North Haverhill
Democrats led the 13-11 vote, which increases spending by about $2 million, or 5 percent, over the current year’s budget.
The amount to be raised through property taxes is expected to increase by about $1 million to a total of $25 million, according to County Administrator Julie Libby.
It’s not yet known how the budget will impact tax rates in Grafton County, Libby said. The state Department of Revenue Administration will set those based on town or citywide valuations in September, she said.
County taxes often are the smallest portion of Granite Staters’ annual property taxes, however.
“The final vote was not a surprise. There were some challenges that we were facing that we found some agreement on and took votes accordingly,” said state Rep. George Sykes, D-Lebanon, the chairman of the delegation.
Sykes said budgeting this year was difficult as the county was hit with several increases in fixed costs and infrastructure repairs.
County officials predict health insurance costs and payments to the New Hampshire Retirement System will increase to the coming year, amounting to about about $473,000 in additional payments.
The county complex also is in need of a new sewer line costing $105,000 next year, and staffing shortages at the nursing home also will amount to an increase of $400,000.
Sykes said he was satisfied with the approved budget, saying it keeps county operations intact while continuing to offer needed social services.
“Not everybody was happy,” he said. “Not everyone was upset either.”
However, Republicans saw the budget as too much of an increase for the county’s taxpayers to shoulder.
“We as a caucus would have preferred to see (the budget increase) somewhere along the lines of inflation,” said state Rep. Stephen Darrow, R-Grafton, the delegation’s vice chairman.
GOP legislators made several attempts to cut from the budget on Monday, he said, offering proposals to reduce funds from the social service and County Attorney’s Office. Those efforts were unsuccessful largely because members of the delegation failed to explain exactly where the cuts were needed inside those departments, Darrow said.
“There’s just a difference in philosophy. The Republicans really wanted to hold the line,” he said.
The delegation did work across bipartisan lines to reduce $93,000 from the County Commission’s proposed budget. The money was to go toward repaving the county courthouse parking lot.
Democrats also worked to add an assistant county attorney position to the budget to help staff an increased workload at the County Attorney’s Office.
“With the financial challenges we faced this year, I think this is a very conservative budget,” said Commission Chairwoman Linda Lauer, D-Bath.
Lauer said she didn’t want to see taxes increase as a result of the budget, but doesn’t believe further cuts would have allowed every department to fulfill its obligations.
She was pleased to see the delegation reduce the amount to be raised by taxes from an earlier proposal, a feat that was made possible by updated revenue estimates.
“That’s what we all would like to do,” she said. “(The delegation) had the advantage of about six extra weeks.”
Legislators from both sides of the aisle said they will be watching how the budget is spent moving forward, including operations at the county’s dairy farm.
The delegation agreed to form a subcommittee to study in the coming year how operations there can be made profitable, Darrow said.
Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.