Board of Aldermen Page 14
September 14, 2016
funds where we took additional money for paving, salt and sand. It was prior year escrow money that we
put in there. You’ve seen some communities that run out of money on January 1°. The money has got
to come from somewhere, as it always will but there has been some creative financing done in this city.
We are bonding fire trucks. We never use to do that before. So now you are taking a $1 million expense
over a 20-year period and it comes out of CERF so that’s not in there. Look at all those fire trucks that
we bonded, those aren’t funded in CERF. You know there’s a problem and it’s a reoccurring problem.
We've had different departments that were able to come in and provide us with some effective
management and some cost avoidance in areas and as we do every year we end up with surplus funds
and the Mayor chose three or four different areas to utilize these funds and this was one of them. At the
end of the day this problem is still going to exist. It’s going to reoccur every year but | think it’s up to the
state to come back and put a more feasible plan on the table that is not crippling cities and small towns.
It’s brutal. Alderman Schoneman, | always look at escrows as it is additional money that’s now being
spent in another fiscal year. I’ve always been a supporter of having some funds behind us to support
shortfalls in areas that were unanticipated. That’s why | put legislation in for expendable trust funds. If
this wasn’t such a bone of contention with the spending cap override of the $2.3 million when it all first
happened, this would probably just flow through. I’ve never seen a lot of discussion about escrow
legislation. It’s a tough decision that has to be made and one way or another we are going to have to
come up with this money. l’d like to see the state get a grip on what they are asking from these
municipalities to do.
Alderman Schoneman
| appreciate all of the comments. | certainly realize the reality of the situation. | do want to address a
question that Alderman O’Brien raised; that he didn’t understand how this represents that it costs more.
It costs more because the spending cap would only allow a certain amount of money and this $900,000
comes out so that the spending cap can still accommodate whatever it would have accommodated plus
this $900,000. Regarding comments about cutting services, | think one thing that we need to do and the
only thing that really does it is to strive further for increased efficiencies in the various departments.
Some are more efficient than others. Just look around at operations. | think our taxpayers want to spend
more if they need to but get more for it. There are some good examples out there of other operations
elsewhere that operate efficiently.
Alderman O’Brien
| agree with Alderman Deane. | want to remind our voters that coming up in the fall in electing a new
legislature; | would encourage people to ask people who are running what their opinions are on this
particular pension system. We are paying a very advanced accelerated rate here on something that |
question myself. | don’t think it’s as bad as people are saying. A lot of people like say oh, the sky is
falling but | don’t think it’s really that bad. The pension system is tied in with the stock market but we are
getting off topic with a lot of this. We have to come up with the money. This is a smart way to budget
this and maybe in the future, generations of people going to the New Hampshire Legislature can reflect
how communities of Nashua and Manchester that have police, fire and teachers; that they can change
the pension system and decelerate an advanced to make the liabilities better.
MOTION CARRIED
Resolution R-16-057 declared duly adopted.
