Board of Aldermen — 3/21/17 Page 25
whichever shall occur first. So if you wanted to say it shall first occur for the tax year April 1, 2017, even
though you passed it after that date. Obviously April 1, 2017 occurs before April 1, 2018.
Alderman Clemons
| fully support the full tax credit. There’s no doubt about it. | think this is something that the city can do as a
thank you to our veterans for all of the service that they have given us. I’m on the fence as to whether or not it
makes sense to do it in thirds or whether or not it makes sense to do the whole thing all at once. | would
recommend that if we hold this that we think about having it be retro effective this year so that the veterans this
year can get something out of it.
Alderman Dowd
Obviously as a veteran, myself, | fully support giving the benefit to the other veterans. Also as Chair of Budget,
| recognize there are a whole bunch of variables coming up very soon relative to the budget. | know that we
would probably want to get some idea what’s going on with the budget before we pass something that is going
to incur additional costs. | happened to be in Manchester today in City Hall on personal business. | know this
issue is even a bigger issue for Manchester because they have far more veterans. They are waiting for the
state to take some action to see if they can phase it in because they would have the same issue we would.
Alderman Schoneman
| am one of the co-sponsors as many of us are. | fully support the veterans. | think the service they provide is
very, very valuable. By the way, as a public servants, folks in the military as they are don’t get paid really very
well not like folks around here might in a public service type position. | think anything we can do for them is
good. But! do believe that we have some issues that we need to give careful consideration to, and | would be
in favor of holding it until we get that House Bill pass.
Alderwoman Melizzi-Golja
I’m also a cosponsor of this and fully support it, but | also feel that holding it is the appropriate thing to do at this
point until we see what goes on. | would agree to making it retroactive to April 1 of this year. | also think that while
we are holding it, it would be useful to think about what it means to phase something in and maybe have the city
start looking at a plan. Is it going to be phased in across two years, across three years? Is it 1/3, 1/3, 1/32 How
are we going to determine how it is going to be phased in so | would ask that that be considered so when we get
something from Concord we can quickly address it.
Alderman O’Brien
Holding is not a bad idea, but in my ten years’ experience as being a State Representative, this was a Senate Bill.
It has yet to see the light of day in the New Hampshire House which is its own legal legislative authority. What you
see out of the Senate Bill today maybe morphed into something by the powers adjudicated by the legislature to
change the bill completely. Holding is a good idea. I’d like to see it referred back to the committee because what
we end up with in the future may not be exactly what we have before us right now. We could be looking at
something totally different and I’m just cautionary to that position.
Alderman Deane
| think that is a great idea.
MOTION BY ALDERMAN DEANE TO RE-REFER O-17-035 TO PERSONNEL
MOTION CARRIED
Ordinance O-17-035 referred to PERSONNEL/ADMINISTRATIVE AFFAIRS COMMITTEE.
