Winchester officials at odds over spending

By Garrett Brnger Sentinel Staff

WINCHESTER — State-mandated cuts to the town’s 2012 spending has selectmen blaming the budget committee and taking legal action. The N.H. Department of Revenue Administration this month invalidated $418,956 of the spending voters approved at March’s town meeting in the wake of a disagreement between the two town boards over water and sewer funding.

That funding was initially not recommended by the budget committee.
But the state agency says when the money ended up getting approved by voters in March, it exceeded the state-allowed spending limit for official-ballot towns — 10 percent over the budget committee’s original recommendation.
Though the budget committee changed its recommendation to include the $537,802 funding by Election Day, the state holds to an original recommendation when determining spending limits.

Selectmen have now petitioned Cheshire County Superior Court to permit the spending, saying the budget committee failed to provide appropriate funding for water and sewer operations.

If the spending does get cut, that means more than $170,000 would be chopped from the town’s operating budget, along with money for the ELMM Community Center, Conant Library, road and bridge construction and a number of other items.
The state agency informed the town in a letter dated May 1 that voters appropriated nearly $419,000 more than state law allowed based on the budget committee’s original $3.1 million spending recommendation.

Then-Chairman Brian D. Moser said Thursday the committee chose to leave out the water and sewer operations, which are funded by user fees, as a form of protest against them being listed as separate warrant articles instead of within the operating budget.
Moser said the committee had requested the departments put some of their user fees in an emergency fund. When they said no, the committee cut their budgets, Moser said.
Moser said this prompted selectmen to pull out the funding as separate articles on the warrant where the budget committee would have less control. Selectmen also recommended a combined $47,822 more than the committee had allotted for the departments.
Town Administrator Joan Morel, however, said selectmen separated the departments’ funding from the operating budget because they are self-sufficient departments and do not need to draw on general-fund money.
After the deliberative session in February, Moser said, committee members were worried about talk that they had done something illegal and voted to change their recommendation.
By then it was too late, as the Department of Revenue Administration used the original recommendation to calculate the town’s appropriation limit.

Because the town protested to the state agency that the water and sewer systems are vital, they are not being cut to get down to the 10 percent limit. However, every other warrant article involving money is being cut.

Items cut by the state include:

• $173,505 from the town’s operating budget.
• $56,000 for the police youth aid officer.
• $50,000 to create a Conant Library repair and maintenance fund.
• $28,450 for property assessment.
• $20,000 for road and bridge reconstruction.
• $5,000 for emergency services and relief.
• $4,000 for the annual Pickle Festival.
• $3,000 to treat exotic, invasive plants in Forest Lake.
• $1,000 for future town computer upgrades.
• $28,000 for the Evergreen Cemetery care fund.
• $50,000 to the ELMM Community Center.

The selectmen’s court petition argues the budget committee did not originally set an amount for the water and sewer departments it “honestly believes is appropriate,” as it’s required to do by law.
Therefore, selectmen say, the the spending limit should be raised to $4 million — which would allow for what voters approved in March.
Selectman and attorney Barton L. Mayer could not be reached for comment.
The budget committee must file a written appearance to the court by June 5.