(Black text is mostly objective, red text is mostly subjective in nature.) Finance Committee met, as is customary, at 7:30 before Town Meeting.

John Bilafer spoke to FinCom about it’s recommendation of no action on Article 26. I missed the very beginning so I’m not sure if he proposed a wording change or just a different interpretation, but the upshot was that the town could optionally choose to pay off OPEB while delaying funding the retirement obligation. That change removed at least one objection of FinCom.

However, question and discussion showed that the committee still didn’t think the legislation was necessary. If the town received negative reports from a bond agency because it wasn’t paying off OPEB fast enough, the retirement board could choose to delay the retirement payment schedule on its own, and the resulting money could be appropriated by Town Meeting towards OPEB. The proposed special legislation is not necessary.

The committee did not change its original “no action” recommendation.