MINUTES OF HAVERHILL BUDGET HEARING

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Board Members Present: Roderick Ladd, Peter Heilemann, Lynn Wheeler and David Joslin.

Town Manager: Glenn English

Administrative Assistant/Finance Officer: Jo Lacaillade

Budget Committee Members: Dick Fabrizio, Wayne Fortier, Eleanor Ingbretson, Peter Conrad, and Dick McDanolds

Police Chief: Cecil Smith

Members of the Public Present: Susan Brown, Martha Trott, Edith Celley, Vesta Smith, Joanne Moore, Harold Brown, Dick Ekwall, Carol Coon, Robert Fillian, Shirley Cobb, David Heintz, Mark Chain, Doug McDonald, Lesa Lakeman-McDonald, John Landigan, John Cobb and Jane Darby.

Call Meeting to Order:

Chairman Ladd called the meeting to order at 7:01 p.m.

Chairman Ladd reviewed a change made to the budget at the Selectboard meeting on Monday night with regards to the amount allocated to the Haverhill Corner Library and some revenue numbers. There was also a correction to the Recreation Department. Chairman Ladd thanked all the people that have served on the budget advisory council this year and prior years. He asked them to stand and be recognized (applause).

Public Hearing: 2010 Town of Haverhill Budget

Lynn Wheeler made a motion to open the public hearing; seconded by Peter Heilemann and

carried unanimously. The Public Hearing opened at 7:04. Chairman Ladd asked that all who

speak announce who they are and where they live.

Susan Brown said that it had been her understanding that when Walmart came to Town her taxes

would go down but they haven’t; they went up. TM English explained the approximate value of

the Walmart building and its impact on the tax rate. The Town never represented that the taxes

would go down with a Walmart being built.

John Landrigan thanked the Selectboard for the increase that they made to the Haverhill Library at the meeting on Monday; he also got the impression from reading the minutes that there might be some willingness by the Board to make that appropriation equal to what the Patton Library is getting and asked them to do that. Chairman Ladd gave an overview of the discussion that occurred at Monday’s meeting. Edith Celley asked how the funding is determined. Susan Brown gave an overview of how the formula was developed but it is no longer used; now each library can ask for exactly what they need. Mr. Fillion asked if he understands that the Town of Haverhill must own a library. Susan Brown said that there are some towns in the State of New Hampshire that do not have Town Libraries. Chairman Ladd said that the Town is very fortunate to have 4 privately owned libraries that are close to those people that are using them. Susan Brown said that a single library owned and operated by the Town would be much more expensive to operate than what the Town contributes to the 4 private libraries. Mr. Fillion did not think he got an answer to his question. Eleanor Ingbretson said that she believes in the RSA’s it is suggested strongly that the Town does fund libraries. TM English said that the RSA refers to “Town” libraries; however, these libraries, even though independent, are public libraries. It is a little fuzzy as to whether the Town is obligated to fund them. Chairman Ladd said that they need to get back to concentrating on this budget. Mr. Fillion asked if there are reports from the libraries to which was responded that they will be in the Town Report. There was more discussion involving their statistical reports. Mr. Landrigan again asked if the Selectboard would consider raising their level of funding to be equal with the North Haverhill Library and gave an overview of the previous year at that library. Lynn Wheeler asked Mr. Landrigan why they didn’t ask for more money in their request given to the Town Manager. Mr. Landrigan stated that the signal from the Town had been to be as conservative as possible and so they made the effort to do that which meant cutbacks in staffing. Lynn Wheeler applauded them for doing that because they were one of the few entities that listened to them from last year. They discussed this issue at great length at the Monday Selectboard meeting and they did increase the allocation to what had been requested. Mr. Landrigan thanked them again for the increase that they did grant. Chairman Ladd said that they are appreciative of all 4 libraries and what they provide as a service to the community at large and the Board knows of the difficult times non profits are facing currently. Mr. Fillion made reference to how much it costs per book when compared to usage of the libraries. Peter Heilemann said that libraries are about more than just lending books; libraries have atmosphere, people come there and may read the book there and not check it out; it is a cultural place. He does not feel you can do the math that way. Mr. Fillion wanted proof to substantiate what Mr. Heilemann was saying to which Mr. Heilemann said he did not have proof but did not believe you could compare apples to apples in the way Mr. Fillion is stating. David Joslin asked that we get back on task of dealing with the 2010 budget. Peter Conrad said that he felt that the libraries were probably lending books at the same rate as what they would if there was one central library at a fraction of the cost of what the Town would incur to operate that one central library. Chairman Ladd agreed and said this is a Board that represents the Town and they are representing 4 libraries and he prefers not to look at things as village districts or this end or that end and in working with these private organizations to provide a service. Peter Conrad felt this was a good opportunity to close discussion on this one issue. TM English said that the library issue is decided by the voters of the Town of Haverhill and not the Selectboard and those voters have decided that they want these 4 libraries. If the voters of the Town want a Town Library, they petition Town Meeting and there is a Town vote to establish a Town Library and then to elect trustees. That is a Town Meeting decision and there is no indication that the voters want to go that route. Mr. Fillion asked where that information came from. Chairman Ladd said that this part of the discussion is closed and they are moving on.

There was a big group in attendance from Alumni Hall. Chairman Ladd said that while they recognize the value that Alumni Hall brings to the community the broad base property tax is hurting and the revenues cannot continue to fund all areas. Alumni Hall is funded at the same level for 2010. Mark Chain thanked the Board for their trust in Alumni Hall and everything that it is trying to do. They are doing everything they can to increase their revenue sources and be as efficient as they can. Chairman Ladd said that all departments are being asked to look at cost cutting measures and becoming as efficient as possible. Joanne Moore said that Alumni Hall is an asset to the community; they bring people in who shop, fill up with gasoline, eat and people whose pocketbooks are hurting more and more are turning to craft work and we offer crafters a venue to help with their own financial picture. There is a bridal show coming soon. Reference was made to “Business After Hours” which will be at Alumni Hall on the 24^th of February. Mr. Fillion wanted to know if there was a budget from Alumni Hall to which was responded yes. Doug McDonald said that looking over the budget it appears that the Selectboard and the Town Manager have done a really good job in putting together a budget that is realistic and slightly down from last year which means a hard look was taken at it. He thanked the budget committee for their hard work too. He is a strong supporter of Alumni Hall and he thinks that everyone is doing a good job in pulling budgets together during these challenging economic times. Chairman Ladd spoke of how discouraging it can be dealing with budget issues at Concord and seeing how that relates to Town budgets and feels that the people to his right do a great job in managing the Town budget. TM English said that the Selectboard made a good decision in 2009 that not too many Towns did. When the State cut revenue sharing distributions to the Towns, the Selectboard held a special Town Meeting to reduce the budget by about $67,000 to reflect a lot of that reduction. He said that he advised the Board on Monday that if significant amounts of State revenue are cut in the future, you are going to see a cut in services. This budget is pretty lean and if the State revenue is cut all services will have to be looked at. Lynn Wheeler said that the Board is going to be watching this carefully, all year long to keep on top of it. Chairman Ladd said that they had gone through the budget line by line and many questions were asked. Susan Brown referred to the General Assistance budget. AA Lacaillade said that the increase in the budget this year is more due to the economic times; the welfare administrator spends much more time determining eligibility. She has been able to disqualify many applicants by having the time to deal only with the welfare issue. It is a State mandate so we do not have any choice if an applicant is eligible. Being a border town we do see a lot more transient applicants. TM English said that this is an expenditure that really unites the Town, you can’t make the argument that we live in Haverhill Corner we don’t care what happens in Woodsville; this is a Town wide issue and we are a victim of a lot of low income housing and that is for a variety of reasons which we all know. The availability of that housing is a draw to these types of folks. The word is out that we have a very good school system so those with children love to come to Haverhill. It puts a lot of strain on not only the Town budget but the School budget. AA Lacaillade said that having a dedicated welfare administrator allows her time to look for other avenues to help with assistance and the expended amount would probably be much higher without her work to find these other avenues. The welfare administrator has developed a good network of services in the area. All towns were hit with high welfare expenditures this year and AA Lacaillade felt that we had faired pretty well comparatively. Chairman Ladd said that a letter had been sent to the Local Government Center a few months ago by the Selectboard asking them to look at this issue and see what could be done but the Local Government Center did not pursue it. AA Lacaillade said that even though it appears that the budget was under spent in 2009 slightly, what is not showing is the amount transferred to that budget at the end of the year which, if that had not been done, this budget would have been overspent. Chairman Ladd said that at the State level they are starting to understand that any money not being passed to the Towns are having to be raised in the property taxes and that will not be sustainable for long. Harold Brown asked about the $16,000 warrant article for recycling. It was explained that it is the money paid to Newbury to be able to participate in their recycling program. There was a brief discussion regarding that center. Harold Brown said that he is looking for a level funded budget and this is not one. He referred to the money being taken from surplus to help fund this budget. He referred to one line that shows money being taken from Reval Reserve but it was pointed out that he was reading the wrong line, there was no money coming out of the Reval Reserve line. There was more discussion regarding the money scheduled to come out of the General Surplus and whether it should be saved to be used in another year when money might be tighter. Harold Brown said that he had no problem with giving money back to the taxpayers by using this General Surplus but he feels that the budget should be reduced more to make it level funded. He said that the budget is $200,000 more than the year before and it was pointed out that the budget is actually down. He felt that the interest on property tax amount was high and it showed that people are unable to pay their taxes. It was pointed out that the rate of interest is set by Statute. It was also pointed out that the delinquency rate for the Town 2009 taxes is 7% which is extremely low for this time of the year; taxes are being paid. TM English said that the reason that interest is charged is an incentive to get them to pay their taxes and if they don’t all the rest of the taxpayers make up the difference. It is a fairness issue. Harold Brown said that his statement was being twisted; people are having a hard time paying their taxes. It was stated again that the delinquent tax rate for 2009 is 7% which is low. Harold Brown said that he would like to see the budget level funded and the first thing they could take out is the $130,000 for the paving at the business park. It was explained that 80% of that is a Federal grant. David Joslin said that it was going to cost the Town about $26,000 to pave that road. Harold Brown said that a grant is tax money that came from the people. TM English said that if we don’t take it, somebody else will. Chairman Ladd said that he knows that some people are hurting out there, water bills in at least 2 precincts are in arrears; people are choosing to pay their taxes instead because of the interest rate. Some of the foreclosures that he is speaking of are not foreclosures on the primary home. Harold Brown said it does not matter, people are still losing them, it is still a hardship, and they still go to bed at night crying. The objective is to keep those taxes low. TM English said, with all due respect, unless you look at every one of those foreclosures to determine why they occurred, how many of those were due to bad loans that should never have been granted in the first place? That is not an issue of taxation; it is an issue of banks and lenders. Harold Brown said that the goal is to keep taxes lower so it is not a burden on citizens whether they live here or not. His point is that he wants to see a level funded budget and this one is not. TM English said that it is down. Again it was pointed out that he was looking at the wrong total, he was not looking at the 2009 budget compared to the 2010 budget, and he was looking at an actual column. Mr. Fillion said that Article 6 of the warrant refers to a report, where is that report? Chairman Ladd stated that it is at the printers, it is the Town Report. He then questioned the amount it shows for that warrant article which was explained that it reflects the budget before warrant articles. Harold Brown asked about carryover money from 2008 to 2009 that wasn’t reserved for special projects; what happens to that money. TM English explained that is what goes into the unreserved fund balance and the $50,000 discussed earlier that is being used to offset taxes is part of that money. He further explained what goes into the fund balance and that is done after the annual audit. Harold Brown asked if there was an increase in assessed value in 2009 to which it was stated that it was minimal, about 2 ½ million. He then asked what the total assessed value of the Town is and AA Lacaillade said that it is a guess but she believes it is about 391 million.

Peter Heilemann made a motion to adjourn the Public Hearing on the budget; seconded by Lynn Wheeler and carried unanimously. The Public Hearing ended at 7:55.

Lynn Wheeler made a motion to accept the 2010 budget as presented including warrant articles and to present this at the 2010 Town Meeting. The motion was seconded by David Joslin and carried unanimously.

Adjourn Meeting: David Joslin made a motion to adjourn, seconded by Peter Heilemann and carried unanimously. Chairman Ladd adjourned the meeting at 7:56 pm.

Minutes transcribed by Jo A. Lacaillade

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