Allenstown Alt. - 2022 Elections

2022 Town Elections

Town Hall
16 School St.
Allenstown, NH
485-4276

Check town web site for current business hours.

ballot box

Issues to Be Decided in 2022

January to March is Town Election Season. For election ballot details, go down to the Ballot Details section. For more detailed information than you can shake a stick at, go to the 2022 Town Meeting/Budget site.

After a careful review by the Selectmen and the Budget Committee, the town, sewer dept., and school district budgets and warrant articles were posted on the town and SAU web sites. The following sections offer highlights of all that information.

Budgets and Warrant Articles
Public Budget Events
Ballot Details for the 2022 Election
2022 Election Results

Budgets and Warrant Articles

Town Budget – The selectmen directed department heads to keep their budgets as flat as possible, but allowed for a 2% step increase and a 3% Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA).
- 2022 Proposed Town Budget = $4,501,630
- 2022 Default Town Budget = $4,437,750
- Last Year's Approved Town Budget = $4,342,740
- 2022 increase/decrease = +$157,890
- An increase in several salary line items was due to the need to replace the outgoing part-time Administrative Assistant for the Building and Fire Departments with a full-time Admin who will assist five town departments.
  See the Town Budget pdf file on the Town web site for line-by-line budget details.
  See the Town Budget Overview pdf file on the Town web site for an executive overview of the town budget.
- Non-Property Tax Revenue – This includes income such as meals & room taxes, motor vehicle registrations, building permit fees, and highway block grants. For 2022 this revenue equals $1,342,900. In addition, $195,000 is to be transferred from the Unassigned Fund Balance to offset the budget increase. Consider this formula:
  (Proposed Budget) - (Non-Property Tax Revenue) - (optional Unassigned Fund Balance) = (Amount due in property taxes)
  As a result, the amount stated in the town budget warrant article is not the only amount used to calculate the town property tax rate.
  See the Town Revenue pdf file on the Town web site.

Sewer Dept. – The sewer commissioners provided the following budget numbers. The operating costs are shared by Allenstown and Pembroke. Revenue comes from Septage Haulers and Rate Payers.
- 2022 Proposed Sewer Budget = $$2,438,000
- 2022 Default Sewer Budget = $2,442,943
- Last Year's Approved Sewer Budget = $2,300,422
- 2022 increase/decrease = +$137,578
  See the Sewer Dept. Budget pdf file on the Town web site.

School Budget – The school board provided the following budget numbers at the Deliberative Smackdown. The 2022-23 school budget shows an "Estimated Local Tax Rate" of $21.36 which is $3.30/$1,000 higher than last year's local school tax rate of $18.06.
- 2022-23 Proposed School Budget = $12,110,949 for 505 students
- 2022-23 Default School Budget = $12,058,435
- 2022-23 Default Budget is $52,514 less than 2022 Proposed Budget
- 2021-22 Current Approved School Budget = $11,782,385 *
- 2022-23 increase/decrease =
  $12,110,949 - $11,782,385 = +$328,564
- Warrant Article 2: Requests $83,000 for another Kindergarden teacher to reduce overcrowding.
  Resulting 2022-23 budget increase/decrease =
  $328,564 + $83,000 = +$411,564
* 2021-22 approved budget was $11,457,385 (school warrant article 3). Additional costs included a $325,000 school bond interest payment bringing the total budget to $11,782,385. There was also $225,000 that came from their unassigned fund balance (money in the bank) for three capital reserve funds. That was actually revenue. The school board added that for a total of $12,007,385.
See the School District Budget pdf file on the School Board web site for line-by-line details.
See the School District Presentation pdf file on the School Board web site for an overview of the school budget.

Town Warrant Articles – Warrant articles #2, 3, and 4 propose revisions to the Town Zoning Ordinance(s) on which the Planning Board has diligently labored over for a full year. The goal of these revisions was to improve organization, clarity, consistency, and readability.
Articles 5 & 6 are for the Town and Sewer Dept. budgets.
Articles 7 to 16 propose putting portions of your unspent tax money (AKA the Unassigned Fund Balance) into several funds as a way to save for expensive one-time expenditures.
Articles 17 & 18 propose purchasing AES (the elementary school) and setting aside funds to remodel and renovate it, once it has been vacated, for town offices and offices to rent or lease. The school district needs to propose its own warrant article that accepts the town's offer to purchase the school.
See the Town Warrant Articles pdf file on the Town web site.

School Warrant Articles – Warrant article #1 proposes the $12+ million budget.
Article 2 proposes spending an additional $83,000 for salary and benefits for a new teacher, possibly for the kindergarten level. It's not clear why this was not built into the main budget.
Article 3 proposes the transfer of $50,000 from the school unassigned fund balance to the Special Education Trust Fund to help pay for unplanned and usually excessive Special Ed expenses.
Articles 4 & 5 are boilerplate proposals to set aside 5% of unassigned funds for tax reduction or emergency use and to accept gifts for the school district.
See the Warrant and Budget pdf file on the School Board web site.

Public Budget Events

Saturday January 15 at 9:00 a.m.
Budget Committee Public Hearing on the proposed budgets and warrant articles at St. John the Baptist Parish Hall on School St.
A frigid temperature of 0°F reduced attendance to 25, all of whom were either town/school employees or committee members.

January 19 to January 28
Dates to sign up as a candidate for town or school offices. File your candidacy at town hall with the Town Clerk or School District Clerk.

Feb. 5 (Saturday) at 9:00 a.m.
Deliberative Smackdown Session at St. John the Baptist Parish Hall on School St. At this meeting, voters get to discuss/question/argue about the budgets and attempt to change them.

Tuesday March 8 from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Town Election at the St. John's Parish Hall on School St.