Managed the IT budget for a $20 million non-profit organization in connection with the Department of Health and Human Services
Currently the Director of Applications Development for a local telecommunications company; charged with overseeing the development of software that includes significant billing and forecasting components
Graduate of Saint Anselm College
Have lived in Goffstown with wife and two children for three years
Paul Augros
Why are you running for Budget Committee?
In my brief time on the Budget Committee, I believe I have developed a good sense of the competing interests in our budget process, and what a fair compromise between them looks like. I believe in well-reasoned, dispassionate articulation of viewpoints, and I have supported and developed my positions with research and discussion. I am running for Budget Committee to continue offering a sound defense of conservative spending principles.
How will you work with the School Board and selectmen to create reasonable town and school operating budgets?
I think that cooperation between the Budget Committee and the governing bodies is heavily dependent on good-faith efforts by each to acknowledge the perspective of the other. This year, even though deliberations were heated at times, the Budget Committee and the selectmen reached an agreement because both parties were willing to investigate and accomodate at least some of the most pressing demands of the other. This sort of investigative negotiation is the model that I would use to judge the quality of cooperation in future budget proceedings.
What are your ideas for keeping taxes manageable in a down economy?
Policy changes that could help keep taxes manageable would rely on the governing bodies for their implementation. Nevertheless, I believe Goffstown should make efforts to attract more commercial development, which would not only provide local jobs, but would also ease the disproportionate residential tax burden. I support the pay-to-play program implemented by the Parks department, and I'd be interested in studying the possibility of similar changes elsewhere. Collective Bargaining Agreements, negotiated by the governing bodies, can have an enormous impact on taxation over multiple years. Other ideas include temporary deferral of capital improvements, alternative revenue sources, encouraging volunteerism, and departmental reorganization.
