Board of Aldermen Page 10
May 24, 2016
in an expense to taxpayers. | don’t think it’s a religious conviction but it’s a promise to taxpayers for us to
hold the line. As time goes on we will have discussions around this horseshoe and set priorities and
come to conclusions.
A Viva Voce Roll Call was taken, which resulted as follows:
Yea: Alderman Wilshire, Alderman Clemons, Alderman Dowd, 9
Alderman Caron, Alderman Siegel, Alderwoman Melizzi-Golja,
Alderman O’Brien, Alderman Lopez, Alderman McCarthy
Nay: Alderman Cookson, Alderman Schoneman, Alderman McGuinness, 5
Alderman LeBrun, Alderman Moriarty
MOTION FAILS
MOTION BY ALDERMAN SIEGEL FOR INDEFINITE POSTPONEMENT OF R-16-015
ON THE QUESTION
Alderman Clemons
I’m disappointed with the way the last vote went. | kind of look at this situation as the miser who has
millions of dollars and lives in a mansion that has a leaky roof and mold growing everywhere and doesn’t
pay his taxes. The idea is the miser sets his budget and says | am not going to spend more than
$30,000 this year, even though he lives in a house that leaks every time it rains and he sleeps in a room
that has mold and that affects his health. But he wants to continue to be a millionaire so he keeps that
money in his account rather than spending a little bit of it to fix his house and have a better quality of life
and to pay his taxes. | look at this situation as something that’s similar. We have an obligation from the
State of New Hampshire that says we have to pay for these pension costs. There is no way around it.
We have millions of dollars set aside to pay for these pension costs and yet a minority of this board is
holding hostage that money against the will of the majority so that we can take it from a need that is
going to make the quality of life for our citizens in this city better. | really have a problem with that. Like
Alderman Siegel said, at what point do we take that ideology and look at the reality and say this is
something we just have to do? We have the resources, we have the funds. Let us not forget that all that
money that is sitting aside, we have already taxed people on. Our citizens have already paid taxes for
this purpose. Essentially what we are telling them is even though we’ve already taxed you and put your
money aside, we’re going to tax you again for what the state is telling us what we have to pay. | don’t
think that’s right. You folks can hide behind the Spending Cap and say | made a pledge to this, but in
reality what you’re doing is you’re double-taxing people. You can use the Spending Cap as a way of
saying | pledged | wouldn't override the Spending Cap but in this situation you are double taxing people.
Alderman Siegel
One, | don’t believe Nashua is a leaky house. We're not a miser millionaire. In fact the taxpayers of
Nashua deserve us to be very careful with their money so | respect that. | respect my colleagues on the
board that voted both for and against it. | believe they did in good conscience; | appreciate that. | want
to make that very, very clear. This is done. We argued it. We went through and it’s not a minority of the
Board holding the majority. It’s exactly the way the rules work. It takes 2/3; we didn’t have it. We're
done. That’s the way it goes.
Alderman Schoneman
