Not Much Shaking at the Budget Hearing

Dateline: Jan. 20, 2023

The day dawned cold but with promise. A light coating of snow seemed to cover the ground. It was not until people ventured to their cars that the light snow turned out to be slippery, frozen, wet snow. It was so frozen to windshields that vigorous ice scraping could not remove much of it, so time was taken up waiting for the defroster to melt enough ice to safely travel to the Parish Hall.

At the hall, tables were filled with printed copies of the town and school warrants, town and school and sewer budget printouts, and narrative documents for town departments. The town and school board did a good job providing as much budget information as they could.

The down side was the meager attendance. A quick count came up with no more than 30 or so people on site. Most of them were town and school employees and officials. A little after 9:00 a.m., the meeting proceeded anyway with the school board presenting first and the town second.

Before getting into the details of the hearing, the bottom line was as follows.

School Budget Presentation

Kris Raymond, School Board Vice-Chair, reviewed the school budget slide package which included warrant articles. Allenstown is still suffering from a 25% Special Ed population which requires an expenditure of $3.1 million.

Article 2 proposes raises for paraprofessionals of $65,442 for the first year. Ms. Raymond said some of them are making only $11.00/hr which is less than at McDonald's. Article 3 proposes raises for teachers of $95,943 for the first year (1-2%). Other articles proposed adding to trust funds from the unassigned fund balance.

The raises for the paraprofessionals might be effective for holding onto staff. But the full-time teachers' salaries range from $25K to $77K with most in the $35K to 77K range. The better alternative would be to ditch the idea of contracts and institute merit raises as done in private business. Each teacher would then need to provide an annual performance report to demonstrate accomplishments that justified a salary increase. The top performers would then receive the top increases.

With the revaluation, it is difficult to determine the effect of the bond for the new K-8 school. But on page 12 of the School Board's Proposed Budget slide handout, it states that there is an annual bond payment of $811,234 to be split into two payments in February and August.

Several people asked questions or made comments. The most significant comments were by Ron Adinolfo who stressed the serious problem that these increasing budgets were causing to residents. He said there may be a near future where many residents will not be able to pay their taxes and then the town and school district will be facing funding deficiencies.

Michael Frascinella pointed out that, unlike the town web site, he found it impossible to find any of the school board files on the School District or School Board web site. He stressed that this is budget season and the school district needed to make it a priority to make it as easy as possible for residents to find the school budget and warrant documents. He urged the school district to use the town web site as a model and also to stop using sharepoint to store documents. He also echoed Mr. Adinolfo's remarks about the budget increases by pointing out that the property tax for his antique cape went up $600, causing financial stress on his fixed income budget. The town and the school district needed to look for solutions other than raising taxes.

Town Budget Presentation

Town Administrator, Derik Goodine, reviewed the town budget and warrant articles. He discussed the highlights of the 2023 Budget Overview. The townwide revaluation did not uniformly affect all residents and businesses. He mentioned that the townwide property values increased by about $8,000,000 or 60%. But stick built homes increased in many cases by 70%, mobile homes increased by two or three times, but commercial property increased by only about 40%.

Despite the 7 to 8% inflation rates of 2022, department heads were advised to prepare budgets that had minimal increases and to limit raises to no more than 3%.

For the past few years, funds from the Unassigned Fund Balance had been used to reduce the impact of budget increases. For this year, the fund was running low so, after funds were allocated for various Capital Reserve Funds, only $100,000 could be used to offset the budget increase.

He then reviewed the executive summary of cost increases and decreases. During the reading of the EDC and Parks & Recreations warrant articles, Michael Frascinella highlighted past EDC projects and initiatives like the Santa Parade with the Police and Fire Departments and touched on the events planned for 2023. He also made a plea for volunteers for the Parks & Recreation Commission which has only one member.

The hearing ended before noon.

What You Can Do

The Deliberative Smackdown Session takes place on Saturday February 4 at 9:00 a.m. at the Dupont School Gym. This is your last chance to question any budget and even attempt to revise spending (within limits).

You can get involved in town and school affairs by attending and making your opinions known to the town and school officials. Don't sit at home and then complain on election day.

In addition, think about running for one of the open positions like Selectman, Sewer Commissioner, or Budget Committee member. You can file a Written Declaration of Candidacy between January 25th and February 3rd at Town Hall.
 Declaration of Candidacy