Jeanie Forrester: Tax rate drops, Meredith voters deny Keno at Town Meeting

While less than 300 residents attended Meredith’s Town Meeting on March 11, the meeting lasted almost five hours. The selectboard appreciated the legislative body’s participation in bringing forward a $23M budget that most could support.

The meeting began with the selectboard recognizing our Town Moderator Steve Nedeau for his 15 years of service. Chair Mike Pelczar shared with residents Steve’s history of community service, including serving in our state Legislature as a state representative and sergeant-at-arms, as a Belknap County commissioner, a selectboard member and serving on our Planning Board. Steve was also a police officer in Meredith. Steve was presented with a plaque signifying his leadership in the moderator role for so many years. His has been a life dedicated to community service and we are all better for it.

The most discussed warrant article was the municipal operating budget proposed at $22 million which, along with the Capital Improvement Projects expense of $1.4 million, resulted in a total municipal budget of $23.4 million, and a 20.9% increase in the municipal tax rate. The selectboard proposed a plan to reduce the increase to approximately 13% by funding the Expendable Trust Funds with $960,000 of one-time revenue and unexpended funds. However, residents brought forward an alternative solution. That solution was to take $1M from the unassigned fund balance (currently at $7M+) and apply it to the proposed operating budget. That alternative passed and the estimated tax rate was reduced from $4.16 to $3.90 (an increase of 13.4% compared to 20.9%).

All the other warrant articles passed except for Article 17 which proposed using the $960,000 (mentioned above) to fund the Community Infrastructure Expendable Trust Fund. No funds were allocated to this ETF.

Other warrant articles of particular interest that passed included Article 18, the Veteran Tax Credit Adjustment (increasing the current property tax credit amount from $4,000 to $4,500); and Article 20, opting out of Keno. While good arguments were made on both sides, the legislative body ultimately decided that Keno would not be allowed in Meredith.

The three petitioned warrant articles also passed, including the article on changing Meredith from a town manager form of government to a town administrator. Since this article was advisory only, no changes will be made this year. However, with a vote of 81 for and 55 against, the selectboard will discuss this at a future meeting.

Many thanks to our town clerk and all the volunteers who helped make the election and Town Meeting process go smoothly ... these events take significant planning and coordination. We are fortunate to have such a dedicated team. Thanks also to the fire department for arranging to have the color guard at this year’s meeting which added a nice touch.

The next meeting of the selectboard will be at 4:30 p.m. Monday, March 30, at the Community Center.

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Jeanie Forrester serves on the Meredith Selectboard.