The Public Safety Building passed at town meeting by a vote of 428-108. This was the culmination of years of discussion that began when the price three years ago was at $7,700,000.
The expanded solar exemption on properties was also adopted at town meeting to increase the tax break from half of the cost of installation of solar to all of the cost being given a property tax break.
The renumbering and renaming ordinance was amended by a vote of 80-79 and the town budget as approved is $40,000 less than the tax levy for the municipal budget four years ago in 2012.
At least $300,000 was saved by having the selectmen and budget committee support switching our dispatch center over to the Merrimack County Dispatch Center. The municipal budget went from $7,275,739 down to $7,084,139 – roughly a $200,000 reduction over last year’s budget. The school budget also declined from last year’s $17,887,682 to $17,523,664.
Thus while budgets historically had increased to 2014 the impact of new selectmen and budget committee members had its ripple effect in reductions from the height of spending in 2014 to several hundred thousand dollars less in spending in 2016. The tax rate last year was $28.54 per thousand and is now estimated to be down to $28.10 for this year.