Fred &. Teeboom
24 Cheyenne Drive
Nashua, NH 03063
{603} 889-2316
fredtee(@comcast.net
February 3, 2022
Mayor Jim Donchess
Board of Aldermen
Copy: --City Attorney Steve Bolton
--CFO John Griffin
--Tom Dolan, Chairman NH House Municipal and County Government Committee
HB1342 was heard last Monday by the NH House Municipal and County Government Committee.
I submitted comments on HB1342 on-line and by e-mail to the NH House committee members. I will not
repeat these except to highlight that HB1342, in disallowing payments for bonded debt and capital
expenditures from the authorized exclusions to a capped budget, is very harmful to ALL New Hampshire
communities currently with a tax cap or a spending cap, since all currently permit this exclusion with a
supermajority “override” vote.
Viewing the HB1342 public hearing remotely on YouTube I was struck with the gross misrepresentation by
NH House committee member/Nashua alderman Patricia Klee.
Ms. Klee claimed that Nashua’s Spending Cap prevents the city from accepting grants after the annual
budget was adopted. NOTHING IS FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH.
Nashua’s budget subject to the cap (effective since 1994 and renewed with SB52) is defined by the
individual budgets submitted by each city department through the mayor to the board of aldermen for
adoption (see Nashua Charter §56 and §56-c).
The Spending Cap covers the General Fund, the Special Revenue Funds and the Enterprise Funds. It
caps the expenditure of these funds, subject to a supermajority “override” vote (see Nashua Charter §56-d).
It is consistent with the annual budget resolution, which enumerates these three funds.
Grants are not included in these funds. If you look at the annual budget, the city’s Urban Program
Department is funded entirely with federal grants that are not included in the General Fund. The city’s
Transportation Department is funded with grants and fees that are likewise not included in the General
Fund, but the department is partially subsidized through an “interfund transfer” from the General Fund.
Neither is any grant received before or after the annual budget is adopted subject to the cap, such as COVID
relief grants, or police forfeiture grants, or state transportation grants, or human services grants, etc. Grants
are not part of Nashua’s annual and supplemental adopted budgets and are not subject to the cap.
What pains me is that Alderman Klee for years has served as a member on the aldermanic Human Affairs
Committee which reviews and allocates grant money. Alderman Klee’s misrepresentation before the
NH Municipal and County Government Committee as Nashua’s representative is either deliberate or
based on ignorance; either is inexcusable.
Sued S. Seekloomn
Fred S, Teeboom
Former alderman-at-large
Author of Nashua’s Spending Cap
