PORTSMOUTH — In a 5-1 vote, the Town Council Monday night approved a $58.2 million budget for fiscal year 2016 that calls for no tax increase.
While the budget accounts for a hike in the tax levy of about 1 percent, Council President Keith Hamilton said the current tax rate of $15.80 per $1,000 of assessed valuation will remain the same.
The spending plan includes $30.85 million for the school district, the same amount as in the current budget.
Council member Elizabeth Pedro cast the sole vote against the budget, citing philosophical differences with the School Department’s budget. (Council member Michael Buddemeyer was absent from Monday’s meeting.)
“I think it’s a good budget, but I just can’t bring myself to borrow for the School Department when they have millions of dollars in surplus,” said Ms. Pedro.
The council breezed through the budget, with little public comment, at a sparsely attended public meeting on June 10. The only extended remarks about the budget that night came from Alan Corcoran, chairman of the town’s Solid Waste/Recycling Committee, regarding that transfer station enterprise fund.
Among Mr. Corcoran’s concerns was the fact that residents who pay to use the transfer station are subsidizing Hog Island residents who use a private company to haul their garbage off the island. He suggested the town give a credit to Hog Island residents for removing trash, but that it should not come from the enterprise fund.
Before the budget was adopted Monday night, council member David Gleason suggested a solution: that $5,500 be shifted from the over-budgeted finance department insurance fund to the transfer station enterprise fund to cover trash removal on Hog Island. That move was approved in a 6-0 vote.
Fee hikes proposed
In other business, Acting Town Administrator James Lathrop, who’s also the town’s director of finance and personnel, recommended several fee increases based on proposals from the town’s New Revenue Group and input from town departments.
The proposals involve a change to the town ordinance, so the council voted 6-0 to consider the recommendations at a later meeting.
Mr. Lathrop said the first group of fees — for repeat violations of rules involving animal control — “aren’t so much about the revenue but the enforcement.” He said the town needs more teeth in its ordinance that prevents people from feeding non-domestic animals in order to cut down on Portsmouth’s coyote problem.
Currently, the fine is $50, but Mr. Lathrop proposed an escalating fee — $100 for the second offense and $150 for a third offense. A fourth offense will earn a resident a summons to the town’s Municipal Court.
People charged with allowing their dog to run at large would face an identical escalating fine — starting at $50 — under Mr. Lathrop’s recommendation. For those with a barking dog or one that’s causing a nuisance, the fine would be $25 for a first offense, $50 for the second.
Mr. Lathrop is also recommending a $10 fee for residents to secure a seven-day burn permit. (There’s no charge currently for the permit.)
He also proposed an increase in the fire alarm radio fee from $100 to $200 annually. The last increase was in 1999, he said.
“This will generate $14,000 a year in extra revenue which will help support the fire marshal position. It’s still equal to or lower to other communities,” said Mr. Lathrop.