Special Board of Aldermen 07-01-2021 Page 26
President Wilshire
Yes, | am.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS — RESOLUTIONS
R-21-142
Endorsers: Mayor Jim Donchess
Alderman Linda Harriott-Gathright
RELATIVE TO THE ADOPTION OF THE FISCAL YEAR 2022 PROPOSED BUDGET FOR THE
CITY OF NASHUA GENERAL, ENTERPRISE, AND SPECIAL REVENUE FUNDS
Given its second reading;
A viva voce roll call was taken which resulted as follows:
Yea: Alderman O’Brien, Alderman Klee, Alderman Dowd,
Alderman Caron, Alderman Lopez, Alderman Tencza,
Alderman Jette, Alderman Schmidt, Alderman Cleaver,
Alderman Harriott-Gathright, Alderman Wilshire
11
Nay: 0
MOTION CARRIED
Resolution R-21-142 declared duly adopted as amended.
PERIOD FOR GENERAL PUBLIC COMMENT
Jim Tolner Yes | just want to thank the Mayor and the Board for their hard work on this budget and | am
sure you are very happy that this is resolved. And | appreciate the support. Thank you.
Laurie Ortolano 41 Berkeley Street. Just a couple of things. You know | want to remind you that when
Alderman Tencza talks about the impact of a 4% increase on property valuations, you are failing to
recognize that next year is a reassessment year and we are going to get a new 2022 tax rate once Vision
reassesses all the property. And we have not had really any information from the City that | know of that
has talked about the impact and the balancing between the Commercial and Residential properties. | can
tell you looking at the abatements right now, there’s a lot of big commercial abatements, | think the
valuation is for assessment reduction is somewhere around $68 million and | know the commercial
properties during KRT’s update were valued around $3.7 million and residential was around $6.3. We were
able to balance that off 50/50 but you are seeing the commercial drops substantially more with potentially a
higher vacancy rate.
| Know what the economy is doing when it comes to home prices and | will tell you something, you’ve got a
big issue coming your way with senior citizens and | addressed this to you already but the Board ignored in
this budget. Your exemption program for senior citizens based on hardship for 75 and older is $224,000.00
is your max exemption. Well when that was set, KRT in 2018 the average home price was $260,000.00
that means seniors could get a pretty good exemption at $224,000.00 and at 80 years or older it was
$280,000.00. But look at what has happened now, the average home price in Nashua this year, it is not
even finalized is probably closing in on $430,000.00 to $450,000.00. Your seniors are not going to get an
exemption at all like they got. They are going to be paying $224,000.00 of taxable income. And you had,
according to your MS1 you are giving $160 million dollars in tax exemptions to senior citizens on your MS1.
That is primarily out of your residential total assessment of $6.3 billion. That's a substantial amount. So
you have just swung a whole bunch of seniors out there and that 4% increase on top of a Vision
