Next Tuesday evening, May 10, the town of Hanover will vote to approve the year’s proposed budget, which the Hanover finance committee voted 3-1 to support.
Hanover town manager Julia Griffin characterized this year’s budget as fairly stable compared to previous ones. Overall, expenditures have decreased compared to last year’s budget. This year, the town has proposed a budget of $25,517,534, a 2.5 percent decrease from last year’s $26,177,606. This is largely the result of reduced funding from reserve fund purchases – monies that have previously been set aside to fund specific programs. Last year, reserve funds supported $2,271,023 of funding, whereas this year they will cover only $1,302,675, a 42.6 percent decrease. With reserve funds factored out, the budget has seen a slight increase in funding, from $23,906,583 to $24,214,859.
The town’s tax rate is set to increase by 1.57 percent, from 6.11 to 6.21, while its tax levies will go up by 2.63 percent. This tax rate increase is lower than the Hanover select board’s recommended maximum of 2.5 percent.
Griffin emphasized the importance of maintaining stability in the budget to minimize property tax rate increases, especially because property taxes fund so much of the budget.
The general fund, which covers the majority of Hanover’s tax-funded departments, will see a 6.3 percent decrease in funding under the proposed budget. Other tax-supported funds that will be affected include the fire fund, which will see a 2.9 percent decrease, and the parking operations fund, which will see a 1.7 percent increase — though it is largely self-funded via parking fines and fees. In total, taxes will fund 63.85 percent of these departments, an increase of 8.1 percent compared to last year.
Under the general fund, the largest absolute increase in terms of dollars spent is to the public works department, which is set to receive an additional $298,859 for a total budget of $3,863,827. In terms of percentages, the conservation department will receive a 45.9 percent increase under the proposed budget, bringing their appropriations to a total of $31,800.
The town property division will see the largest decrease in funds, both relative to the size of their budget and in absolute terms. They are set to have $792,599 cut from their budget last year of $1,635,615, a decrease of 48.5 percent. Hanover’s director of administrative services Betsy McClain attributed this to an uptick last year in capital works projects such as solar panels, projects that were funded by capital reserves. This year, the scale of the projects has been contracted, she said.
Salaries and benefits under the general fund are set to increase by 2.6 percent, or $257,247. According to the 2015 town report, part of this increase comes from the implementation for the police bargaining unit of a classification and compensation study first conducted last year. It also includes regular increases based on performance and cost-of-living adjustments.
Under reserve funded projects, most areas will see decreases in funding of around 50 to 60 percent. However, the water reclamation facility will receive an 867.4 percent increase, going from $47,500 to $459,500. McClain said this increase is to fund the replacement of a grit filtration system in the town’s wastewater treatment plant.
Water reclamation superintendent Kevin MacLean said that the system deals with pretreatment of wastewater in the system’s headworks, where the water first enters the facility. It is designed to separate out sand and other nonorganic components from the water, which is then conveyed back into the facility.
The current system’s technology, which was installed in 1985, is functional but badly worn. Some pieces have rusted enough that the department is beginning to be concerned about safety, MacLean said, and they want to replace those parts before any serious safety issues arise.
MacLean estimated repairs to cost approximately $360,000 to $420,000. The town report budgets $350,000 for repairs. He estimated that repairs would take about a month or two to complete, though he noted that the work would be done in stages and that grit removal would not be down for that entire period.
The budget has been affected by fiscal instability and uncertainty at the state and federal levels. As a result, the town is unwilling to take on many new initiatives at this time, Griffin said.
One aspect of the state legislature she criticized was their willingness to “rob Peter to pay Paul,” as she put it. This refers to a tendency to displace cost increases onto municipalities rather than absorbing them at the state level. Griffin attributed this in part to an unwillingness to implement state income or sales taxes, which would have a negative effect on New Hampshire’s public image.
She took issue with an incident two years ago in which the state reneged on grant monies that were originally set to go to towns for water and wastewater projects. The town had invested several million dollars into these projects, with a 20 percent subsidy from the state, when the new legislature decided to defund the grant program. This forced the town to find a way to make up the discrepancies, which meant raising wastewater rates more than they potentially would have needed to, Griffin said. The town report noted that the New Hampshire House of Respresntatives agreed to refund the project in March; the bill is now awaiting a decision in the Senate.
