7:05 - Rough start. Right off the bat there is some awkwardness (Yarbrough - Town Clerk) with regard to the microphone and Robert's rules. Theresa Ranciato-Viele is chosen as the moderator.
7:08 - Looks like a nearly empty room again. Michael Freda is the first speaker. Another presentation.
7:12 - Is it responsible to set out "potential savings" on contracts out to bid as "cost savings"?
7:15 - 2.72 mills of the 3.0 mill increase is revenue shortfall. Ouch! Likewise, Mike is guessing that the CRRA revenue later this year will be 2 million dollars. Are we a little too comfortable guessing to the positive?
7:17 - A 3.42 mill increase, not 3.0. Mike seems to be having trouble with the microphone. Come on, NHTV!
7:20 - 73% of NH homes fall within values of 214K to 500K. Median home values seem to have dropped by 14K just this past year. Mike says the median increased monthly cost for the tax increase is less than $30 - less than a dollar a day. The average works out to be almost the same figure.
7:26 - Uh oh. Freda just said that we're at a crossroads. He is making my case now that we have a cost to maintain our services and quality of life in town. He's likewise encouraging turn-out. He must figure that high turn-out will mean a "yes." Freda concludes.
7:28 - Wow, the room really is empty! David Robinson is up first to the mic. He is arguing for town employees to cut pay by 1%. Mr. Robinson is informed that contract changes would need to go to arbitration and it would probably not go in the town's interest. Robinson is yelling saying that a tax increase is an additional 650 dollars for him. He must live in a really nice house. Robinson is arguing against facts. Nice.
7:30 - Thomas O'Connor is up next. He makes an argument about how the governor negotiates with unions for decreases in wages. He says town workers need to sacrifice and some people tell him that they are planning to move out of town given the taxes.
7:33 - Michael Mele is up next. He has a question for Mr. Freda: "Do you support the budget?" Mr. Freda says, "Yes, if . . . " He is going with whatever the people say. Rather wishy-washy. Mele is asking for debate without hostility and says that he thinks the budget lacks credibility. Mr. Mele says that the tax increase will in fact be 12%. By some other measure he says it's 5%. I don't pretend to understand. Some difference between the budgeting of the last administration and this one. He's questioning what numbers Freda is considering as lost - CRRA and fund balance. He's arguing that that the unappropriated surplus is still too high. Mr. Mele calls the referendum framing of tax increase or services cut is "hogwash."
7:48 - Here comes Veronica Kivela! She is interested in bulk pick-up. She wants to know if we can reduce bulk pick-up to once per month. How much of a cost savings would this represent? Last time she wanted to know about the expense of teacher salary increases which are close to nil in this budget. She also wants to take a good hard look at union negotiations. Mr. Freda responds with regard to negotiation costs. She came back to bulk pick-up and is trying really, really hard to come across as sensitive, compassionate, and reasonable.
7:54 - Mr. Freda says he has no problem going back to the drawing board and changing the budget if the referendum fails. Um, isn't that your job and obligation?
7:55 - John Opramolla. Compares NH budget to the state budget. And then to his home budget. His argument seems to be that you have to pay for what you want and need. He says he sees no waste in this budget. Supports the education side. Supports keeping the town services as they are. "Pony up and pay the freight." Defending the town unions, especially the teachers. Mr. Opramolla supports a YES vote.
8:02 - Bill Nadle (sp?). 3 questions. 28% health insurance increase - can we get insurance from out of state? Answer: no. Can town workers be switched to 401ks? That would have to be negotiated. Marlin Firearms - are we doing anything to keep them? Freda says Marlin was adamant that staying proves prohibitive. Marlin will not seem to say - we will lose their $246K in taxes each year. Finally he wants to address overlap of retired benefits for town workers and the salaries and benefits of their replacements. Tax increase scare tactics about health care and cap and trade.
8:09 - Name inaudible. Discusses fixed incomes in this environment. Vote no, he says.
8:10 - Sherman Katz. Asks about teacher pay increase. Answer 1%. Prepared remarks. Does not support the budget. Directs his remarks pretty exclusively at teachers as town union members. Wants to know what items will be reduced first if the budget goes down. Hard to transcribe some of the wandering remarks, but his main beef is with the education side. Asks about property taxes, not including real estate. Mr. Freda comes up to answer what if any controls or tallies have been kept on line item increases: Using new software to keep up with these increases in expenditures in a more immediate manner.
8:15 - just lost audio.
8:16 - Some guy got up and made a quick comment. No audio.
8:16 - Alan Sturtz is up now. Expensive status quo with no growth OR vote no and get worse - conflict and disagreements in town and in town government. Just lost picture. Mr. Sturtz defends the very hard work of town employees at current rates. At BOS, BOF, and town meetings - Sturtz says it is never said what we will do to increase revenue, i.e. new businesses. Cites Quinnipiac opening - how can we cater to those students coming in? Says pass the budget because otherwise "it's not going to be pretty." Bring in business.
8:23 - Dorothy Hoyt. Speaking on behalf of Creative Learning Program. Says the budget is responsible. Cites that we are in the lower half for money spent on students and teachers. Reductions will drastically affect education. Vote yes, she says.
8:24 - Gerry Feinberg. Questions credibility of numbers in budget and ability to pay for it. Says the increase is too much - not in our interest to maintain the town in the future to pass this budget. I'm not sure how that argument works. Questions the validity of just about everything, including insurance costs and union contracts. "Cost certainty." I have to ask if there is ever such a thing? Implement savings immediately on non-union employees, says Feinberg. re: folks earning six figures. Says it's not a good idea this year. Asks for reduction of salary increases for those people. Says the brunt of the tax increase will be felt by business interests which may push people out of NH. He says he will vote no.
8:32 - Peter Vorio (sp?). The guy who compared educating our kids to wanting to go to Aruba at the last meeting. Huzzah. Talks about projected future costs (cap and trade) "crushing" state and local economies in the near future. Spit-balling on this and that. Says his union is good but our town unions are bad. "To the needs of the business." Back to crushing costs on all levels. Says no tax increase. "You can't spend what you don't have." He's back to the DESIRE FOR A VACATION as though that is synonymous with contracted salary increases. Ramble, ramble.
8:37 - Ann Ruocco. April 15 was tax day. May 18 will be NH tax day. Be sure to vote; confident it will be no on referendum. Once it goes up, it will never come down, she says.
8:39 - Donna Spose. Cites cost of referendum. If you vote a budget down, it will cost the town at least another $10,000 for the next one. Says to pass this budget.
8:40 - John Harron (sp?). Takes exception to argument against the cost of referendum.
8:41 - Mr. Mele is back up in spite of promising NOT to come back up to the mic. Says there are more than two options, yes or no. Still arguing about the fund balance being too high. Calls it confiscated money. $3.5 million dollars that does not need to be there in unappropriated surplus. Says town is being taken advantage of. Says spend it. Says that BOE budget is the best it's been in years. Cites 14.4% increase in insurance on ed side. 42% increase on town side. Says last administration did better negotiation on these costs - how that serves us now I do not know. Cites praise for Sara Querfeld for her good work. Says that not getting other bids is in contravention of the town charter. Cites severe credibility problem again. No competitive bids. Money wasted and certain individuals are rewarded. GBA. Ovation. Charter Oak. I'm not familiar with any of this. Mele says reject the budget.
8:50 - Mr. Freda cites four rejection letters and claims history to combat Mr. Mele. Cites GBA as experts and effective. Welcomes everyone to his office. Come on down.
8:51 - Rambling Mr. Vorio is back. Question for Mr. Freda about pay out from Anthem. Against the budget. "Numbers are everything." Says it's good that Anthem paid out more than it took in in premiums. Finds it funny and is not surprised that other carriers are uninterested in covering NH. Says town employees need to take up slack on health care increases. Asks what it is. Co-pays differ based on union. They are trying to shoo him from the mic.
8:55 - David Robinson again. Wants to post employee wages on town website. Wants to decide if people are individuals are overpaid. Is told that those numbers are in the budget. Wants info on each employee. Yelling. Equates taxes with a cut in pay again. Wow. Angry. Not charming.
8:58 - Clerk reads second item. Starts by applauds the efforts and questions. Says 115 people are in the room. Wants neighbors to be encouraged to vote. Specific to schedule of payments. Motor vehicles, etc. July 1 and January 1. Question called. Motion passes. Other motion passes. Meeting adjourned at 9:00.
