Special Board of Aldermen Public Hearing Page 3
Chairman Dowd
I’m going to call out the various departments. If you have a question concerning that particular
department, please come down to the microphone, state your name and address, and ask your
question.
101 MAYOR'S OFFICE
Fred Teeboom
My name is Fred Teeboom, 24 Cheyenne Drive. I’m going to comment on the budget. | have in my
hand 56-A the Charter. It says we’re going to comment on the budget and not just your little agenda.
Your agenda starts on page 59. I'd like to address some other things in the budget before we get to
page 59.
First of all on the resolution itself — R-17-098. I’m going to go into detail because there’s a lawsuit
against the city. There’s two lawsuits against the city but R-17-098 in the bottom paragraph says:
“Based on the combined annual budget of $265 million, you have $1.9 million under the cap.” It is
false and |’m going to test further subject to litigation. The fact is this budget is $8.1 million above the
cap.
I'd like to address first of all page 21. Page 21 deals with the funds. You'll see that under line item
52050 pension expense. Last year that pension expense was $21.7 million. This year, it’s $23.9
million. There was a presentation made, various presentations made and even the Mayor pointed out
as of the New Hampshire Retirement System points out in their literature that 70 percent on average
of that amount of money, the total amount of money collected by the State is designed to have the
State pension fund 100 percent funded. Nobody funds the pension fund 100 percent. As a taxpayer,
| resent the fact that the State insists on that. The cost to the Nashua taxpayers is enormous. You
still have $24 million at least $18 million if not more is used to get 100 percent funding of the New
Hampshire pension fund about 20 years from now. Not only is that a problem, the other problem is
the New Hampshire Retirement System itself admits that the pension fund is mismanaged by $900
million. Who is blamed? Did anybody get called before some State committee, State House, State
Senate, the Governor held accountable for a $900 million mismanagement that we are now paying
for? The retirees covered by this expense the $900 million haven’t paid a penny towards the $900
million. Guess who has to make up the $900 million mismanagement? Us the taxpayers.
My tax bill now is $7,000. It ain’t easy to pay $7,000 but | can afford it because | tried to take care of
some retirements. A lot of people can’t afford their tax bill. The average tax bill in Nashua average
over 28,000 properties is $7,000. The average residential tax bill is around $6,400. So why do we
have to pay for $900 million of mismanagement? Why do we have to pay for 100 percent funding?
Why did the City of Nashua even buy into the State system? The City of Nashua — and | think when
Donchess was Mayor, the city belonged to its own system. That was before your time. Sometime
the city bought into the State system and the reason bought into the State system is the State said
we’re going to contribute 35 percent towards your bill. Twenty-five percent to 50 percent today is
nothing. The State contributes not a penny. We’re on our own, is funding 100 percent. We all know
the funding that’s mismanagement and | resent it. | also advise the city to not pay the bill. To only
pay what the city is liable for which is about $6 million. You can ask for the listing of all the retirees.
Look how much money they earn. The city refused to do it. You know you sued the State because
you felt they didn’t pay you enough for the education grant. Why aren't you suing the State when you
know that they have mismanaged the pension fund?
Now the Aldermen say hey we have nothing to do with this. If you look why we’re paying $24 million
— that’s 8 percent of the $300 million total budget. That’s a lot of money. We had the previous Chief
