Special Board of Aldermen 07-01-2021 Page 19
Certainly like many people have talked about a lot of that is the quality of our services — Schools, Police
and Firefighters. So | think these additional funds that the Budget Committee has included for Police and
Fire are worth the investment. The next thing | just want to point out is if you look at the cities and towns
surrounding Nashua, our tax rate is right in line with what many of the other towns are charging their
residents. Per thousand the Hudson tax rate is $21.37 for 2020; Salem is $22.02 per thousand; Merrimack
is $24.06 per thousand; Hollis $23.18 per thousand. Now those towns don’t offer the same services that
we do; they certainly don’t have the same number of employees. So our tax rate | feel, again, at $22.61
per thousand or even as an increase it still is very much in line with those towns and again a great deal for
our residents.
If you look at cities, the cities in New Hampshire, Manchester’s tax rate is $24.66 per thousand and
Concord’s is $26.76 per thousand. So the residents of Nashua, again, are coming out ahead as opposed
to what other cities are able to do for or the cost to live in those other cities. So | would hope that this
Board and if Aldermen Jette makes a second motion as it relates to the Fire Department | may have some
other comments. But! would hope that the Board takes all of that into consideration. Certainly if there are
people that are affected by any tax increases, | would hope that the Legal Department and Assessing will
work with them to be able to come up with a way that is not a detriment to them, especially our elderly
population or people who are maybe more low income. But given the work and the consideration that the
Budget Committee has done and these Departments have done, | hope that we can come together and
support the Budget as it came out of the Budget Committee. Thank you.
President Wilshire
Thank you. Alderman Klee?
Alderman Klee
Thank you Madam President. | am going to be honest, when | came here | thought why should we
increase Police and Fire the additional amount over the 1.7% cost of living that the Mayor had put in,
especially considering that so many Departments had either gone a flat line or they went negative, they
decreased their budget. But as | have been sitting here listening, | think Alderman Jette made some very
good comments and remarks but then | look to my other colleagues and one of the things that Alderman
Lopez had brought was the number of hate groups coming in. We are seeing them openly doing this and |
can tell you in my Ward | have witnessed it as well. | have witnessed people being threatened. | know we
have had more FBI interaction and so on and knowing that, | would have anxiety of not giving them what
they say they need. | do hear year after year, and | will be honest, if we don’t get this we are going to have
to cut this, we are going to our POP unit, we are going to cut this or we are going to cut that. It does
eventually become noise and that’s kind of the way | walked in here, | heard this last year, | heard this next
year.
And Chief Carignan always makes the comment, we will make do with what we have and | believe even
Chief Rhodes has made the same comment, we will make do with whatever we have. And | feel confident
that they would. But then looking at this of $241,338.00 | do agree with what Alderman Jette said, | believe
they could find it. But to what cost and to what end. And | can’t sit back and allow these hate groups to
just keep getting bigger and bigger. And as much as | agree with the increase in opioids and all the other
drugs that are coming through here, the hate groups are the things that scare me the most right now. And
| am seeing them all over social media, | am seeing them in pictures that people are proudly standing by
them, those that are running for office and so on. It is becoming the acceptable norm and | think we have
to fight that on all levels and | think even our Fire Department will be fighting those as well. So at this
point, | have kind of been won over to passing this as it has been proposed. So thank you for giving me
the time.
