FinCom-20250123T091432_0001

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Canton Finance Committee Minutes Voted on: 1/22/25 
801 Washington Street Vote: 7-0-0 
Canton, MA 02021 
Finance Committee Meeting Minutes 
November 18, 2024 
Canton High School Teachers Break Room 
Finance Committee Members Present: Dave Clough, Dan Cole, Anne Lang, John Leonetti, Emilio Mauro, 
Maureen Menconi, Kristin Mirliani and Cindy Thomas. 
Finance Committee Members absent: Reuki Schutt. 
Guests Present: 
Ellen Jones, Recording Secretary 
Randy Scollins III, Finance Director 
Call Meeting to Order: Mr. Mauro called the Finance Committee meeting to order at 6:07 p.m. 
New Business: Mr. Mauro reviewed the agenda which included a discussion of the restructuring for the financing for 
the Galvin Middle School Construction Project Funding. 
Discussion — Special Town Meeting No. 1, Article 2 — Galvin Middle School Construction Fundinq 
Mr. Mauro turned the discussion over to Mr. Scollins. 
Mr. Scollins distributed the following two documents to the Finance Committee.- 
1) An updated Funding Recommendation, which was previously presented to the Finance Committee at their 
meeting on September 25, 2024. 
2) An updated Page 7 of the same document (Tax Impact of $166.7 Million Debt Exclusion Project with expanded 
columns updated as of November 14, 2024). 
The Norfolk County Retirement Board (NCRB) pension assessment savings — On November 4, 2024 the (NCRB) voted 
to modify the NCRB pension funding schedule by moving the date for which it would be fully funded from FY29 to FY35. 
This was unanticipated and unwelcomed by many Town Administrators across Norfolk County. 
The reason for the change to the full funding date was that the actuary who determined the full funding date retired in 
calendar year 2024. NCRB's new actuary has taken a more conservative view of the assumptions in the actuarial 
analysis and has extended the full funding date to FYE 2035 instead of FYE 2029. 
There were two primary things that impacted the NCRB's decision to extend the date: 
1) Updated mortality tables with the latest information to reflect that everyone is living longer. 
2) The more significant change was to the discount rate, which is the assumed long-term investment return 
assumption, which is being reduced from 7.75% to 7.5%, despite the fund achieving a higher return. 
Mr. Scollins stated that NCRB has been using a discount rate of 7.75% for as long as he has been in municipal finance, 
for approximately 20 years. The NCRB received negative feedback from the Public Employee Retirement 
Administration Commission (PERAC) who oversees all state and municipal pension funds. NCRB's new actuary has 
accepted PERAC's recommendation without protest from the NCRB member towns. 
Instead of the pension assessment of $933,717 in FY 2030, the assessment will be $9,255,226. This represents a 
continuation of the Town funding the full assessment for another two years. This means the Town will not have pension 
assessment savings in FY 2030 and FY 2031. Instead, there will be savings for use on the GMS debt service in FY 
2032, which would be the third year of the permanent financing bond. Without the savings in years one and two of the 
bond, the taxpayer impact will be higher than calculated based on the original assumption of savings in FY 2030 and 
FINCOM 20241118 Minutes.docx Page 1 of 3 12/17/24