2017 Budget Update

Hi All,

Here is an update from our recent budget meeting.

At our city council meeting on June 6th, I voted against the amount of money to be appropriated for 2017 and against the money to be appropriated for Capital projects for 2017. While there were many positive aspects to the budget, I felt on balance the concerns I had, warranted a no vote. Some of my concerns centered on the placing of the Economic Development Director with Community Development, questions on how we bring our parking fund out of the red, the ability of the Airport, Arena, and Golf Course to pay for future capital projects and the addition in this years Capital budget of a new turf field that is projected to cost $4,137,000 over the next four years.

In my last two Updates I have written about how important expanded economic development is to our city and in particular Penacook. And I have written about how strongly I feel that the newly created position of Economic Development Director should be a stand alone position, not under the influence or control of an existing city department. I proposed an amendment to the budget that would have done just that, unfortunately none of my fellow councilors agreed with my position.

While this was not the only reason I voted against the budget, I felt strongly enough about this issue that had the council been willing to accept my amendment, I would have voted to support the budget.
This does’t mean that I am not concerned about the other issues I listed above, but expresses my feelings as to how important the Economic Development position is and how important it is to get it right the first time.

Some of the other issues:

The parking fund has been operating in the red for some time now. Two years ago the city council approved $115,000 for a parking study. In addition to the amount of parking and how it is used, the study was designed to provide us with information to help us determine how to bring the parking fund into balance. It is my understanding that the city feels the consultants did not meet the requirements of the contract and payment for the parking study has been withheld.

Over the last one and a half years staff has been working on putting together the numbers that would balance the parking fund. This report is due to be finally presented to the parking Committee on June 27th. We have now gone 2 budget cycles without these numbers. An additional $3,418,000, has been approved for the 2017 budget, to be spent for items that are expected to be paid for from a parking fund that currently can’t pay its bills. Without seeing the proposal for how the parking fund will become solvent, it was another reason I had concerns for supporting this years budget.

Looking forward at projects for the Airport, Arena and Golf Course it is apparent based on their current revenues that they too can not support projects that are proposed over the next ten years. What this means is that either these proposed project will be delayed or that instead of being paid for from revenue generated by these programs, you and I will have to fund improvements through our property taxes.

While we have spent $400,000 at Memorial Field to repave the parking lot and repair the baseball field’s press box, and we have identified an additional $1,430,000 in maintenance work over the next 10 years, we have done nothing to identify improvements to the facility that would increase the types of activities that we see occurring more and more often in our city. At the same time we have neglected to look at making improvements to Memorial Field that more accurately reflect the types of uses our community is currently involved in, the city council voted to fast track a turf field for Terrill Park with a cost of over $4 million.

While there are legitimate concerns over who should pay for improvements to Memorial Field, spending over $1 million for improvements that leave the facilities uses unchanged is not an option I can support. And using that unwillingness to improve Memorial Field as the impetus for spending over $4 million for a turf field at Terrill Park is also an option I am unwilling to spend your money on.

We leveled funded Intown Concord with $30,000 even after the city manager recommended reducing their funding to $20,000. After approving $2,000,000 this year to bury power lines on Main Street, we added $160,000 to the 2017 budget to repave and reline South Main Street from Concord to Storrs Street and $100,000 for 2018 to repave and reline Main Street from Centre to Storrs. There is a line item for a new skate house at White Park for $900,000 with the cost being split between the city and fund raising from the private sector. This project will not go forward without the funding match. And another pool is being repaired for $440,000.

This is only a snapshot of the many items in the 2017 budget. There’s General Services, Police and Fire, Human Services and many others. If you are interested in finding out more information you can go the city’s website and look at the proposed budget and the city manager’s budget presentation.

Manager’s Budget presentation: http://www.concordnh.gov/DocumentCenter/View/7866

Proposed Budget: http://www.concordnh.gov/Archive.aspx?ADID=2728

As always you can contact me at aherschlag@concordnh.gov or 224-6086.