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QWeTl2017— My Turn: For decades, state has played major role in high property taxes

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Opinion > Columns (/Opinion/Columns/)

My Turn: For decades, state has
played major role in high property
taxes

By BILL HERMAN
For the Monitor

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

We are in what has for a long time been one of my favorite times of year. It is the time
when we gather with our friends and neighbors for annual town and school district
meetings to determine the course our communities will take for the coming year.

Perhaps more than most, | enjoy these activities because | have been an active participant
since 1977, when | first served as a supervisor of the checklist.

For the ensuing 39 years, I have been either town moderator, school district moderator, a
selectman or a town administrator.

One of the reasons | enjoy these meetings is because you never know how they may turn
out, what decisions will be made or what people might say.

A few weeks ago while attending my town’s deliberative town meeting, | was particularly
surprised to hear a state representative tell voters there was nothing the Legislature can
do to reduce property taxes.

| was surprised because arguably there has not been an entity that has had a bigger
impact on local property taxes in the past two decades than the Legislature.

One only has to look to the early 1980s when, in response to the Claremont education
lawsuit, the Legislature reached into what had been the local property tax, claimed a part
of it as its own, and established the “state education property tax” as “state” funds to meet
the state's legal obligation toward education.

Since then, the state has held a portion of the property tax as its own.

In Auburn, the state education property tax represents approximately 12 percent of the
town’s total tax rate - not a small percentage for sure.

Even if it stopped there, that would be significant enough. But it doesn’t. In the ensuing
years, the Legislature, has:

hitto/Awww.concordmonitor.com/The-NH-Legislature-anc-property-taxes-8207608 1/4

2272017 * My Turn: For decades, state has played major role in high property taxes

_ Eliminated revenue sharing funds to the municipalities beginning in 2010. That was a loss
of $25 million annually to cities and towns.

Eliminated the state’s long-standing share of local costs for the state retirement system,
which had been provided since the 1940s when separate retirement programs were in
place, and continued in 1967 when the Legislature required the separate programs
become one with the state government. That was an annual loss of $51 million in 2010. If
the state continued to pay its 35 percent share, that would have been approximately $80
million in 2016 due to recent pension rate increases.

Since 1977, the Legislature has reduced the municipal portion of the revenue received
from the meals and rooms tax. The state is supposed to retain only 60 percent of the
revenue, with the 40 percent balance going to municipalities. However, municipalities have
never received close to 40 percent of the tax revenue, and lost $58 million from 2010 to
2017 because of legislative amendments to the distribution formula.

Funding for the state’s share of environmental grants for public wastewater and drinking
water facilities, and also assistance with the closure of landfills, has been declining since
2007, when $17 million was available annually and approximately $7 million is available at
present.

For the past 10 years, the state has ceased funding its share of disaster assistance for
various natural disaster events like floods, severe wind storms or snow emergencies,
where FEMA has assisted the state and local governments in covering the unanticipated
expenses of these circumstances. This is supposed to be a partnership with the federal
government covering 75 percent of the costs, and the state and the local governments
each covering 12.5 percent. But the state has not covered any of its 12.5 percent share,
leaving local governments to cover the full 25 percent.

| know it does not stop on the municipal side. School construction aid has been curtailed
for local school districts, making the approval of potential building projects less certain
with taxpayers.

And the county government has not been untouched either. Over the years, various
programs and/or costs for nursing home care and other service programs have been
shifted between the state and the counties, with the county government usually ending up
with a larger portion of the costs.

in his budget address to the Legislature earlier this month, Gov. Sununu recognized the
current lopsided nature of the state and local government partnership with his budget,
including funding for some specific education and infrastructure programs.

Also, the House Executive Department and Administration Committee, followed by the full
House of Representatives, acted favorably on HB 413, which would begin to restore part of
the state’s share of retirement system costs.

http:/Avww.concordmonitor.com/The-NH-Legislature-and-property-taxes-8207608 2/4

QETI2017 * My Turn: For decades, state has played major role in high property taxes

- What has taken years to pull in one direction cannot be changed overnight. But these are
two good first steps in recognizing the impact the state of New Hampshire has had on
increasing local property taxes.

(Bill Herman is a resident of Concord and currently serves as the town administrator of
Auburn.)

http:/Avww.concordmonitor.com/The-NH-Legislature-and-property-taxes-8207608 3/4

AGENDA MEETING OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN FEBRUARY 28, 2017

10.

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14.

PRESIDENT BRIAN S. McCARTHY CALLS ASSEMBLY TO ORDER

PRAYER OFFERED BY CITY CLERK PATRICIA PIECUCH

PLEDGE TO THE FLAG LED BY ALDERMAN-AT-LARGE DANIEL T. MORIARTY
ROLL CALL

REMARKS BY THE MAYOR

RESPONSE TO REMARKS OF THE MAYOR

RECOGNITIONS

READING OF MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETINGS AND PUBLIC HEARING

Board of AIdermen...............cccccccccccc ccc errr ttre bet etteeteeeeneeeeeeeeees 02/14/2017
Board of Aldermen Mayor’s State-of-the-City.......... cece ccccccceceeeeeeeeeeeentnteeeeeeeeeees 02/21/2017

COMMUNICATIONS

PERIOD FOR PUBLIC COMMENT RELATIVE TO ITEMS EXPECTED TO BE
ACTED UPON THIS EVENING

PETITIONS
NOMINATIONS, APPOINTMENTS AND ELECTIONS

Appointments by the Mayor
Appointments by the President of the Board of Aldermen

REPORTS OF COMMITTEE

Finance Committee. 0.0... 0c cccccccceccccuececceceecuceceeeveceueeecueeeeeateeeuneeesateeeueeeeeaterseteneaneees 02/15/17
Committee on Infrastructure....0.....ccceccccececcceccececceceececceceueuseeaueceeaeeeeaeeeeanereeanereaerenaes 02/22/17
Planning & Economic Development Committee. ..............ccccccecccccceeesecteeeeeeeeeessstaeeees 02/21/17

WRITTEN REPORTS FROM LIAISONS

CONFIRMATION OF MAYOR'S APPOINTMENTS

UNFINISHED BUSINESS — RESOLUTIONS

R-17-088

Endorsers: Mayor Jim Donchess
Alderman Richard A. Dowd
AUTHORIZING THE ACCEPTANCE OF LAND ON AMHERST STREET AND ON CHARRON
AVENUE AND THE ACCEPTANCE OF A SIDEWALK EASEMENT ON AMHERST STREET
Committee on Infrastructure Recommends: Final Passage

R-17-089
Endorsers: Mayor Jim Donchess
Alderman Richard A. Dowd
Alderman June M. Caron
Alderman Ken Siegel
Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire
Alderwoman Mary Ann Melizzi-Golja
Alderman Don LeBrun
Alderman-at-Large Michael B. O’Brien, Sr.
Alderman Tom Lopez
Alderman-at-Large Brian S. McCarthy
AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO ENTER INTO A TRANSPORTATION PROJECT AGREEMENT
WITH THE STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE FOR THE PURPOSE OF RESURFACING VARIOUS
FEDERAL AID ELIGIBLE ROADWAYS IN THE CITY OF NASHUA AND TO ACCEPT AND
APPROPRIATE $4,445,000 FOR THE PROJECT
e Committee on Infrastructure Recommends: Final Passage Contingent upon BPW Approval
e Also assigned to the Board of Public Works; Favorable Recommendation Issued 2/23/17

UNFINISHED BUSINESS — ORDINANCES
NEW BUSINESS — RESOLUTIONS
R-17-091
Endorser: Mayor Jim Donchess
DISCONTINUING THE CAPITAL RESERVE FUND FOR BUILDING REPLACEMENT OR
RENEWAL DUE TO DISUSE
R-17-092
Endorsers: Mayor Jim Donchess
Alderman-at-Large David W. Deane
Alderman Ken Siegel
AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR AND CITY TREASURER TO ISSUE BONDS NOT TO EXCEED THE

AMOUNT OF THIRTY-SEVEN MILLION FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS ($37,500,000) TO
FUND A MULTI-YEAR PAVING PROJECT

NEW BUSINESS — ORDINANCES

PERIOD FOR GENERAL PUBLIC COMMENT
REMARKS BY THE MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN
Committee announcements:

ADJOURNMENT

APPOINTMENTS BY THE MAYOR

FEBRUARY 28, 2017

Cultural Connections Committee

Mohammad Mustak Arif (New Appointment) Term to Expire: February 28, 2020
12 East Pearl Street, Apt. 3

Nashua, NH 03060

Environment and Energy Committee

Doria Brown (New Appointment) Term to Expire: February 28, 2020
34 Cellu Drive
Nashua NH 03060

| respectfully request that these appointments be confirmed.

Jim Donchess
Mayor

APPOINTMENT BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN

FEBRUARY 28, 2017

Hunt Legacy Trustees

Mary Greene (New Appointment) For a Term to Expire: December 31, 2018
38 Concord Street

Nashua, NH 03064

| respectfully request that this appointment be confirmed.

Brian S. McCarthy, President
Board of Aldermen

A regular meeting of the Board of Aldermen was held Tuesday, February 21, 2017, at 7:00 p.m.
in the Aldermanic Chamber.

President Brian S. McCarthy presided: City Clerk Patricia D. Piecuch recorded.

Prayer was offered by City Clerk Patricia D. Piecuch; Alderman-at-Large David W. Deane led in
the Pledge to the Flag.

The roll call was taken with 15 members of the Board of Aldermen present.
Mayor James W. Donchess and Corporation Counsel Steven A. Bolton were also present.

MAYOR’S ANNUAL STATE-OF-THE-CITY ADDRESS

Mayor Donchess

| want to thank everyone for coming tonight. We have a number of guests, so | really, really appreciate
everybody coming.

Good evening President McCarthy, Vice President Wilshire, members of the Board of Aldermen, Board
of Education members, BPW Commissioners, other elected officials, Police Chief Lavoie, Fire Chief
Galipeau, Superintendent Brown, city division directors, city staff, community members, and guests.

First, | want to thank my wife Vicki, daughter Caroline, son-in-law David and new grandson Ajax for all
the support you give me.

A year ago right here | called upon my fellow Nashua citizens to come together, and by using all of your
talents, your know-how, your skills and imagination to join me in the work of making Nashua a great city.
And | told you that | want Nashua to be a city for everyone, for senior citizens and young families just
starting out, for high tech professionals, for artists, for lifelong residents and new Americans. | told you
that | want to make our city government more open to all of our citizens.

Let’s think about everything we have accomplished in just one year by working together. We are growing
our economy and adding jobs. We have new housing in the works. We are improving our schools, and
we are lifting up our downtown. We are meeting the challenge of the opioid addiction crisis. And we are
making Nashua city government more inclusive and transparent for all of Nashua’s citizens.

This past October Money Magazine — based upon its survey of more than 800 communities — honored
Nashua with the 16" spot on its annual list of the “Best Places to Live in America.” In July WalletHub
ranked Nashua the 10" “Best-Run City in the US.” In addition we have maintained our strong bond
rating which is Triple A with the Fitch rating agency.

Working with me we have a Board of Aldermen whose members are thoughtful and dedicated to the
good of our city. | am privileged to be working with them and to be leading 2,800 city employees who
every day are working hard on behalf of the citizens of Nashua.

In short, the state of our city is strong and getting stronger.

On the jobs front, our unemployment rate is a low 2.5%. We are adding more jobs — 300 at BAE
Systems’ South End campus, 150 jobs at Prudential Linen, a new cleanroom services business that will
be opening later this year, and more jobs at UPS. These jobs and the ripple effect they create will add
many millions of dollars to our robust regional economy.

Board of Aldermen — 2/21/16 Page 2

At Gateway Hills in our south end, we have attracted new companies and many jobs like DataGravity,
Plexxi, Benchmark and many others enterprises. Together, they have added over 3,000 jobs. Now we
are working with the Flatley Company towards a new R & D facility that will add another 500 jobs, a goal
we want to accomplish within the next 3 years.

| want to make Nashua a city that offers opportunity to people in all of our neighborhoods from the Tree
Streets to the North End, from Crown Hill to Sky Meadow, from Little Florida to Westgate Village. That is
why | am working and striving every day to energize our economy.

And again by working together we are creating a downtown that is more vibrant than ever. | want to
thank our many partners in this story of ongoing success: Great American Downtown, our Chamber of
Commerce, iUGO Nashua, City Arts, Positive Street Art, our Nashua Arts Commission, our Downtown
Improvement Committee, and hundreds of talented and community-minded citizens.

In the spring we held our 10 annual International Sculpture Symposium, and we restored the beautiful
wooden doors at the historic Hunt Building. In the summer we set up pianos on Main Street and
expanded the Nashua Farmers Market. We planted trees in the Tree Streets, and we helped relocate
the Picker Building Artists’ Collaborative elsewhere in the Millyard.

In September we put on our first outdoor Fall Music Festival, and in October we had our first annual food
truck festival. Towards year’s end we returned holiday lighting for our downtown, we held another
successful Holiday Stroll, and we celebrated Positive Street Art’s charming new movie mural on Main
Street. This past month we illuminated our downtown rail trail so that people can use this pedestrian
corridor safely and comfortably at all times of the day and night.

We know that the Nashua River is central to our identity. And over the next few months, in concert with a
talented landscape architecture and urban design firm, we will be developing a 21*' century plan for the
Nashua Riverfront.

We know that new housing and arts and music are keys to bringing more people of all ages to the heart
of our city. For housing, we are working to add 165, and now we think 200, new apartments to Franklin
Street with the mill-to-housing conversion going on there. Thanks to the work of BIDA, under the
leadership of Jack Tulley, we are adding 150 apartments as part of the Renaissance development on
Bridge Street, and we are looking to add more apartments in the Picker Building on the Nashua River
and still more on School Street.

And Nashua is rapidly becoming the live music destination for our entire region. We are already blessed
with a music scene which includes venues at the Riverwalk Cafe, Fody’s, and Dolly Shakers. In a few
months we will be presenting our first outdoor Spring Music Festival. Long term we are looking to
develop a downtown performing arts center. We are in the final stages of a feasibility study which is
looking at sites and a workable business plan. But | believe we may be able to add more music soon.

We are working on a plan, in concert with Great American Downtown and Ben Ruddock of Riverwalk
Cafe, to convert, at a modest cost, the historic Central Fire Station on Court Street to a music venue that
will draw up to 300 people to downtown on a regular basis. This venue could bring first rate musicians
performing Americana, indie, bluegrass and other diverse genres to downtown. We expect to be able to
tell you about the details of the plan in the coming months.

Every day | am inspired by the way that Nashuans have shown the character and the heart to come
together to attack the opioid addiction crisis. Right after | was sworn in, | established the Mayor’s Opioid
Task Force, whose members include our fire and police departments, public health, advocates and
professionals from the prevention and treatment communities, as well as other concerned citizens, to
develop a battle plan in the fight against opioid addiction. One important result has been that all the key
players in Nashua are now on the same team, talking and working together.

Board of Aldermen — 2/21/16 Page 3

But as 2016 went on the number of overdoses was continuing to rise to a peak of 45 ODs with 7 fatalities
in October after 7 fatalities in September. So with a great sense of urgency, | called together Nashua
Fire Rescue, Harbor Homes, AMR, the city Health Department, our PD, and our hospitals. And on
November 17, together, we launched Nashua’s Safe Stations Program.

Under Safe Stations, anyone wanting help with addiction can go to any Nashua firehouse 24/7. A
firefighter does a short evaluation and then Harbor Homes picks up each person and develops the best
treatment and recovery option. People in trouble have responded. During the last six weeks of 2016, 48
people reported to a Safe Station. Since the start of 2017, the response has grown to about two per day,
nearly 160 people have reported to a Safe Station since the start of the program. So far the number of
ODs has dropped. In December 23 ODs, 20 in January, and so far 13 in February. Unfortunately we are
still having some fatalities, but far fewer than in September and October.

| am very proud of the way that every day Chief Galipeau and our firefighters, the employees of Harbor
Homes and AMR are rising to this challenge. And to anyone who is here tonight or who is watching, if
you or a loved one have a problem with addiction and you want help, go to any Nashua firehouse now.
We're here to help.

Going forward it is important for everyone to understand that continued Medicaid expansion is critical to
our anti-addiction efforts here in Nashua. This is because in many cases Medicaid is providing the
coverage for the crucial treatment and recovery services that people need. Naturally | am disappointed
to see that the recently proposed state budget does not include any funds for continued Medicaid
expansion. | will be urging the legislature to make sure that expanded Medicaid is in the final state
budget.

The Nashua Police Department is also playing a big role in our anti-opioid campaign by getting drug
dealers off of our streets. Last year, the PD made 749 drug arrests, and Nashua has become known as
a place where it is hard to deal heroin. | am proud of that reputation, one that is well earned by Chief
Andy Lavoie and all of our police officers. And that is not all. Through their community policing approach
at the Police Athletic League and elsewhere, police officers are steering young people in the right
direction. In Nashua we care about all of our citizens and we don’t want to leave anyone behind,
whether they are a Nashuan struggling with addiction, a student with a disability, or a senior citizen trying
to stay in her home.

In our inclusive city one of the most pressing concerns for our seniors is property taxes. | am proud to
say that Nashua is New Hampshire’s most age-friendly community. We offer the largest senior property
tax credit of all the cities and towns of our state. The city also provides strong support to our Senior
Activity Center. One of our aldermen, June Caron, and our City Treasurer, David Fredette, are active in
the management of the center.

And of course, property taxes are a concern for all of us, especially in New Hampshire, where the state
tax structure pushes the costs of government onto the local property tax bills. Still Nashua has the
second lowest equalized property taxes of all New Hampshire’s 13 cities, only Portsmouth’s tax rate is
slightly lower. We are always, the Board of Aldermen, myself, are always looking for ways to save and
spend our funds more effectively.

This year we are switching to LED street lights which will save us $250,000 per year. We are now
moving forward with a plan to buy out the long-term lease on the city-owned Mine Falls hydroelectric
dam. This buy-out will increase revenues to the city, over and above the cost of acquisition and
operations, by up to $400,000 per year.