Diane Richter knows two things to be true. When she moved to Dunbarton 22 years ago, she saw friends of generational families move after the town passed a significant tax spike. If the proposed budget passes in Warner, where she lives now, the same will happen, she warned.
The proposed operating budget in Warner this year at $4.57 million, will provide a tax rate increase of 13%. It’s an estimate at best until revenue and expenses are finalized and the tax rate is set in October.
But it’s still an increase that Richter and other residents fear in a town where the combined tax rate is already $31.72. People living in homes worth $350,000, pay almost $1,000 a month in taxes.
When Richter thinks of who lives in Warner, a bar chart comes to mind – one for upper, upper-middle and middle-lower class families. That last bar has the most people in it and they can’t afford another tax increase, she said.
“If we do what you are proposing in that tax article, we are going to be hurting families. We’re going to be hurting businesses,” she said. “People are going to be moving out of this beautiful town that I have called my home with my three sons for the last 14 years.”
Richter, who owns a veterinarian practice, sees this in her own job day to day. She is paying employees more to be able to afford rent in the area and talking to customers who are going to the food pantry or town wood bank for the first time this year.
She feels the impact of inflation, too, but she cuts expenses when needed.
“What I have to do at my own business is say ‘oh my gosh, this revenue stream is not coming in anymore. Where can I cut the fat?’ ” she said. “You have to be lean and mean and tight.”
Michael Cutting, the chair of Warner’s budget committee, said he understands these concerns. But over the years, he’s learned the best way to describe building a town budget is to compare it to a three-legged stool. And this year, one of those legs is short.
With federal dollars, like the American Rescue Plan Act, supplementing town budgets throughout the pandemic, revenue was at a high for Warner. Now, that money is dry.
And while the operating budget is up 4.3%, the capital budget is down by 32.9% and revenue is down 20.3%.
Those three figures are what comprise the overall tax increase – an estimated 13.1% jump.
“Revenue is revenue and when revenue shortfalls that is going to result in an estimated tax increase,” he said.
A portion of the budget growth lies in employee benefits. And that’s a portion of the budget that Richter goes back to when she thinks of where the town could cut if forced to.
For her employees, Richter pays 50% coverage for benefit plans. What the town has budgeted for, includes 100% coverage.
“There comes a point where it is not sustainable. And what you all are proposing for the town of Warner is not sustainable,” she said. “I just don’t think that we as a town can afford to pay 100% benefits any longer.”
But while residents can go line by line and suggest cuts – and if it comes to it vote down the budget at town meeting – these expenses are the reality of decision-making at the state and federal level, said Ray Martin, the town moderator.
“The problem is, the solution isn’t here. It’s who we elected to represent ourselves in Concord and D.C.,” he said. “Many, many of the expenses in this budget have been passed down to us as unfunded mandates.”
Years ago, the state covered 50% of town employee benefits. That’s no longer. And that’s on top of other state budget cuts like school building aid.
But to Harry Seidel, a select board member, it’s not only hard to compare budgeting for the town to a business. And when municipal employees are hard to recruit and retain, these town costs are essential, he said.
“The Town of Warner is not a business,” he said. “You got to have fire, you got to have roads so the firemen will get there. You’ve got to treat your employees well. It’s hard to retain good employees.”
To Seidel, there are options to lower expenses for residents in town. But those should come in the form of economic development and housing, bringing businesses and residents that can contribute to the tax base, he said, rather than budget cuts.
“I understand that nobody wants to pay taxes and when things go up it’s painful, but you have to understand that the departments in this town have worked really hard to keep it as low as possible,” he said. “It seems like there is a lot of angst here at the last minute.”
Still, when the select board looks at last year’s budget and the tax increase then, and this current budget proposed, James Gaffney would hope that town leaders would be more frugal.
“You can’t raise the budget on people on fixed incomes year after year after year and expect them to pull money out of nowhere,” he said.
The budget will be finalized in October when revenue and expenses are better known. And warrant articles brought forth by a citizen’s petition may impact that number.
Warner Connects, a nonprofit that operates a food pantry and thrift store, currently pays $400 a month in rent to operate in the town’s community center. This warrant article proposes that once their lease ends in June, they could continue to provide these services rent free.
In 2023, the pantry served 1,898 households in the area – with 1,487 of those households in Warner. That means 78% of the clientele is based in town, according to Apryl Blood of Warner Connects.
“Being in the community center where we are and providing the town and community around us is important,” she said. “We hope the value in that outweighs trying to rent to us.”
But with 20% of the food pantry’s services aiding residents out of town, Allan Brown, a select board member, said Warner taxpayers should not be funding their use.
“I don’t have a problem with the food pantry in the sense of helping people. I do have a problem with the Town of Warner’s taxpayers running that building, operating that building and paying money out and servicing towns like Bradford, Newbury, Danbury, Hopkinton,” he said. “These are my tax dollars being spent to help subsidize other towns and I don’t think it’s right.”
Gaffney is also in support of another warrant article by a citizen’s petition that would limit the local tax rate increase year to year by 4%. This metric would force the select board and budget committee to strip back spending, he said.
“I would challenge the select board and everybody in this town to spend less money,” he said. ” Historically speaking this isn’t a big ask. What it’s asking is for the town to start trying to step back to historic levels of spending. That’s all we’re doing.”
The budget committee will vote on a final budget Thursday ahead of Town Meeting on March 13.