City & Town Newsletters

This article is a helpful guide for local officials presenting the annual budget season. It provides a helpful roadmap of suggestions and best practices that foster communication and engagement for policymakers and taxpayers as cities and towns craft their fiscal year budgets.

Importance of municipal governments to encourage professional development for their municipal employees.

The article discusses the importance of managing reserves as a financial strategy for communities, particularly in Massachusetts, and contrasts traditional views of reserves as savings with a new perspective that frames them as a risk management tool or insurance. It emphasizes the need for communities to adopt a risk-aware approach to reserves management, incorporating both qualitative and quantitative risk analysis to better prepare for future uncertainties and justify reserve levels to the public.

This article recommends local officials monitor revenue and expenditure reports monthly to ensures that the revenue levels claimed on the Tax Rate Recapitulation sheet are being realized, help officials spot collection trends, and provide a clear picture of cash flow.

This article provides useful information related to the establishment and administration of revolving funds.

Financial Management Resource Bureau guidance on enterprise accounting for indirect costs.

Financial Management Resource Bureau provides background on two programs that could provide property tax relief, the senior work-off an veterans work-off programs.

This article presents the benefits of implementing a Capital Improvement Plan as a blueprint for planning a community's capital expenditures. A Capital Improvement Plan is a strategic tool that outlines the municipality’s long-term infrastructure needs along with its financial capacity to achieve them.

This article highlights the importance of regular tri-board meetings in towns that bring together three key policymaking boards, the select board, school committee, and finance or advisory committee.

This article highlights the importance a cash flow as a valuable tool in ensuring the availability of cash to cover expenditure obligations.