Hopkinton News : tax rate

Residents vote to save recreation department

Bow Editor — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 17:57:00 GMT

BY RYAN O’CONNOR

Voters chose not to cut the Hopkinton Recreation Department in the name of savings at Town Meeting. This comes despite the fact that residents spoke loud and clear on Election Day, when they voted selectmen Chairman Louise Carr out and brought in two members who have been outspoken against increased taxes.

At Town Meeting, on Wednesday, March 14, a ballot vote revealed residents still support their recreation department, opposing the petition by a vote of 394-228.

“I don’t think we should even consider getting rid of the recreation department,” said resident Jane Schoch.

“They do an awful lot for our youth and have a lot of activities for older adults. We need to support some of the fantastic things this department does for our town.”

Recreation Director Robert Mattes said his department has 620 registered participants, which doesn’t include those who don’t sign up, but go to the haunted house, Easter egg hunt, breakfast with Santa, and other activities.

But Joanie McIntire, who barely lost her bid for selectman, said she signed the petition to eliminate the recreation department.

“I think we need to have a serious discussion about needs and wants, and unfortunately, I think the recreation department is a want,” said McIntire.

She suggested a more selfsustaining program, paid for by activity fees rather than tax dollars.

Resident Romeo Dubreuil put forth the petitioned warrant article.

“Cutting the tax burden may not be easy, but it must be realized,” said Dubreuil.

“We need our schools, our public safety department, and our public safety, but we do not need a recreation department.”

Vernon Miller, however, said he is a volunteer for the recreation department and fully supports keeping it around, despite the many hours required of him and other volunteers.

“We bust our butts to make Hopkinton a more interesting place to live,” said Miller. “Is (the recreation department) a luxury? Yes. No one is debating that. But is this something that makes a lot of our lives nicer, and is it something we should keep? Absolutely.”

Carr explained the recreation department budget involves much more than just programs, including lifeguards for Kimball Pond, maintenance of several restrooms around town, lighting of ballfields and background checks on those who are hired and volunteer to work with town children.

Though residents voted to keep the recreation department, the matter of its operating budget still remained.

David Lancaster, budget committee member and founder of the Hopkinton/Contoocook Taxpayers Association, proposed cutting $20,360 from the recreation department’s budget.

But budget committee Chairman Karen Irwin said selectmen already cut out a summer day camp and part-time program coordinator.

Voters rejected the motion.

Another motion to cut the recreation department’s budget in half was also rejected.

After more debate, the full recreation department budget of $126,764 was approved.

Columbia Hall
Another petitioned article, dealing largely with the recreation department, requested the town close Columbia Hall, out of which the recreation department currently runs, within six months of the Slusser Senior Center opening.

The article was advisory in nature only.

John Carey, who submitted the article, said he supports the operating costs of the senior center, only if Columbia Hall is closed and all operating expenses for the recreation department are moved to the senior center.

“It is advisory in nature and meant to send a clear message to selectmen,” he said.

Carey first proposed an amendment to the article to add what he termed to be the original language, which he said was cut by selectmen.

The amendment was approved.

Residents then debated continuing to maintain Columbia Hall as opposed to holding onto it for its historic nature.

Dan Dustin wanted residents to think about what they were voting on before making a decision.

“My great-great-great-uncle Gilbert Dustin, was mustered into the Union Army during the Civil War in Columbia Hall, my father graduated from high school in Columbia Hall, and my wife sang on rollerskates in Columbia Hall,” said Dustin. “This is a historic building, and we need to know that before we dump it.”

Dustin and the majority of other residents got their way and the article failed.

7 percent increase in Hopkinton town budget

Bow Editor — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 17:47:00 GMT

BY RYAN O’CONNOR

Similar to the Hopkinton School District, the town has been asked by the budget committee to set a budget with a 3.8 percent increase or less.

Though the selectmen’s 7.28 percent proposed budget increase is more than requested, Town Administrator Ed Wojnowski said the tax rate should go down 1 cent from $4.33 per $1,000 assessed property value to $4.32.

The bottom-line increase over last year’s budget is $372,390.

“After the board received requests from each of the department heads and decided on things we want to accomplish, we decided to work as hard as possible to maintain a tax base of $4.33, which it currently is in 2006, and therefore built the budget around maintaining it at that level,” said Wojnowski.

Selectmen recently adopted a fiscal policy that adds more scrutiny toward revenue, programs offered and maintaining a level tax rate.

“The goal of the board, when it set out, was to continue moving the town forward with various activities and programs, but at the same time we wanted to minimize the (tax) impact on community,” said Wojnowski. “Our goal is to maintain the town portion at exactly what it was last year.”

The budget is broken down by town department into 14 separate warrant articles and will total $5,491,108, up from $5,118,718 last year. This year, selectmen asked each department to look at current needs, while maintaining long-term well-being, such as future development of a community center and the need for new police cruisers.

“There is nothing extravagant,” said Wojnowski. “We just wanted a lean budget for residents that also covered our basic needs as a town.”

The town, using tax rate tables to determine areas where it can maximize revenue, is anticipating more than $2 million in additional money, which will be used to reduce amount raised through taxes to $3,360,206, Wojnowski said.

The town is basing its numbers off the current tax rate and a projection of $15 million in anticipated new construction over the fiscal year using building permit applications that have already been submitted and assessed.

Though the numbers are inconclusive because abatement requests are still being considered and veteran exemptions are being granted for the upcoming fiscal year, the projected assessed value for all town property is $777,137,052.

Selectmen are taking $1 million from that amount in anticipation of further abatements. Wojnowski, however, said selectmen are being cautious by assuming $1 million and the reduction in town property value will probably be lower by Town Meeting. Moreover, the town anticipates using $200,000 from surplus funds to reduce the tax rate.

Though the state Department of Revenue Administration recommends 5 percent of surplus be retained by the town in case of emergency, selectmen voted 4-1 to retain all of this year’s $1.4 million balance, even though 5 percent was about $938,000.

“That didn’t leave a lot of money to be used to reduce the taxes, and the board voted to withhold use of any revenue to reduce taxes in 2006, but they anticipate we will have about $200,000 over the 5 percent retainage that we can use to offset and reduce taxes in 2007,” said Wojnowski.

But budget committee member David Lancaster, who also co-founded the Hopkinton-Contoocook Taxpayers Association, said he thinks the town should have used the additional funds in 2006 because of the widespread tax increases around town.

“My concern is they are taking money they wouldn’t give back to the taxpayers last year and are using it this year. I would have preferred that they had given it back to us last year,” said Lancaster. “My concept is that that’s my money and the taxpayers money, and we should have a say in when and how we get it back.”

In fact, the association has submitted a petitioned warrant article asking the town to stick to maintaining its 5 percent of surplus funds and applying the rest against the tax rate each year.

“Yeah, you need some reserve funds in case of emergency, but 5 percent of roughly $20 million total budgets between the town and school is about $1 million, which should be plenty for emergency, so were actually going to have a warrant article because believe that should be our money.”

So what will selectmen say to the budget committee when the two boards meet Jan. 17?

“What we will say to them is, ‘While the budget is up 7.28 percent, the warrant articles are down, which ends up being a .7 percent total increase,’” said Wojnowski.

Lancaster said selectmen need to take another look at their numbers.

“My take is I don’t think the selectmen quite got the concept. The concept was a 3.8 target,” said Lancaster. “It’s not a hard cap, but obviously we wanted the town and school board each to come in at 3.8 (percent) spending and we wanted to maximize revenues.”

This year, selectmen and the planning board, which served as capital improvement committee, decided to stick with capital improvement and expendable trust fund articles only and shy away from additional bond and land purchase requests, such as the $58,000 land purchase article on last year’s warrant.

The result is a 3 percent, or $66,400, decrease in requested warrant article money. Last year, the town requested $496,000; this year it is asking for $429,600. Should all warrant articles be approved, the total operating budget for the upcoming fiscal year will be $5,964,718, a 1 percent decrease from last year.

“If we accomplish this we should be able to move the town forward in the direction we hope, while minimizing tax impact,” said Wojnowski.

The budget committee, school board and selectmen will host a public hearing on all budgets on Wednesday, Jan. 24, at 6:30 p.m., at Hopkinton High School.

Lancaster said he encourages residents to visit www. Hopkintontaxpayers.com, for more information on this year’s budgets.