Special Board of Aldermen Public Hearing Page 18
of dollars to the State of New Hampshire to get out of this system. That’s just not really feasible.
We're locked in.
Joe Pacello
| think my only point is that we kind of need to look more out into the future and model these benefit
plans as opposed to just explaining it away by what well we can’t control it. Well there’s got to be a
way to control it. That’s my final comment but thank you very much.
Chairman Dowd
Any other comments of the Mayor’s Office or the first 58 pages of the budget?
Christina McKinley
Christina McKinley, Southgate Drive, Nashua. My comments are easier because of those that came
before me. I’m extraordinarily pleased that we have people presenting that are talking about the
numbers behind the budget that most of us are not going to dig into all the details. VWhat I’m hearing
I’ve sat at one other meeting and so | will not have to say as much because of what’s been said
before me. | would agree that it is not acceptable to say that the problems that are in our town now
can’t be addressed because they’re controlled by the State. | think that’s unacceptable. | think it’s
unacceptable in part because the people who are going to support the decisions that were bad, that
were inflated, that were really under fundable, years past are the ones that are going to be paying
those inflated salaries, inflated pensions, all of that now. Most of those people do not have pensions
themselves. | think that perhaps one way to look at this would be to say that city government unless
we’re going to have as we have nationally this sort of government elite that is supported by taxpayers
that those folks should really not be able to be paid within some percentage anyway more than the
people then are paying them. | didn’t hear anything refuted.
| haven't investigated this but the numbers that Mr. Teeboom presented are extraordinary. The
amount of money that we are paying in pensions to people are way higher than many people’s
regular salaries in the private sector. In addition what | heard in terms of what the percentage that
health benefits are the contribution, | have worked in the private industry a long time and | have had
50 percent charged to me for health care and 100 percent for any family member. The company paid
for my insurance not my family’s insurance. That is not uncommon. | just think that there are an
awful lot of budget items that we have sort of acquiesced to a place where we say well there’s nothing
we can do about it. We've elevated to this level and we cannot back up. We have enough examples
across our country of what has happed to towns that don’t do something in advance of a terrible
situation where people lose pensions entirely. People lose jobs entirely because cities go bankrupt.
| think that we need to look carefully now as people in advance of me have suggested and if we’re
looking at it — if that number was accurate that we have a 20 percent reduction in the number of kids
in the schools in this town and yet we keep adding to the budget, there’s something wrong.
Something really wrong. Perhaps we need to be looking at what the problem is deeper and why we
are continuing to support things that don’t match up with the people who are in our schools. The
students that are in our schools. That wouldn't in any private industry I’ve ever been in would that
budget fly.
The one other comment that | heard about the opioid crisis and we all feel bad when anyone has that
kind of problem. | would like to make note — | hope we are spending as much time and energy
focused on supporting kids and adults who are doing the right thing. Who are taking positive steps
as we spend towards people who are choosing not to.
