Board of Aldermen 07-13-2021 Page 14
ON THE QUESTION
President Wilshire
Alderman Dowd?
Alderman Dowd
And I'd like to speak to it. | understand the complexity surrounding this year’s City Budget and the issues that
the State has caused relative to a large reduction in State Revenues to Nashua. | also understand the Mayor
is trying to keep the tax rate as low as possible. But | cannot support this veto for the following reasons. First
it does not change any of the reasons we voted to increase budgets of the Police and the Fire Department
when we passed the FY’22 Budget. | would like to reiterate the reasons we unanimously approved the budget
before us.
First, the Police formulated a budget for the Mayor that did not increase or decrease anything they provided in
FY 2021. But he cut their budget to meet an arbitrary number. His veto cut again this evening will force them
to provide less service to Nashua than last year since their budget will not support what they were able to do
last year. Couple that with a recent increase in the sale and distribution of fentanyl recently in Nashua and
need to the (inaudible) to continue their efforts to thwart this new and expanded threat. The Police have
always said that they will provide the services we fund them to do. But Police, like the Nashua Fire
Department, are driven by personnel costs. All they want to do is keep the same force level they had last year.
Having said that, they along with the Fire Department have made Nashua one of the safest cities in the United
States to live and contributed highly to us being selected as the 4"" best run city in the United States in FY
2021. Are we willing to sacrifice that for the amount of money we are discussing tonight? Switching to the Fire
Department, this compromise the Mayor has presented still does not resolve the loss of a fire company and
taking one engine or ladder off line. This not only puts the residents of Nashua in harm’s way but it is
physically irresponsible. Imagine having an $800,000.00 or $1 million dollar piece of equipment sitting in an
idle in a station when needed to save lives in Nashua. Imagine you or someone you loved trapped in a vehicle
crash and you must wait longer for the men with the vehicle to rescue you and probably save your life.
Imagine you or someone you love having a medical emergency and not having the firemen there to provide
immediate urgent care until the ambulance arrives.
And your house or business burning to the ground due to slower response times due to the possible actions
that we could take this evening. The one add to the Fire Department budget is the half year of a vacant
position of the Fire Marshal’s office caused by a former Mayor’s cut as was explained earlier. This missing
body is the person who should be doing the twice a year inspection of our City schools mandated by the State
for safety reasons. By the way, we have 18 schools in Nashua; that’s 36 inspections. This person will also be
responsible for ensuring proper levels of occupancy in restaurants, theaters, auditoriums as well as training for
the Fire Department. If we override the Mayor’s veto tonight it will only add .16 to the tax rate which boils down
to less than $1.00 a month to a homeowner with a $300,000.00 home. | had John Griffin run these numbers
today.
| for one will not put the citizens of Nashua’s lives and properties at risk for less than the cost of a cup of coffee
per month. In addition, | will also not put citizens of Nashua lives and property in harm’s way because we were
forced to try and reduce property taxes due to the actions of the governor and the State Legislation excluded
all Nashua Reps that voted the right way for the budget. We all know that the millions of dollars we lost as was
explained by the Mayor from the State in the FY’22 budget. We should not be forced to reduce the safety to
our citizens based on those actions. In closing, | implore my fellow aldermen to do what is right for the citizens
of Nashua and keep Nashua one of the safest cities to live in. Thank you.
