FOREX NEW YORK COMPANIES

MADISON, Alabama - The Madison City Finance Committee met Wednesday night to review the city's proposed semi-annual amended budget, but left with more questions than answers.

They hope to get some answers at a second budget review meeting scheduled next Thursday at 5:30 p.m. at the Madison Municipal Complex, 100 Hughes Road.

Finance Director Lillie Causey said the amended budget increase goes from $30.2 million to $31.9 million, which concerns the members of the finance committee - Larry Vannoy, chair, Tim Cowles and Jerry Jennings.

Several large-ticket items, including four new police cruisers at a cost of $39,000 each, and radios costing $$489,000 for the police department plus a request of an additional $37,000 for overtime pay for the fire department compared to last year left the finance members scratching their heads. Also, capital outlay requests from Public Works went from $336,717, to $1,495,275 this year.

"Midyear is the time to fix things, not go out and buy things," said Vannoy. "We've got to think hard about expenses and see if we can delay some of these things. We've got to come up with money to pay for the I-565 interchange. This is just a little out of the normal."

Vannoy asked Causey to check into the matter and invite the department heads to attend next week's meeting to explain their budget increases.

Causey reminded the members that Fire Chief Ralph Cobb did manage to secure a grant to pay for the department's radios, saving the city $140,000, not to mention another $1.2 million grant that covered nearly half of the cost of the new fire station. Also, she said Public Works sold a number of units of surplus equipment, which brought in nearly $468,000 in revenues compared to $117,000 this time last year.

The city clerk's office also asked for an additional $35,000 for new fireproof shelves to store official documents.

"We are out of space," said City Clerk Melanie Williard. "Every department has boxes stacked up and there are no more room for shelves. The proposed shelves will give us twice as much room. We have no more room for permanent files, which have to be in a fireproof box."

Although the committee members are keeping a close watch on the city's finances, Vannoy said the picture is looking brighter with an uptick in sales tax revenue and he is glad they are finally "over the hump."

BRUSSELS (AP) -- European Union finance ministers are to meet in in Brussels Tuesday to hammer out an agreement over how high banks should build their defenses against future financial shocks, with the U.K. running the risk of being isolated over who should set the height.

The EU's 27 members agree on the need to increase capital reserves of banks, following an international agreement called Basel III, which was negotiated by the world's largest economies to avoid another financial meltdown such as the one brought on by the collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers in 2008.

But the U.K. wants national regulators to be able to set requirements significantly higher than those of the EU — a position opposed by almost all other EU members, who fear investors might then prefer UK banks and flee from those in other countries.

On his way into the meeting Tuesday morning, George Osborne, the British chancellor of the exchequer, was non-committal about the possibility of reaching an agreement.

"This is a time of considerable uncertainty in the eurozone economies," he said, referring to the 17 countries — the U.K. not among them — that use the euro currency. "And that uncertainty is undermining the entire European recovery. And I think we're reaching a point where we've got to make a decision to see the eurozone stand behind their currency. A very important part of that, of course, is strengthening the entire European banking system. And that is what we intend to do today."

Once enacted, Basel III would require lenders to increase their highest-quality capital — such as equity and cash reserves — gradually from 2 percent of the risky assets they hold to 7 percent by 2019. An additional 2.5 percent would have to be built up during good times. All members of the G-20 have agreed to implement Basel III; if the European Union succeeds, it would become the first entity to institute the new requirements.

The U.K. is arguing that, because national taxpayers have to bail out banks when they fail, national authorities should be able to set more stringent requirements to guard against such failures. A compromise proposal offered by the Danes, who hold the rotating presidency of the European Union, would allow national authorities some leeway to increase requirements beyond those called for in the Basel III agreement. That proposal has broad support — except, so far, from the U.K.

The finance ministers can approve the compromise proposal without British support, through what is known as qualified majority voting, in which member countries have different numbers of votes according to their populations. However, there is a tradition in the EU that changes that would affect an industry in a particular country — such as the banking sector in the U.K. — are not forced into effect over the objections of that country, and consensus is sought.

"I think there should be a unanimous decision on such an important issue," Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg said on his way into the meeting.

NORTH ANDOVER — The battle of the boards over energy saving continues.

While the Finance Committee did not take a formal vote on the issue Tuesday night, the advisory board is moving toward recommending that contracts of more than three years be approved by Town Meeting. The committee is particularly concerned about a proposed $4.3 million contract with Ameresco, a Framingham energy services firm,

Ameresco has said it will reduce the town's energy consumption and costs by making a host of improvements to buildings, including boiler replacements and more efficient lighting. The town would pay back the $4.3 million over 15 years and that bothers Finance Committee members.

The selectmen and School Committee, as well as Town Manager Andrew Maylor and Assistant Town Manager Raymond Santilli, support a pact with Ameresco.

Article 3 on the warrant for the June 12 Town Meeting authorizes the town manager and superintendent of schools to award contracts for more than three years if four selectmen or four School Committee members approve.

Finance Committee member Peter Besen proposed amending the article to require that such contracts be approved by Town Meeting.

"We don't want it to happen administratively," his colleague, Benjamin Osgood, said about the possibility of a contract with Ameresco being approved without voters' approval.

Thomas Dugan, presiding in the absence of Chairman Alan LeBovidge, said board members need to agree on the language of an amendment before moving forward with it.

"We don't have to make a decision tonight," Dugan said. The board invited Ameresco to send a representative to its meeting last night, but the company declined to do so, according to Dugan.

Dugan, Osgood, Matthew Remis and other Finance Committee members have said the board has not been given sufficient information about Ameresco to make an informed decision.