It's Budget Time Again

Before I get started on today’s blog I need to make a correction regarding the Catch constructed and managed Mennino Apartments.

They are in the Tax Increment Finance (TIF) District and it appears they receive some consideration for being low income housing. But they did not receive a tax abatement under RSA 79E as I have stated in previous blogs. I’d like to thank our city’s assistant for special projects for clearing this up for me.

Now onto the budget.

From our City Manager’s Fiscal Year 2013 Budget Transmittal Letter: “.....,capital and infrastructure needs, and the ability to fund those needs, grow further apart.” 

Our city has recently scaled back on its Capital Improvement Program (CIP). This program looks at the cost of future infrastructure improvements. In Concord’s case for the next 10 years. Originally, Concord was looking at approximately $290 million for this 10-year period. The city pared this back to $261,494,255.00.

So that comes out to $26.1 million for 2013 (In reality the money isn’t necessarily divided evenly each fiscal year). But we are a long way from that $26.1 million. This years budget allocates $14.3 million for capital projects. That’s a $12 million deficit over what the city council and city manager believes needs to be done and the money available to do it. In fact since 2005 there have only been 2 years when over $20 million has been available for capital projects.

Certainly some of these projects are wants, but many of them are needs. The fact that as a city we are unable to pay for the maintenance of of our infrastructure is very troubling.

When I first ran for city council, we were able to repave our streets on about a 27 year cycle. Later that went to 30 years. Then we took out a $5 million dollar bond to maintain our streets (This was not for major projects like the Route 3 corridor. This was for repaving our neighborhood streets). And now I believe we are somewhere in the 33 year range and we have somewhere between $40 to $60 million in backlogged street maintenance.

And this is only one aspect of our budget. Let’s also pay attention to the Prince Street City Hall Expansion and the Library and Community Center developments. There is a ton of money being spent on water and sewer projects and while these costs aren’t factored into your property taxes, they do show up as increases in your water and sewer bills. 

The golf course continues to lose money and we really should look at the cost of services we provide for the Concord School District. Reports suggest that between 70 to 80 percent of the costs associated with Memorial Field are related to the High School. With a $160,000 budget for the field that’s $112,000 to $128,000 per year. My understanding is the school district is supposed to reimburse the city for programs that cost over $10,000. At a minimum the council and the public should be made aware of the reciprocal value of the programs that are provided between the school district and the city. This is particularly important at a time when Memorial Field needs multiple millions of dollars in improvements.

We are constantly told how well Concord is doing in relation to other cities. Yet we can’t pay our bills. If we are one of the better performing communities regarding fiscal health then we are all in big trouble. The fact of the matter is you can point fingers all you want at your least favorite politician or political party, but that does nothing to solve the problem.

Concord can start on a more fiscally responsible growth and development plan by enacting a few simple benchmarks. When a new project applies for approval there needs to be a way to measure the long term fiscal impact. If it is negative, are there other projects that can offset the cost. If not, then perhaps that project needs to be put on hold until we as a community can afford it. 

We have a pretty good idea how much it will cost to maintain our city over the next ten years (the CIP). Do the new projects seeking approval provide funding to meet those expenses or do they contribute to higher costs in the future. We need to look at increases in traffic, will we need to build or improve our streets. Will the project add more students to our schools, do the taxes generated cover the costs to educate these students. What about recreational opportunities? Again does the new project provide enough funding to meet the needs of our community and for the upkeep of these facilities. 

Some of these benchmarks are already in place. But I believe what we fail to do is look at the longer term impact of these projects. We have seen some significant  growth in Concord over the last 25 years. Yet even in good economic times we seem to fall further behind in being able to pay for the services that an increased tax base and growth bring.

So while our city administration and council work to craft a budget for our city I challenge them to promise the citizens of our city to set new benchmarks in looking towards how growth impacts our ability to pay for services. It’s time for the tail to stop wagging the dog and to develop fiscal and growth plans that realistically meet our communities needs.