DERRY \u2014 Next year is going to be tough on everyone’s wallets.<\/p>\n
That’s why the Town Council unanimously decided on Dec. 2 that it would like to level fund next year’s budget, so that property owners will not see an increase caused by the town budget when they get their tax bills.<\/p>\n
To do that will likely require some tough decisions. Councilors Kevin Coyle and Janet Fairbanks have already said they would like to cut Business Development Coordinator Beth Thompson’s position.<\/p>\n
Coyle said the post has not brought in any new revenue in the year Thompson has been employed by the town. Her salary and benefits cost the town almost $100,000 per year, according to Coyle.<\/p>\n
“I just really think everyone is suffering pain and the town needs to suffer pain too,” Coyle said.<\/p>\n
But Town Administrator Gary Stenhouse cautioned that cutting departments and programs can be detrimental in the future.<\/p>\n
“If we’re going to look at downsizing programming, don’t think of it as a knee-jerk reaction to get through one year,” he said.<\/p>\n
Fairbanks has asked Stenhouse to look into how many town-owned vehicles are being brought home at night by employees. Eliminating each person who takes a town vehicle home at night, other than the police and fire chiefs, could represent some savings in tough economic times, she said.<\/p>\n
“I would like to know how often these vehicles are used in the middle of the night,” Fairbanks said.<\/p>\n
Town staff will begin working on the fiscal year 2009-10 budget by the end of the month. Stenhouse will present a preliminary version to the council in March.<\/p>\n
Stenhouse said on Tuesday that he will present a spending plan that will represent no tax increases. In addition, he will propose options that will allow the council to cut the budget even further.<\/p>\n
However, taxpayers could still see an increase in their bills even if the town comes in with a level-funded budget. The town’s portion of the current tax bill is only 35 percent with the school district’s portion costing taxpayers 52 percent. Taxpayers also fund county and state budgets through their property taxes.<\/p>\n
Coyle recommended the town look into a move they typically don’t use to fund a small portion of next year’s budget, because revenues will likely continue to decline.<\/p>\n
Last year, the town had $800,000 surplus and Coyle questioned whether the town should dip into its fund balance in the coming fiscal year.<\/p>\n
Even though the threat of layoffs has been looming, Stenhouse said he does not anticipate having to lay off any employees in next year’s budget.<\/p>\n
He has already said the town will not hire any new employees except for four new police officers who have already been offered jobs.<\/p>\n
There are still three vacancies in the Police Department, one in the assessing office, and three in the Fire Department, but those positions will remain vacant, according to Stenhouse.<\/p>\n
Luckily, the town is in good shape, he said, with the first quarter completed in the current fiscal year.<\/p>\n
Finance Director Frank Childs said that some departments are down in revenues, but overall, the town was conservative in its fiscal year 2008-09 revenue estimates and is doing fine.<\/p>\n
Building permit fees, motor vehicle registrations and transfer station revenues are all down due to the poor economy, Childs said.<\/p>\n
So far, the town has a 95 percent collection rate on property taxes, but that number could be deceiving, because Derry has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the state, according to Childs.<\/p>\n
When a home is foreclosed on, the bank pays the property taxes, he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DERRY \u2014 Next year is going to be tough on everyone’s wallets. That’s why the Town Council unanimously decided on Dec. 2 that it would like to level fund next year’s budget, so that property owners will not see an increase caused by the town budget when they get their tax bills. To do that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-assessing","category-taxes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7146,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420\/revisions\/7146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}