The 100 or so Candia voters who showed up for the deliberative session of Town Meeting on Saturday, Feb. 2, at the Moore School struck a compromise between the proposed town operating budgets proposed by the Board of Selectmen and the Budget Committee.

On Tuesday, March 11, voters will decide whether to pass the amended proposed 2008- 09 town operating budget of $2,321,660 or accept a default budget of $2,265,781.

Settling on a budget
After approving wording of the first 13 articles regarding zoning amendments and contributions to social services as a lump, discussion shifted to Budget Committee cuts, which shaved the selectmen’s budget from an 8.5 percent increase over the current year’s default budget to a 2.5 percent overall increase by cutting about 5.5 percent from each line item, said Budget Committee Chairman Carla Penfield.

The heated debate over how to compromise on the budget stemmed from Selectman Tom Giffen’s motion to restore $5,063 the Budget Committee cut from the health and welfare line, a cost which increased from last year along with many other lines in the budget, and amend the overall budget proposal to $2,266,318 instead of the Budget Committee’s $2,261,255.

Selectmen expressed frustration with the way the Budget Committee handled the cuts this year, saying the bottom-line cuts left them in the cold on costs they can’t control, including health and welfare, heating oil, transportation and health insurance.

“A chimpanzee with a dart board could have done just as well,” Giffen said.

Resident Ken Goekjian suggested they take the increases further, saying he didn’t feel Giffen’s amendment went far enough. Twenty-four people voted in favor of Giffen’s amendment and 38 opposed it.

Some residents asked for specifics on what the Budget Committee felt the town could do without. Penfield said while there were line items the committee felt were not necessary, such as new employees, it was not the Budget Committee’s charge to determine how money should be spent.

“The only decision we have to make is how much money the taxpayer can afford this year,” Penfield said, adding that with the transfer station bond payment, presented as a warrant article, would account for a 10 percent increase to the overall budget on its own.

Lazott’s motion, seconded by Giffen, to amend the article and increase the budget back to the selectmen’s original proposed budget of $2,380,064 also failed in a tied vote.

“We have two groups who did a terrific job, and I think the answer is somewhere in the middle,” said resident Ernie Lefavre.

Betsy Kruse, vice chairman of the Candia Conservation Commission proposed an amendment to increase the proposed budget in the article by half of the difference between the Budget Committee’s and Selectmen’s numbers, or $60,405, for a final figure of $2,321,660.

Keep the Budget Committee? The tension over the budget hung in the air until the end of the meeting when Article 35, which asked to disband the Budget Committee, came up for debate.

“If there’s no Budget Committee, then where are the checks and balances?” asked resident Stacey Beauchamp.

Giffen said discontent with prior selectmen fed the Budget Committee’s establishment.

“The creation of the Budget Committee failed to address the perceived problem,” he said.

Brennan said the extra time and effort department heads put in to present their budgets to the two separate panels was not measurable in terms of cost, but guessed it to be worth around $20,000 in addition to the committee’s $1,900 budget.

School Board member Ingrid Byrd said she has gone back and forth on her feelings about the Budget Committee, but now supports it as the taxpayers’ advocate.

Beauchamp’s motion to amend the article’s wording to ask whether voters were in favor of “retaining” the Budget Committee instead of “rescinding” it passed. While it is basically the same question, the article had to be replaced with something if the voters did not want to put it on the official ballot as is, Town Moderator Richard Mitchell said.

Zeroed out
An amendment to change the $75,000 warrant article to zero for a water cistern to be installed at the new transfer station passed after lengthy discussion, many residents saying they didn’t see a need for the cistern when others were in close proximity to the transfer station.

Voters also zeroed out a warrant article asking for $79,000 for a metal canopy over the transfer station, making the vote on March 11 null for Article 29.

Another transfer station amendment asking for $38,000 to construct a metal swap shop structure will stay on the official ballot, but Fire Chief Rudy Cartier’s motion to amend the article to remove the word “metal” from the article passed. Removing that word would allow the Solid Waste Committee to seek out cheaper materials for the shed, he argued.

Conservation money The vote for Article 33 was also nullified when voters decided not to decrease the percentage of land use change tax going into the Conservation Commission’s fund from 100 percent to 25 percent.

Those in attendance passed an amendment to change the article’s wording to include the word “not,” making a “no” vote result in a double negative.

Lazott argued more money going into the general fund would do more to offset the tax rate, and his sentiments were backed by several residents. “This is a clever way to effectively kill this article,” said Budget Committee member Kim Byrd.

Exit 3
The petitioned warrant article asking if voters are in favor of the proposed sale of land by Exit 3 off of Route 101 will go to the official ballot as is.

Kruse, one of the residents who signed the petition, asked whether the Exit 3 Committee and Board of Selectmen would cease the search for a developer of the land if voters defeat the article.

Selectmen Chairman Fred Kelley said they would stop their search until at least the next Town Meeting, adding, “If it fails in March, then we have a piece of land that we can’t do anything with.”

Voting on the warrant articles and candidates will take place Tuesday, March 11, from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., at Moore School.