The biggest news to come out of the Monday evening, Oct. 2 Town Council meeting was an announcement by member John Farrell that the people of Londonderry may have a million dollars coming their way.
Farrell said there was 1.6 million dollars of exceeded revenue in the unassigned fund budget (UFB) from the last fiscal year. This information can also be found on pages six and seven of the current Town Manager’s Budget on the town website. With that much of a surplus, it was proposed by Farrell to give one million of that back to the taxpayers with the intent to keep taxes from going up this year.
“We’ve done a nice job of rebuilding everything, it’s time to give back,” said Farrell.
Town manager Kevin H. Smith said reducing taxes for the next fiscal year is allowed under the budget guidelines regarding excesses in the fund balance, however “it’s not something we typically do.” But he continued on, saying “we have a healthy balance and should have a healthy surplus as well.”
The town audit is not finished yet, so Smith is still waiting on those numbers before he can report them to the council. “Once we have the hard numbers on that, we can come back on the 19th and I can report what we have in the fund balance,” he said.
For the last few years the council has been trying to keep the amount in the UFB to about five percent, although Smith said the recommended amount could be up to seven percent.
Smith was corrected that the next meeting will occur on Oct. 16. He said he would have the data ready to review when the council reconvene on that date.
After the meeting, the newly appointed Budget Committee member Duncan Campbell said he is hesitant to give the entire million back so quickly. “We should be careful when returning funds. His thought – have a slightly smaller refund and put more money into investments like updating the town’s infrastructure.