County tax skyrockets

Spending up 4.7% but taxes up 33.6% in Belknap budget

By ROGER AMSDEN, LACONIA DAILY SUN

LACONIA — Spending will rise by 4.7 percent but the amount to be raised by taxes will increase by 33.6 percent in the Belknap County budget, which was set Tuesday afternoon by Belknap County Commissioners. That would mean about a $74 increase in next year's tax bill for a person owning a home assessed at $200,000, according to County Administrator Deb Shackett.

Copies of the proposed $29,055,233 budget will be sent to members of the Belknap County Delegation, which has already scheduled a public hearing on the budget for Friday, Dec. 8, at 6 p.m. The delegation will have the final say on how much will be spent.

The budget shows a $1.3 million increase over this year’s $27,743,463 budget. The amount to be raised by taxes jumps by over $4.3 million, from $12,963,440 to $17,329,033, a 33.68 percent increase.

Commissioners decided against using any money from the depleted county fund balance, which is projected to amount to only $770,000 at the close of the current fiscal year. The delegation approved using $2.2 million from the fund balance to reduce taxes this year.

The fund balance is made up of county revenue which exceeds the amount budgeted and operational savings from spending less than the anticipated amount in the various county departments.

The fund balance, which stood at $6.991 million in 2006 and peaked at $8.234 million in 2011, has been dropping ever since. As of Jan. 1, 2017, it was $3.17 million and had been projected earlier this year to drop to $984,826 by the end of the year.

Commission Chairman Dave DeVoy (R-Sanbornton) said that commissioners have done everything they can to hold the line on tax increases but the fund balance has shrunk to the point that it won’t be able to shield residents from either a jump in property tax rates or a reduction of services.

He said that the fund balance has been used for years by the county delegation to create an artificially low tax rate but those days are now over. Two years ago, when the county delegation increased the amount to be used from the fund balance from $1,775,000 to $2,380,000 in order to reduce county taxes, DeVoy criticized the move as unsustainable and said it was a political gimmick.

He said yesterday it was poor budget management on the part of the delegation that helped create the current bleak fiscal situation for the county. “It is a gimmick that has come home to roost.”

Commissioner Glen Waring (R-Gilmanton) said that the commissioners have worked to come up with a realistic budget based on the county’s real needs, not something “someone pulls out of the sky while sitting at their kitchen table.”

He said that if the delegation repeats its budget cuts made last year it will “decimate the county.”

Commissioner Hunter Taylor (R-Alton) said that county lawmakers who say they will never raise taxes under any circumstances are not working toward responsible government. He said Belknap County has been very frugal and is the only county in the state with a budget of less than $30 million.

The top chart shows spending levels over the last three years, while the bottom shows the total amount to be collected by taxes. (Sun graphic)