At one point in their budget deliberations, the Concord City Council seemed on the verge of deflating the funding it grants the free bus system in town.
In the final spending plan, it instead delivered a windfall, upping the amount of city funding to the service by 50%. The extra cash – a little less than $90,000 from the city’s economic development reserve – came with a warning that this boost did not mean a recurring increase in local funding.
The bus routes, both the three fixed courses that circulate throughout town and on-demand services for seniors and people with disabilities, are run by an arm of the Community Action Program of Belknap and Merrimack Counties.
Most of the program’s roughly $1.6 million annual budget comes from federal funding, but in order to receive that money, the organization must put up matching dollars of its own. Concord, the only town in those two counties with scheduled bus routes, has consistently been the largest contributor to the match. The state, individual donors and some businesses have also historically contributed.
The city gives several hundred thousand dollars a year to local service organizations, which provide services to vulnerable populations and perform work that otherwise would fall to the city. This includes $25,000 a year to the SPCA, which takes on animal control responsibilities in the city.
Other recipients include the Concord Coalition to End Homelessness, which operates an overnight winter shelter and, this past year, 24-hour warming spaces, the downtown business organization Intown Concord and Concord Area Transit (CAT), among others.
At-Large Councilor Nathan Fennessy proposed that the city cut this roughly $700,000 total by a third. In a year when the city is considering austerity, he argued, funding to outside organizations should be among the first expenditures scrutinized under the microscope.
“I’m not suggesting that these people and these organizations don’t do good work,” said Fennessy. Rather, he suggest, the city’s message to these organizations would be: “The municipal government is no longer going to be aiding you, you’re going to have to get more money from the private sector to support your good work.”
Some on the council agreed with him.
Fred Keach, also an at-large representative, indicated he would be comfortable fully eliminating the city’s payments to these organizations.
Keach felt the city was picking “winners and losers” in the nonprofit space and didn’t see why the recipients of this aid were more worthy than others who had asked for support.
“I think we should be out of the business,” he said.
Other councilors saw the possibility of a cut as the city taking a backseat in supporting those most in need of help for the sake of a marginal savings.
“This particular [cut] takes the message from the taxpayers that we want to reduce the tax rate and would put that burden on our most vulnerable citizens,” said Jim Schlosser of Ward 7. “I don’t think that’s right.”
Stacey Brown of Ward 5 and Jeff Foote of Ward 10 joined Fennessy and Keach in supporting the cut, but it ultimately failed.
Instead, Ward 2 Councilor Michele Horne later moved, the city ought to give the bus service an uptick in funding, especially considering that staggering gas and automobile prices edge some lower-income residents out of vehicle ownership.
“These are the type of services we need to keep for these people that we’re all around the table, I thought, fighting for,” Horne said.
A majority of the council viewed the bus not just as a service for people in need but an economic driver, helping people get to stores, jobs and appointments.
Ward 8 Councilor Ali Sekou spoke from experience: His family only had one car when his wife immigrated to Concord. The bus was a lifeline, he said.
In the audience, Terri Paige, transportation director for CAT, was misty-eyed. It was quite the turnaround.
The boost will ensure she can balance her budget this year, she said, giving her more time to plan and negotiate for funding in the future. It would also mean she could give her drivers their first pay increase in years.
Boosting bus revenue through fares isn’t a viable option. Removing the fare several years ago drastically increased ridership, and more riders means the bus can get access to far greater national funding than a few dollars per ride would make up for, according to Paige.
Over a series of rides on the bus service in 2024 and 2025, the Monitor found that a majority of people riding the bus were residents who either could not afford a car or shared one with someone else and used the bus to get to work, appointments and social meetings.
It reached record ridership last year, according to internal tallies, of more than 118,000 rides.
Councilors warned that this boost in funding was not assured for future years – CAT has gotten a consistent $171,000 contribution from the city each year for several years. Paige has reached out to local companies and services, she told city leaders, but her efforts haven’t yielded much support.
