Board of Aldermen 3-10-2020 Page 2
| have, following the recommendations of the School Department and some of our own, have proposed that
those funds be used to fund one-time, non-recurring items so that we don’t devote money that we know or we
suspect may not come again to Operating Budgets, Building Operating Budgets that we wouldn’t be able to
sustain in the future.
Now we have the Waste Water and the Enterprise Funds, those are up $500,000.00 and the Waste Water and
Solid Waste Enterprise Funds, those are up $500,000.00 and $1 million dollars respectively. Those are
separately dealt with in the Budget as always. Those are not truly discretionary budgets because all of those
expenditures are required by regulations, both from the State DES and the Federal EPA. So we are continuing
to meet our obligations with respect to environmental regulation.
Overall the objective of the Budget is to try to balance a few things; number one to pay the healthcare costs,
number two to provide quality services for our citizens and number three, to keep, under these circumstances,
property tax increases to a minimum. Now Nashua’s economy is growing and has been healthy and strong but
we do know that it could be affected by the Coronavirus situation, so many things are happening that that is
another reason for caution here. We do know that many people are living paycheck-to-paycheck, having
difficulty making ends meet. Therefore, at the beginning of the Budget process back in January, the financial
team and | proposed Budget guidelines of 2.25% for the Police Department, for the Fire Department and for the
School Department and 2% for all other Departments. Working together, all of us, we have limited tax increases
over the last four years to an average of 2.6%. But this year, given the challenges that we are facing, the
financial team is projecting that if the Budget is passed as proposed, that taxes will go up no more than 4.5%
which is of course more than we would wish, more than we would like.
Looking at some of the individual budgets, the School Department has proposed an increase of 2.8% which is
about $600,000.00 over the 2.25% guideline. The Police Department 3.2% which is about $200,000.00 over
the guideline, and the Fire Department 5.1% which is about a half million dollars over the 2.25% guideline.
Given the considerations that | have mentioned, the tax rate and the other things we are trying to balance, |
have reduced the budgets accordingly, down to the 2.25% level to try to manage the situation that we have.
There are two exceptions to that statement; one — the overtime cost in the P.D. for uniformed officers and for
civilian dispatchers who are necessary to fill vacant dispatch and communication positions. There is a lot of
overtime being spent there because we have a number of vacant communications and dispatcher positions.
The underlying problem is the low level of pay that is provided to these employees so we have been working
with the Police Department through the Chief and Deputy Testaverde to talk about how to raise those wages to
fill the positions and therefore stop using so much overtime. There are funds there for in contingency for the
Police Department in addition to the 2.25% to handle those raises and in the end, that may save money
because by reducing overtime we may save more on that in that we spend on the additional wages.
Number two, within the one-time funds allocated for the School Department, | have followed most of their
recommendations, but | have proposed that we spend $200,000.00 for the pay and benefits for at least three
ELL Teachers. We, as you know, the School Department is under a Department of Justice Audit with respect to
the ELL Program and that is certainly something we want to address; we want to make sure we are serving our
students who come to school not speaking English and we also want to help the School Department make sure
that they succeed with respect to that audit. So that would be an exception and is over and above the 2.25% for
the School Department.
We are taking aggressive steps to bend the curve on the rising healthcare cost. We have developed a plan
design changes which, if rolled out to all of the employees through all of the Union Contracts and Non-Union
Employees, would save considerable money. They also would encourage people to go into the high deductible
plans, which is a very good option for people because the City pays them to go into the high deductible plan and
therefore creates a lot of incentive for them to manage and save on healthcare costs. That money gets rolled
over year-to-year so there is a lot to be gained by the employee going to the high deductible plan. In any event,
you will be hearing more about those details in the near future.
