the uh the funding for that would go towards paying for a director to provide some of the long-term strategic planning associated with things like preventive maintenance, making sure things are fixed before they get broken. It's just like with the car, you you know, you want to make sure that you maintain your car, change your oil, rotate your tires, although I never managed to rotate my tires. Um all of that stuff. Um that helps save money in the future. Right? So if you do the preventive maintenance, helps save money in the future. So um but you need to have a properly
022um equipped department to do that. Cemetery, parks, and trees, I mentioned that is to help make up for the loss of the revenue from the fields enterprise fund and paying for a staff member associated with that. And so those are the major increases within the town departments. Um where we find most of the pressure in our budgets these days are in the non-personnel um or the non-departmental expenditures. So things like health insurance. I'm sure everybody at home is seeing an increase in their insurance premiums. And the ironic thing about government is that when we when when residents start feeling pressure from inflation, um we feel it too. So our health insurance costs are going up significantly. So we did a very good thing a few years ago in the fact that we switched health insurance
023plans. Um and kind of changed the design around, which has saved us over $15 million over the last 10 years. But still it eventually it catches up when you have these increases of 10 and 12% each year. And again, your revenue is only going up 2 and 1/2%. So just to put this in very stark terms, that 2 and 1/2% increase that I talked about before that we're limited to um our ability to increase under proposition 2 and 1/2. So that total amount is 1.4 million. Um and benefits and insurance goes up 1.2 million. And just to be clear, folks, that is stuff that we're obligated to pay. Um these are not discretionary costs. These are things which we have to pay. Um and I think that's the main stuff with the budget. Does anybody
024have any questions? Yes, ma'am. No, no apologies. So when the state overrides some of these perfect example. Totally overrode town's putting the extra >> That would depend on who you're asking. No surprise, if you ask the state, they'll be like, well, you're getting additional tax revenue through that. Um and so that should help pay for the expended expenditures. Um what uh the state would also say, and I would agree with, is that we would get additional state money for any students that would come in. The thing is is the amount of money that they give us, it does not pay for each student, does not pay for the cost of educating each student. So it's still it still wouldn't be enough to cover those costs exactly from the state. It should once it gets built.
025We don't see that revenue though until it gets built. Yeah. So you could have a project that's permit. So and I'm sorry, I should have asked I should have repeated the questions for the people at home. Um the question was is so when the state has laws such as Chapter 40B, which allows a developer to override our local zoning to build projects that are denser, um that might bring in more people, bring in more ser- or require more services, is there also funding associated with that from the state? Short answer is aside from additional increase in Chapter 70, um which doesn't pay for the cost of educating one kid, um other than that, no, they don't give us additional funding. So. So, just for everybody at home, I just wanted to repeat the question. Yes,
026Adam. Uh thank you, Michael, for your service to our community. Really it's really appreciated. Um I I don't have it in front of me, but I did look at the other day. Obviously, as you said, health insurance um uh costs uh and and the increase in health insurance costs and and there was also a additional cost for to fund uh the pension from what from from what I understand. Um what are you projecting in terms of cost increases for health insurance in future years? I I did see that in in a on a different report, but and you know, we're going to be in this situation in in future years. Well, I'm anticipating that we're going to see health insurance costs um escalate at the at the rate that they're continuing. Um fortunately for us,
027the GIC, the plan that we're with, um has shown to be one of the lower cost plans around or or lower cost offerings. Um some communities are seeing increases of like 20%. Um yeah, even even more than that. And I should also point out when our our agreements with the GIC run 3 years. And so, each time we come up upon the end of that, we look at potentially going out to bid and um and seeing if staying with the GIC makes sense. Each time we've done that, they've come back as being the best option for us from a cost perspective. Did Did that answer your question, Adam? Thank you, Okay. You're welcome. Any other questions related to this? I feel like I've talked budget for months. Um I have. I have. So um yeah,
028there a lot of a lot of work has gone into this by volunteers, by staff. Um a lot of work. And I won't go into you know, I won't go into like everything that we've done to save money and stuff. I've covered that in previous uh previous presentations. Um so if there are no further questions, I'll move along to Article 5, which is a transfer to our OPEB trust. OPEB stands for other post-employment benefits. It's retiree health insurance. And believe it or not, we weren't required to account for it on our books up until about 10 years ago. And that's when the Governmental Accounting Standards Standards Board, also known as GASB, said, "Okay, well you have to start showing this liability on your books." These liabilities are significant. And the way they come up with
029these huge numbers, like you know, $60 million liability for a town like Ashland, you know, you you look at a city like Lowell, um it's in the hundreds of millions. But um basically, it's it's an accrued liability over a number of years. And so what we've done is to address that liability, we've set up what's called an OPEB trust. Um and that is beneficial for us because it's dedicated money for those OPEB expenses as they continue to increase. Um and so we fund that OPEB trust using a couple of different methods. First of all, we budget money for it because it is a long-term liability associated with our current employees. And number two, we take a portion of our free cash each year, which is what free cash is the balance of what's left at
030the end of the year in our essentially our accounts, uh our general fund, and we use a portion of that to fund our OPEB liability as well. Um so, it's worked for us. The strategy has worked for us um in terms of the fact that the amount of our OPEB liability that is funded, the percentage that's funded, continues to grow. Um so, I would uh I would argue that this it would be smart to go ahead and pass this one again. Any questions related to Article 5? Okay. Article 6, uh we're getting into some very routine articles here. Article 6 is called the annual consent article. Um it's basically uh a couple of um different provisions that uh allow us to do some mechanical things, some administrative or what they call ministerial type of things,
031things that are are somewhat automatic. But, where it becomes a little bit more um I think uh where you have to use a little bit more um more cognitive effort, if you will, is when you get to the revolving funds, which um you'll see a list of different revolving funds, you'll see the use of what those funds are in that table, and you'll see the maximum amount that we can take from each fund. And all of those have to be authorized at town meeting, but the thing is is by doing it through a consent article, it can be done through one vote. Anything you wanted to add so far? Okay. Good deal. Any questions on our consent article? So, Article 7 is also a consent article, um but it's related to Community Preservation Act funds.
032Community Preservation Act funds, for those of you that don't know, it's a surcharge that goes on your taxes of 3%, and that money is used or it can only be used for a few different purposes. Number one, um open space acquisition and maintenance, um recreational development uh that meets certain criteria, historic preservation, and also affordable housing. Um we have uh authorized expenditures of um of CPA funds before for cool projects, um land acquisitions, the Riverwalk project, uh Valentine, which, you know, the barn has been done. You know, all of those things have been funded uh in part or in whole through CPC. So, it's a very, very valuable resource. Um that's administered at the local level uh by a Community Preservation Committee. And so, what this article does is it goes ahead and it authorizes
033payments that have previously been authorized and um legally obligated uh to bondholders. Uh number one, for Oak Street, um that was a property that we acquired um quite a while ago now. Um and I believe this is the last year that we make a payment on that. Um also funding to authori- or excuse me, funding for the athletic fields, uh the bond payment associated with that. I believe that's in its second to last year. Uh so, these will fall off next year. Um and then Warren Woods, um there's a number of accounts that we utilize to help fund the Warren Woods bond payment. And then last, but not least, the Valentine property, um was also purchased partially through a bond. And so this authorizes those payments as noted in here. Any questions associated with that?
034I'm probably going into a lot of detail, but um I just think that would probably be helpful for people. Um Article 8. Um, so this is a specific CPA purchase for um 41 Lincoln Road. Those of you that are familiar with the town forest knows it's like one big giant egg in the northern shaped like one big giant egg or oval in the northern part of the town. Um, and you will see if you look at a map, you will see a big blank space jutting right into the middle of that egg. That is a piece of property that is privately owned and that is the piece of property that we're talking about right here, which is 41 Lincoln Road. So we have conducted a couple of appraisals and have had discussions with the seller.
035Um and we so far have not been able to come to an agreement on a purchase price. Because of its critical environmental habitat and then also its critical geographic relationship to the town forest. We're actually looking at taking that property if we need to by eminent domain um just to protect um the woodlands and the wetlands there and to prevent any kind of development that would potentially happen there. Um and I think personally I think it's a good purchase. That's my own opinion as well as the CPC. But um this funding would be up to $845,000 for the acquisition of that property. Any questions related to that? Yeah. So, we're looking to raise property taxes. But yet we want to make this a Mhm. It's pretty heavy-handed to go with an eminent domain. You know,
036we don't like it when the state does it to the town. But yet Well, ultimately um it's a town So, the question um and the comment which is a fair point. Um is first of all, I'll I'll start with the eminent domain piece. You know, we talk about the state being able to override local laws and everything. And here you have a situation where the town has the ability to take a property by eminent domain um I I guess potentially against a property owner's uh wishes. Um Uh and you could see some similar parallels to that. Um I think from our perspective, that piece of property is so important um that we feel like we need to acquire it some way. And we would love to have an agreement uh with the owner as opposed
037to go through the eminent domain route. What this does though is it gives us the opportunity to um to go either direction. We could do a regular transaction or we could do eminent domain if if necessary, if we need to. And that ultimately, what this does, the mechanics of it, this actually authorizes the select board to make that decision. So, that's the that's the eminent domain piece. The money piece. So, there's also a question um out there, uh, and again, completely understandable. We're talking about an override. Um, so, talking about raising taxes in order to pay operating expenses. And here we have an 800, potentially an $845,000 purchase for a piece of property. Um, and the short answer is that CPA funds can't be used for operating expenses. They can be used for open space
038acquisition. So, it's not like we can take the 845 and use it for what we were going to use the override for. I know there's all these different buckets, um, that have restrictions and, um, >> Yeah, these are finances. Finances aren't new to Okay. So, um, so that >> a hefty purchase for raising taxes Well, and I think the the comment was made it seems like a hefty purchase when we're raising taxes for the town. Um, I can understand why people would have that viewpoint. Um, again, I would just really want to make the point that we can't use the CPA funds for any for the operating expenses that we were using the override for. Um, so, um, and and I do think this is a personally, I do think this is an important, um,
039important acquisition. But again, it's up to town meeting. It would need to pass. Um, article nine is to amend the building construction bylaw. Um, and this adds the what they call a secondary suite. Uh, ensure that we have that, um, and defines what a secondary suite is. Um, and I will just very, uh, just read the definition here. It's a room or rooms within which a bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen facility are located, which is a part of a single-family dwelling, but which is not an accessory dwelling unit as defined in 7.6 of our bony zoning laws. So, this is essentially in-laws, in-law apartments. It's This is a very It's a very fancy way of saying in-law We're allowing in-law apartments as required by state law. Oh my gosh, and we are at the last one.
040Um Article 10, um which is another bylaw amendment which changes uh the process that the design plan review committee does their work. Um currently, there it's a standing committee that reviews different projects as referred by the planning board. What this change does is it establishes a new committee for each project that goes before design review. Um and so this uh was a decision of the planning board to put this forward. All right. So, we're through with the warrant. I'm happy to answer any questions related to articles, related to town meeting, related to finances. Um happy to answer those. Okay. Catherine, would you Do you have anything to add? No. Okay. Um I'll just you know, I will I will just speak as the as the town manager. Um And understand when we talk about an
041override, it's a very personal decision for people. Um and people have to feel like whether the investment being asked uh by the by town officials um is appropriate, number one, and then you have to look at levels of affordability within your own home. And I know everybody is struggling with rising costs. So, I certainly I I don't begrudge any any homeowner um their decisions. Um democracy is, you know, not necessarily what we see on TV. It's democracy is is the family that has to run the numbers again at the kitchen table just to make sure um things work out right before they sign on the dotted line. And you know, it's also being able to drive your sister to the polls when her car breaks down. And you know, these are that's democracy, not like
042what we see on CNN. So, I totally understand people might have different positions. Um that being said, I think the school department uh Jim Adams and his team as well as the school committee have really approached this uh very very soundly. This um is not I can say this um I can say this uh very confidently. This was not a okay, we need more money. We need to go and ask the voters for it. Um this has been part of a systematic restructuring of the school department's finances in order to make it more sustainable. So, to the extent that we can control, we don't have to go and ask voters for an override again. I'm not saying that that's going to not going to happen or is going to happen. A a of stuff is
043out of our control. Um but to the extent I can I can say um because I do have visibility in what the school department's done financially, that they have really taken this seriously. And again, it's not just looking for additional money. It's actually part of a of a broader restructuring. Yes. I'll say that. Yeah. Yeah. Um so 6:15 is when we will start checking people in. Okay. So just some logistics. Um town meeting starts at 7:00, but check-in will start at 6:15 as we're anticipating a large attendance at this meeting. Um we have established an overflow room. It's in the cafeteria, right? Um so the main meeting happens in the auditorium. If that doesn't hold or if if we run out of room there, the cafeteria would be available for people to to be there
044and and we'll have the meeting streamed through there. And they can still participate. So um Yeah, a lot of thought, a lot of trying to make this as as manageable as easy as possible for voters. Awesome. Well, um Adam, did anybody online have No? Okay. Well, thank you all for um for attending and and watching if you're watching at home. Um Again, uh town meeting is May 6th, um 7:00 p.m. at Ashland High School. Uh 10 articles on the warrant. You can find the warrant online, as well as all the budget documentation. There's also, if you go to the website, um you'll see, towards the bottom, you'll see like news events or breaking news. You'll see a page dedicated to the override and information associated with it. It's got a calculator. It also has a
045lot of information on it, in addition, like so the budget. Um also, there's uh some of these efficiency briefs on there, so ways where we have saved money, some of the things that we have done to to cut costs, um as well as just an analysis of our finances that's been done by our independent auditors. So, um anyway, thank you for coming, and um if you have any other questions, I'm I'm happy to answer them either here or outside of here. Thanks, everybody. Thank you.