Candia Budget Committee members say they’re bracing for some tough choices as they eye a potential increase of as much as 10 percent for next year.

“Our comment to (department heads) was ‘if we have to cut the budget, where should we cut?’ even though it’s a bottom-line budget,” said committee member Judith Szot on Saturday, Nov. 1. “There’s no easy way. It’s going to be pretty difficult.”

Committee Chairman
Carla Penfield said the Board of Selectmen recently handed in 2009 budget requests that total $2,337,227, an amount that was reduced slightly from the roughly $2,353,000 that Selectman Joe Duarte was working with on Sept. 13. But Penfield said the budget will be increased by an unknown amount because insurance rates -- typically one of the highest areas of increase that faces Candia -- will not be known until mid-December.

As it now stands, Penfield said the addition of the current year’s insurance costs – $146,182 – and some $6,000 for ambulance service brings the preliminary request to $2,489,409, an increase of 7.23 percent. When the final insurance rates are received next month, Penfield said the committee expects a potential final-budget increase of as much as 10 percent.

Penfield said some of the highest areas of increase are for fuel, heating oil, asphalt and salt, a circumstance that drove the requests up for the Highway Department, as well as fire protection. The Candia Fire Department budget is up about 10 percent, with fuel costs escalating from $3,600 to $6,000, and the heating oil allocation went up by $1,000 to $5,000.

The department’s expenses also include a $12,000 water-supply request for new ponds and hydrant replacement, she said.

On the Highway Department, Penfield said the budget request reflects an increase of about 25 percent, and road salt is also a significant cost. Budgeted at some $38,724 for this year, she said the actual 2008 expenditures came to about $66,000, and $57,500 has been requested for next year. The single largest area of budget increase for highway is asphalt maintenance, which swelled to $77,400, an increase of nearly $50,000.

Although town summer recreation programs were dispensed with this year as a cost-saving measure, Penfield said they are included in the preliminary recreation budget request, which totals about $32,000 so far. While Penfield said the budget challenges this year “are huge,” Szot said the situation was alleviated somewhat by minor cuts in a few departments.

Szot said building inspector Bill Hallock reduced some of his own hours, and recycling center head Chuck Whitcher has offered to drop one employee position. She said her committee hopes to reduce costs further by evaluating all expenditures line by line.

“We are going to go through every line and say, ‘OK, can we cut postage from $750 to $600?’” she said. “It’s going to take a lot of time, but we’re trying to give the town the level of service it needs ... while keeping costs down.”

Committee members said on Nov. 1 they expect to begin a review of the school budget requests soon.