The city of Nashua is coping with an unexpected shortfall of millions of dollars in its proposed budget for next year.
Earlier this week Nashua mayor Bernie Streeter offered the Board of Aldermen a handful of recommendations for closing the budget gap.
But some aldermen say the mayor's ideas don't go far enough.
NHPR correspondent Avishay Artsy reports from Nashua.
The mayor's office has announced that the city's budget is nine and a half million dollars short.
City administrators are predicting that property tax rates may go up by at least ten percent.
That's double the amount Streeter forecasted in his original budget, released in February.
City officials say the change is due to higher-than-expected health care costs and un-anticipated cuts in state education funding.
At a meeting Tuesday evening, Administrative Services Director Maureen Lemieux offered the board a slate of cost-cutting measures.
T40, 7:30 We clearly, as a city, probably need to look at all of the things that we do.
Among the mayor's proposals is an across-the-board cut of one percent for all city divisions.
Mayor Streeter also hopes to revive a plan to import garbage to the Four Hills Landfill.
That could raise 1.7 million dollars.
Aldermen trashed that plan last month.
Other projects on the chopping block include a new fire station and new sidewalks.
The mayor has also suggested canceling raises and increasing health care premiums for city employees.
However, the mayor did not suggest firings.
Alderman-At-Large Paula Johnson criticized him for that.
She says the budget crisis is due to a bloated city workforce.
T40, 10:21 I've been on this board four years, and every year I've been told there was a hiring freeze, except for critical, crucial positions. And every year we keep hiring more and more people.
Mayor Streeter defended his position.
T40, 12:02 I feel, and many of the division heads feel, that we're offering the services that the people of our city expect, particularly police, fire and education. And I'm not gonna advocate, Alderman Johnson, lopping off jobs just for the sake of lopping off jobs.
T2, 11:30 We have a problem with the budget, to put it in perspective, that's on an order of magnitude of 10 million dollars, and we?re gonna need to deal with that problem.
That's Board President Brian McCarthy.
He asked the Aldermen to be cautious when deciding where to make cuts.
Cuts in services, he argued, could hurt property values.
T2, 11:40 if we deal with it in a way that causes the average assessment in the city of Nashua to drop by 50,000 dollars due to the unattractiveness of the community, instead of taking 10 million dollars away from our citizens, we have taken one billion dollars in the total assessed valuation of the community. And that is, in fact, real value and real wealth in the pockets of our citizens.
So far the mayor's office has recommended cutting only six and a half million dollars.
The remaining three million dollar deficit could be made up with a 6.6 percent hike in the property tax rate.
But some aldermen are feeling like they are being asked to solve the problem themselves.
Alderman-at-Large Johnson:
T40, 11:20 I'm not happy with this, and I think the mayor and his administrative staff need to come back again and give us a complete breakdown of where he thinks he should reduce it, because I didn't make this mess and we're still in a hole at this point in time, and this is outrageous.
The aldermanic budget review committee meets this evening to hammer out the details for a revised budget.
Some predict the issue won't be solved for weeks.
For NHPR News, this is Avishay Artsy in Nashua.
