Aldermen quickly pass city budget during special meeting

MANCHESTER, N.H. – With just a few days to spare, the Manchester Board of Mayor and Aldermen officially passed the City of Manchester’s Fiscal Year 2025 Budget on Tuesday, raising and appropriating $185,401,207.

Normally, the special meeting on Tuesday to finalize the budget would not be possible under the city’s charter, and was only allowable under the charter after an impasse was reached earlier this month and Mayor Jay Ruais vetoed the budget that had been proposed. Due to changes in budget projections between the release of the mayor’s budget in March, the lack of an Aldermanic budget response to the mayor’s budget and the defeat of two motions, that proposed budget would have brought forth a tax increase of over 4.0 percent with both the mayor and board felt would have been unacceptable. Also, the veto was necessary under the charter to push the deadline from June 11 to June 30.

Both of those motions passed quickly on Tuesday. The first would move $358,000 in unused funds from a recent compensation study into the appropriations overlay fund, which the Assessor’s Office recommended after believing that approximately $700,000 more will be needed this fall for likely abatements and other tax relief for specific parcels. Then the other motion takes the $1,532,000 in surplus funds left over from the Fiscal Year 2024 Budget and puts them all towards tax relief instead of splitting it equally toward tax relief, severance funding and the city’s rainy-day account as is done in most years.

A motion was then required to suspend the board’s rules to take up the budget again, which passed this time 10-4 on a hand counted voice vote. Aldermen Joseph Kelly Levasseur (At-Large), Chris Morgan (Ward 1), Crissy Kantor (Ward 6) and Ed Sapienza (Ward 8) voted against that motion.

The result of the new budget will see a tax rate increase of 3.43%. Kantor did not feel comfortable with an amount greater than last year’s city budget of $178,696,166. At the meeting earlier this month, Kantor and Levasseur asserted that surplus money from the school district budget should not be allowed to be rolled over into the school district’s FY’ 25 budget (beginning at 3:32:39 in the June 4 MCTV meeting video), with that surplus amount being roughly equivalent to the difference between the FY’ 24 and FY’ 25 city budget appropriations.

“We are all struggling and we shouldn’t be taxing anyone more than we already are,” she said. “It’s heavy times and we’re talking about rising food costs, gas costs, everything is too much. We can say ‘it’s only three percent’, but three percent every year?”

Alderman Pat Long (Ward 3) brought the two initial motions forward in addition to the motion to suspend the rules and then the motion on the final budget passage. He was pleased with the result and given that Tuesday’s meeting took just 11 minutes, he hoped that this impasse could have been resolved at the meeting earlier in the month.

“That’s why I voted against the motion for adjournment (on June 4), as you see it only took us 11 minutes to get it passed,” he said. “I was hoping we’d come to consensus then. We didn’t, but we got it done today and I’m happy with it.”

City of Manchester Finance Director Sharon Wickens said that the loss of revenue from the surplus into the rainy day fund and severance fund was acceptable, but could require additional revenue to make up the shortfall in future years. Long told Manchester Ink Link that there is no set target amount for the severance fund to his knowledge, as the target varies depending on departmental needs at any given time.

Manchester Mayor Jay Ruais was also pleased with the outcome, stating that this year’s budget process was a difficult one given a rare over four percent cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) increase some departments and two million dollars in unexpected healthcare costs for city employees along with other post-COVID related issues such as the upcoming conclusion of federal grant money that can be used in the budget and a sharp increase in the city’s tax cap calculus following lower than normal cap figures during the pandemic.

Ruais felt that while the budget made significant cuts, including several million dollars from the Manchester School District’s requested budget and a hiring freeze, various other programs were retained ranging from infrastructure improvements to strengthening various city departments, such as efforts to fill the city’s recommended police officer compliment.

Ruais released the following statement following the meeting.

Since the beginning of my term, I have been clear about the difficult nature of this budget cycle. Though we started in a $10.6 million hole, I’m proud that we made some difficult decisions to reduce spending in places, and address soaring costs in areas like healthcare without compromising city services.”

Despite very real fiscal constraints we were still able to invest millions into our roads, sidewalks and parks. We funded important public safety programs like Shot Spotter and Fusus, while protecting ten police officer positions currently funded by an expiring federal grant. And our support continued for local community partners working to address homelessness, addiction and mental health challenges. Previously, we approved $227.9 million for our schools, a compromise amount, that represents the largest ever appropriated.

Our success in passing a fiscally responsible budget that’s 2.17% under the city’s tax cap is a victory for Manchester residents. I want to thank Alderman Long and those who worked diligently to construct and support passage of this compromise agreement. We now have a budget for FY2025 that will support Manchester’s most important needs and set the city up for long term success.