Belknap Budget Follies

Whatever the Belknap County Convention does when it meets tonight the only predictable outcome is that conservative activists Doug Lambert and Tom Tardif will challenge it.

Last week the convention held a public hearing on a request by the county commissioners for a supplemental appropriation to the 2008 budget. However, when the meeting convened the commissioners withdrew their request and instead announced that they would seek to decrease, not increase, the budget.

The budget saga began in December when the commissioners presented a $26.2-million budget to the convention. But, by February the budget had grown to $26.6-million, including a 13-percent increase in the amount to be raised by property taxes. The increase arose from legislation (House Bill 2) that transferred responsibility for long-term care for the needy, which had been shared between the state and the counties, wholly to the counties.

When municipalities protested, the commissioners added $351,000 in revenue from Medicaid reimbursements, Gunstock's income and the accumulated surplus, which reduced the increase in property taxes to 10-percent.

However, Lambert and Tardif successfully challenged the procedure the convention followed in adopting the budget by pointing out that it failed to hold a public hearing and vote the final budget within the timeline prescribed by the state law. As a result, the convention was compelled to accept the commissioner's original budget proposal as the "default budget," which was $448,000 short of required appropriations. To make up the difference, the commissioners prepared a request for a supplemental appropriation.

Meanwhile, the New Hampshire Association of Counties and the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reached a tentative agreement on implementing House Bill 2, which included a hold harmless provision during the transitional period. The result was to reduce the county budget by about $501,000.

Consequently, when the convention met last week, the commissioners shelved the request for a supplemental appropriation and asked to reduce the budget to about $26.1-million. They announced that a revised budget called for a 2008 county property tax levy of $14.08-million, $871,243 or 7-percent more than the 2007 levy.

What the convention will do tonight appears anybody's guess. Laconia City Manager Eileen Cabanel told the City Council last night that she does not know what to expect. She said she was told by a HHS official that the tentative deal with counties had not been signed and he was not sure it ever would be.

Meanwhile, in their latest challenge to the commission and convention, Lambert and Tardif yesterday asked the New Hampshire Attorney General to cancel tonight's meeting. They claim that while the law provides a process fro seeking a supplemental appropriation, there is no corresponding procedure prescribed for reducing the budget. Instead, they insist that the law entitles the convention to authorize the commissioners to transfer funds between accounts within the adopted default budget.