While Peterborough residents amended the wording of two warrant articles at the town’s deliberative session Tuesday night, the $14.79 million operating budget stayed intact without pushback.
The budget carries a $1.1 million increase, and includes the general municipal budget, water and wastewater operations. If all warrant articles pass, the town would need to raise $10.3 million through taxation.
Town Administrator Nicole MacStay explained that the increase to the budget was mainly due to increased energy, debt and particularly personnel costs.
“Our wages simply haven’t kept up,” she said. “We’ve been very conservative in past years – now we need to make a decision.”
MacStay said if they want to maintain the level of service the town currently provides, “keep positions competitive and keep highly trained staff with us,” it requires raising wages.
The proposed budget includes a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) increase of 5 percent that will be applied to every employee’s hourly rate and a merit increase of 3.7 percent that will be assigned after an employee evaluation if they meet or exceed expectations and goals.
MacStay said if all warrant articles pass and if there is no increase to assessed value and no funds are used from the fund balance, the estimated tax rate would be $11.68 per $1,000 assessed valuation, an increase of $2.51 per $1,000.
If there is a 10 percent increase to assessed value and no funds used from the fund balance, the estimated tax rate would be $10.62 per $1,000 assessed valuation, an increase of $1.45 per $1,000. If there is a 10 percent increase to assessed value and $500,000 is used from the fund balance, the tax rate would be $10.10 per $1,000 assessed valuation, an increase of 93 cents per $1,000.
Zoning Board member Loretta Laurenitis put forth an amendment to reword an article proposing to add 19 properties to the South Peterborough Tax Increment Finance (TIF) district. After some reworking and discussion, her amendment passed and the amended article will be on the ballot.
Laurenitis said she thought the original article was misleading to voters because it separated out one property from a list of 18 others that were being added to the TIF district. The article asked that the 19th property would be moved from the Greater Downtown TIF district to the South Peterborough TIF district, but Laurenitis said only about 10 acres of the 111.7-acre property is currently part of the Greater Downtown TIF district, and the remaining land is not currently part of a TIF district.
Laurenitis proposed to move the property into the list with the 18 other properties and clarify that just a portion would be moving from one TIF district to another and the rest would be added. A TIF district captures taxes from the incremental value of properties within the district and uses them to fund projects there.
An amendment also passed on an article asking voters to establish a Bridges, Culverts and Dams Expendable Trust Fund and appropriate $237,830 in proceeds from the unanticipated bridge aid into the fund. Under the amended article, money from the fund could be used to construct bridges, culverts and dams as well as repair, replace and maintain existing ones. The original wording would have only allowed funds to be used toward existing infrastructure.
“I just think we don’t know what the future holds,” said resident Sally Eneguess, who proposed the amendment. “I want to allow us to do things in the future to divert water.”
Assistant Town Administrator and and Department of Public Works Director Seth MacLean explained that it’s challenging to know what roadwork the town will need and said, “I support any flexibility with warrant articles such as the one proposed here.”
An article proposing to raise and appropriate $400,000 to the Roadway System Upgrades and Capital Reserve Fund was moved to the ballot untouched. MacLean said this is the sixth year of a 10-year plan to rehabilitate town roads.
“We have invested nearly $2 million so far,” he said.
The plan focuses on funding degraded roads using a rating system from 0 to 100. In 2017-2018, the road surface rating was 70.45, and the 2022-2023 rating has increased to 80.18. MacLean said the goal is to “completely rehabilitate the Peterborough roadway network,” and in the upcoming year, the downtown area is the priority.
On the ballot, voters will be asked to raise and appropriate a total of $764,700 for seven previously established capital reserve and expendable trust funds.
“What we’re doing is putting aside money to pay for expenses,” said Selectman Bill Kennedy. “We don’t want to take out loans and this is going to address that.”
Resident Shelley Goguen Hulbert asked if the same amount of money would be requested in the coming years. MacStay said it would stay relatively level.
Resident Carol Krause asked, “I wanted to know if there’s thought given to investing in a socially responsible way?” MacStay said the town takes into consideration the environment and social impact the Trustees of the Trust Funds consider when making investing decisions.
The ballot session of Town Meeting, including the election of town officials and six proposed zoning amendments, is on May 9 at the Peterborough Community Center. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. The open ses sion of Town Meeting is on May 10 at 7 p.m. in the Upper Hall of the Town House. If the budget does not pass at the ballot session, it will be discussed at the Open Session.
Three petition warrant articles will be discussed at open session: building an ADA-accessible pedestrian path from the Evans Road loop to Shaw’s, allowing the Select Board to only appoint residents below the age of 65 to any vacant town seats, positions or roles and not allowing town-related meetings to occur between 5 and 8 p.m. None of these articles are recommended by the Select Board.