Board of Aldermen 05-11-2021 Page 4
down about 1.8% from the current year. The Nashua Public Library has a budget which is down 1.9% from the
current year. Now that took a lot of discipline on behalf of our Departments and in part it is due to the fact that for
those employees the new HMO Plan is in effect and health care costs declined for those groups of employees. So |
want to thank those employees for agreeing to work with us and helping us to control costs with that HMO Plan that
| believe benefits everyone because their weekly contributions go down as well.
Now some of the Departments, well at the beginning, because of these financial challenges, | asked most
Departments to try to live with a zero per cent increase. Some of our independent departments have felt they
couldn’t do this. The Fire Department’s proposed budget is up 4% and the Police about 2.6%. | have been talking
for some years about building unsustainable budgets for these independent departments and | think we might be at
that point. Certainly | appreciate all of the work that our firefighters and police officers have done for the City but as
Mayor, it is my job to also consider the taxpayers of Nashua. Now if the budget requests are approved as
proposed, the budget will be up considerably over the last 6 years. And the numbers for that are in the Budget
Book on page 10. So | have proposed in the Budget that | have submitted to you, Madam President, compromises
with those two departments. Instead of the 0 per cent | asked for, instead of their request, | propose a cost of living
increase for both departments at 1.7%. So this is my effort to compromise and try to reach a reasonable Budget
and also a minimum, the lowest tax increase we can deliver.
In developing my Budget guidelines, | treated the School Department separately because of the learning loss which
resulted for a number of children, as a result of months of on-line learning. | want to make sure that we do
everything we can to keep all children, all of Nashua’s children reading and computing at grade level. So at the
beginning, | asked the School Department to submit a Budget including an increase of no more than 1 72%; other
Departments as | said | suggested zero excluding the cost of pensions and health care. Now the School
Department Budget that they submitted is up 1.7% when those two items are excluded. If the cost of health care
for school employees is included the Budget is up 2.6%. The issue of whether the new healthcare plan for the
School Department will be included, of course, is outstanding because there are ongoing negotiations. With the
School Department | split the difference between my guidance and their proposed budget and | reduced their
request by $119,000.00.
At the same time that we are trying to hold these budgets in line, trying to offset everything that the State has done,
we are still making a number of improvements for our residents including the continuation of our paving plan of
action, the implementation of the Nashua River Master Plan which will enhance the beauty of our river, Downtown
Performing Arts Center which will build a stronger downtown economy, our Middle School Improvement plan that
will result in three schools which are state of the art and all solar power. One new thing that | have proposed in the
Capital Improvement section of the Budget, Madam President, is the purchase of body cameras for the Police
Department, an improvement that was requested by the Police Department several months ago, we didn’t have the
money then but | think we can fund it in the Budget now.
Well this has not been an easy year, we know there are better days ahead and these ongoing projects signal a
strong and vibrant future for Nashua. Now also on the Agenda, Madam President, is Resolution 21-143 which
would place on the ballot the question which would give to the voters, if approved by the Board of Aldermen, would
allow the people to decide whether they want our local government to make appointments to the Nashua Police
Commission or whether they want to continue having the State make those appointments. | am joined by a number
of members of the Board of Aldermen and | am sure, Madam President, you will refer this to a Committee and we
can discuss that in detail in the months ahead or the weeks ahead.
The American Rescue Plan, | just wanted to mention that, again the guidelines are out. The US Conference of
Mayors is holding various meetings, we have talked about it with some of the other cities. Our CFO is examining
the interim regulations as what have been issued, so we will be reporting to you, Madam President, the Board of
Aldermen, regarding what we think can be done with those funds, making recommendations and, of course, those
funds could not be used or allocated without a vote of the Board of Aldermen.
Finally Madam President, | wanted to mention or discuss what | usually discuss at the beginning but | postponed to
the end because of all of these Budget issues that we have or the introduction of the City Budget which is COVID-
19. We continue to see progress with respect to the number of cases that we have. The number of active cases is
