January 21, 2009
 
Budget Committee slashes both School and Town proposed budgets
Historic reductions:  Committee actions a clear sign of the times

GOFFSTOWN – The Goffstown Budget Committee, acknowledging the clear message taxpayers sent them at last week's public hearing, made major reductions in both the school and town proposed budgets at last night's Budget Committee meeting.

The town budget was the first to be considered, and of the four town articles considered, only the Goffstown Main Street Program appropriation of $15,000 and a no-tax-impact land purchase article survived unscathed.

The committee voted NOT to recommend an article to appropriate $500,000 to be placed in the Fire Apparatus Capital Reserve Fund by a vote of 8-6-0.  But the largest reduction of the evening was made to the town's proposed operating budget.

Interestingly, the Board of Selectmen had worked diligently to come up with a budget that not only kept the town-side portion of the tax rate unchanged, but actually reduced that tax rate by four cents.  But the Budget Committee wanted more.

When the topic finally turned to the town operating budget, committee member Roger Richard immediately made a motion to reduce the town's recommended operating budget from $19,362,358 to a surprising $17,970,838.  The motion was seconded by Roxann Hunt.

After spirited debate, the motion passed 7-5-2, and a later motion to recommend that amount on the town warrant also passed 7-6-1.

Then came a review of the school board's proposed budget.

After questions were posed to school board chairman Keith Allard concerning one of the articles on the school warrant, an appropriation article to spend $60,000 to study possible expansion of the the district's facilities, the committee voted 10-2-2 NOT to recommend it to the voters.  Committee member Christi Garrison explained the majority position, saying, "This study doesn't need to be done now.  Why can't it wait a year or two?"  No answer was forthcoming from Allard.  

Another article concerned the School Resource Officer appropriation of $54,043.  That article was unanimously recommended by the committee.

But it was the school board's proposed operating budget that the committee focused on.

On December 4, 2008, the Budget Committee first considered the school board's proposed budget of $35,622,026.  That number was comprised of a general fund balance figure of $34,202,026, along with $475,000 for the special revenue line and $945,000 for the food services line.  At that meeting, the budget committee voted to reduce the proposed recommended budget by $1,261,379, for a total of $34,360,647.  Then, on December 16th, after heated debate and what many committee members considered questionable tactics by school supporters, the committee voted to return $700,000 to that budget, for a total of $35,060,647.

But last night, the majority of the budget committee arrived after having had time to absorb both comments from taxpayers at public hearing on January 13th, and what many of them considered "warnings" from Allard and committee member William Hart on December 16th that the school board would secure whatever budget amount it wanted at the school deliberative session if the budget committee didn't succumb to demands to return that $700,000 to the school budget.

The committee's reaction was swift and decisive.

By a vote of 8-5-1, the budget committee further reduced its recommended operating budget amount for the school board by $995,228, for a total reduction from the school board's original proposal of $1,556,607.

The result is that the Budget Committee will be recommending an operating budget for the school board of $34,065,419 for the 2009-2010 year, which is an increase of $3,225,238 over what the it cost the school board to run the school district last year.

Unless this figure is changed at the school deliberative session on February 2nd, the Goffstown School Board will be forced to operate next year with $3.2 million MORE than it spent last year.







 

Patriot Software Solutions
Inexpensive home & small
business software & web
design solutions...
(603)
497-5900
 
Backyard Productions
Youth sports video & more...
292 Mast Road
Goffstown, NH
(603)
497-2259
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Copyright© 2009, Goffstown Residents Association.  All Rights Reserved.