Finances continue to be in excellent shape. We ended the year with a
small surplus and the overall tax rate was reasonable. We still remain
one of the lowest tax rates in the State. However, the economic climate
for the future isn’t quite as rosy. Most of the challenges in the future will
be from other agencies. recently, the Grafton County Commissioners
and the Grafton County Delegates (consisting of House of representative
members from Grafton County) voted to construct a new $40 million
dollar jail. over the next five years that means a 25% to 40% increase in
the Grafton County tax rate to towns in Grafton County. While there is
merit that the jail is in dire need of replacement, Boards of Selectmen
for towns in Grafton County met with Grafton County and lobbied the
representatives to delay the bond issue for two years until we could see
where the economy was headed. the reply from the Grafton County Commissioners
was that “there is never a good time to do these things….”
likewise, other agencies outside the town have a similar attitude. With
the rising oil prices it makes no sense to continue business as usual.
We have prepared a stable budget. there is no increase from last year’s budget to this year. We have delayed some capital items until we can see where the economy takes us. the town tax base expansion (new decks, garages, new housing, etc.) is a general source of revenue increase for most cities and towns. the housing market is effectively flat. any increase in expenses will reflect an increase on the tax rate because of no additional growth in revenue. We find it annoying, that other agencies’ capital projects can’t be planned with enough flexibility to recognize the overall economic climate. High energy prices and a difficult housing market present the perfect storm of economic havoc. We have asked all our departments to delay and/or offset discretionary spending until times change.
Assessing: “I recently had my house appraised by the bank and it is substantially below the town’s assessed value. Why?” one of the oddities concerning assessing the value of housing is that it depends on current market values as reflected in the towns in which comparable sales occur. new Hampshire housing sale prices (according to the Department of revenue administration) only show about a 1% decline in the overall market value in the state. this is due to the fact that most new Hampshire banks were not involved in sub-prime lending. Sales of house prices in Bridgewater reflect little or no change in overall market value. Bank appraisals are generally designed to minimize the risk of a loan failure and therefore they take the lowest values. Generally, the values used by banks and others for loan analysis come from a wide area. For example, you may have housing in Meredith or Center Harbor compared to Bridgewater. that is not the methodology for purposes of property taxes. the comparable sales should originate in Bridgewater. our assessments are reviewed by the Department of revenue administration and they indicate our sales are 95%-98% of market value. We are required to keep the values between 90% and 110% of market value. thus far, we are in that range. the number of sales of existing homes has dramatically dropped in the last 18 months while prices remain stable. (thus far)
Town Roads: the winter of 2007-2008 has been impressive. the lack of snow in prior winters was amply made up for this winter. our road crew, Buck Cate, Bill Bucklin and Mark Jenness, have done an outstanding job keeping the roads open and well maintained. Given the amount of snow, it should prove to be an interesting spring. Can you spell MuD! If you see any of our road crew (those are the guys with the bloodshot eyes from lack of sleep) give them a pat on the back for their hard work.
System upgrades: Since 2002, we have had to upgrade a number of systems in the Selectmen’s office. assessing has become a lot more sophisticated because of rule changes enacted by the State of new Hampshire. We now have a very comprehensive program to manage that area. this took us almost four years to accomplish. (one selectman served a two year term on the assessing standards board to become familiar with the evolving rules. likewise, a number of financial reporting changes have occurred due to the enron scandal early in 2000. We started in 2006 to meet the new requirements. Bridgewater is now “GaSB compliant” and we are working on completing a new computerized accounting system for the town, refuse district and the village district. the net effect has been a decrease in response to certain administrative requests. If we subcontracted the assessing and upgrades in accounting, the cost would have been in excess of $100,000 and more expensive to maintain. We chose to upgrade those systems in house and spent only a small fraction of that amount (about $10,000). the choice is “fast and expensive” or “slow and inexpensive”. We chose the latter. We have about another year to complete this task. We will keep you informed on our status.
Public Safety: In 2000, we spent about $60,000 per year on public safety. presently, we spend close to $300,000 on fire, eMS and police. We have upgraded communications, generator capacity, fire trucks, buildings, emergency shelters and hazard mitigation (among other things).through the efforts of volunteers and full time staff, we have been, for the most part, very successful. However, this year we have had some growing pains and are working on trying to resolve those issues. one of the problems we have encountered is an aging volunteer group. as we said last year, our volunteers are getting older and finding younger and willing volunteers is becoming more and more difficult. State and federal requirements compound the problem with the extensive training requirements for volunteers. We are working with staff in public safety to see if we can attract per diem help and call salaries to resolve this issue. In a rural setting, this is not an unusual set of circumstances. this problem is not necessarily a money-related issue but more a personnel issue. We require all full time personnel to be crossed trained in the three disciplines. Getting them to schedule and cross boundaries is more difficult.
We are a very experienced Board of Selectmen. Your continued trust in us makes this public service worthwhile and we thank you for the opportunity to serve.