{"id":10554,"date":"2024-02-02T07:56:54","date_gmt":"2024-02-02T07:56:54","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","slug":"Epsom-homeowners-facing-spike-in-taxes-53904235\/","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/?p=10554","title":{"rendered":"Epsom budget hike driven by special education costs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"The<\/a>
The Town Hall in Epsom is being renovated to house official business next to the town library and meeting hall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Rising special education and transportation costs in Epsom \u2013 two things school officials have little control over \u2013 have led to a proposed budget that carries a significant tax increase.<\/p>\n

If the $14.2 million Epsom school budget is passed, it would increase taxes by $675 a year on a $300,000 home. The default budget is slightly higher and would mean an even larger tax increase.<\/p>\n

Those numbers may come as a shock to some residents, but few people have attended any of the budget committee meetings leading up to Saturday\u2019s deliberative session, said Selectwoman Virginia Drew.<\/p>\n

\u201cI recognize people can\u2019t afford their taxes to go up that much, but that\u2019s how the funding system works in New Hampshire,\u201d Drew said.<\/p>\n

Nearly 70% of all taxes paid in Epsom go toward schools<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If all spending measures are approved this year on both the town and school side, taxes would rise by $930 a year on a house worth $300,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an investment in your future, on the other hand, you\u2019re looking at a $900 tax increase,\u201d Drew said.<\/p>\n

Drew praised the work of the budget committee, who worked to pare back spending as best they could.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople go through every single line to pay for things that are needed, but also keep it affordable for residents,\u201d Drew said.<\/p>\n

The school budget would increase by $762,404 over the current spending plan. Nearly all of that comes from two increases \u2013 $500,000 in student transportation and $371,000 in special programs. Cuts were made in areas to offset increases.<\/p>\n

In addition to the school budget, a proposed three-year contract for teachers increases spending by about $100,000 in its first year, $166,000 in its second and $118,000 in its third.<\/p>\n

The town\u2019s $4 million budget, which is up slightly from last year, would increase taxes by about $70 a year for an average home. Money to go toward road construction would add a similar amount.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they really, really don\u2019t like it, they can amend it,\u201d Drew said.<\/p>\n

In addition to cost items this year, residents will face 10 petitioned warrant articles that seek to eliminate or restrict firearm sales in residential areas. <\/p>\n

Epsom residents will consider town and school spending, along with other proposals Saturday morning at 9 a.m. at the Epsom Central School.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rising special education and transportation costs in Epsom \u2013 two things school officials have little control over \u2013 have led to a proposed budget that carries a significant tax increase.If the $14.2 million Epsom school budget is passed, it would…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":311,"featured_media":10555,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","_newspack_byline_active":true,"_newspack_byline":"by [Author id=311]Jonathan Van Fleet[\/Author] Monitor staff","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"newspack_content_restriction_is_exempt":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[508,12],"tags":[24,505,326],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[649],"class_list":["post-10554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-headlines-cm","category-town-city-government","tag-facebook","tag-paywall","tag-town-meeting-2024","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/42827292-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/311"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10554"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10556,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10554\/revisions\/10556"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10554"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fnewspack_spnsrs_tax&post=10554"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=10554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}