{"id":10705,"date":"2024-02-08T17:15:30","date_gmt":"2024-02-08T17:15:30","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","slug":"Loudon-budget-public-hearing-53943134\/","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/?p=10705","title":{"rendered":"Loudon residents ask select board to better explain warrants"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Jeff
Jeff Miller, center, a select board member in Loudon, explains the 12% budget increase to residents at a public hearing Wednesday night.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Tom
Tom Blanchette, the Loudon fire chief, explains computer system upgrades for the department at the budget public hearing<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>

When Alicha Kingsbury thinks of town meeting, truly understanding where tax dollars are going and what a warrant article means comes from years of attending monotonous meetings and talking to town officials. For most people in Loudon, that\u2019s out of the question, she said.<\/p>\n

So to Kingsbury, it should be the role of the select board to help translate these decisions and spell it out for taxpayers as clearly as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to understand that we have a lot of blue-collar workers that don\u2019t look at this day in and day out,\u201d she said. \u201cI think that it would behoove everyone to just try to break it down for people.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year, the select board is recommending a budget of $6.45 million, which is a 12% increase.<\/p>\n

In the nine-page budget, 200 line items are staying level, said Roger Maxfield, the chair of the select board. But wages and salaries have increased throughout.<\/p>\n

A 16% hike in employee benefits is the result of increases to the New Hampshire retirement system and the town\u2019s share of Medicare.<\/p>\n

This year, the town lost seven employees, according to Maxfield. And that\u2019s on top of eight employees that left the year prior. So that means this year, wage increases are included in most departments \u2013 like a 6% increase to police salaries and a 23% increase to the fire department \u2013 to ensure that no further talent is lost, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really tried to get our wages up some to be competitive,\u201d said Maxfield. \u201cWe have some good people and for retention purposes, we have to pay them.\u201d<\/p>\n

When looking at the warrant articles, though, there are no big ticket items, he said. Instead, the articles consist of new purchases like a police cruiser, excavator, trailer and road tractor, and whether the town should reclaim and pave Lesmerises Road.<\/p>\n

The wording of these articles indicates there\u2019s no tax impact on these votes. That\u2019s because the town has saved money for these purchases.<\/p>\n

But inevitably, taxpayers are then asked if the town should replenish these funds \u2013 of which there is an increase to their annual taxes to do so.<\/p>\n

With that, Kingsbury suggested the select board reorder the warrant articles so that residents understand that there will be a financial impact on decisions, even if the article indicates it\u2019s tax-free.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people don\u2019t understand how the meetings are run, they aren\u2019t necessarily educated in the process,\u201d she said. \u201cIf it was held in a different manner, I think people might make a different decision that\u2019s a little more educated and something that they can sleep well knowing, that they feel a little better about.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Alicha Kingsbury thinks of town meeting, truly understanding where tax dollars are going and what a warrant article means comes from years of attending monotonous meetings and talking to town officials. For most people in Loudon, that\u2019s out of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":10706,"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=427]Michaela Towfighi[\/Author] Monitor staff","newspack_content_restriction_is_exempt":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[508,12],"tags":[24,217,505,325],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[509],"class_list":["post-10705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-headlines-cm","category-town-city-government","tag-facebook","tag-loudon-nh","tag-paywall","tag-town-meeting","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/42882373-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10705","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\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10705"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10707,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10705\/revisions\/10707"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10705"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fnewspack_spnsrs_tax&post=10705"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=10705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}