Rainy day account.

Thomas · Rainy day account.

Morning Folks.
Between Wall Street and soon to come bail out etc. looks like the tax payers from coast to coast shall be hit hard in the wallet,so my question what will the City of Lebanon do to lighten the tax burden for those finding it hard to make ends meet?
1. Halt all improvement projects.
2.Just up keep the basic.
3.Freeze all spending.

Maybe all boards should sharpen there pencils and cut 10% to 15% from there budgets...let's not let greed over power need such a time at hand.

JB · Rainy day account

The taxes are going up. The council are making cuts and the manager feels we should pay for visiter services.
One of the cuts proposed is to curb plowing our sidewalks. I hope this only means neighborhoods outside of downtown areas. I would not like to see elderly citizens and children having to walk on streets.
Another area talked about is contracting out, a council member mentioned that did not work when we tried it before but the DPW leader said he wasn't in charge then. I hope we do not contract out. Most of our town workers are Lebanon Citizens,they pay Lebanon taxes and have children in Lebanon schools. There is more than just cost associated to employing Lebanon citizens. Times are tough but if we must pay taxes let us protect citizens of Lebanon first.

Thomas

Contacting out plowing.
I believe it would cost more in the long run to tax payers,for each year the bids will be higher and what if we had mild winter...tax money pay to contactor could have been used else where...besides Lebanon already has the equipment.

Side walking plowing.
Keep the side walks clean,but not spic and span clean tho.

Plowing etc.
I feel there's no need to start plowing when there only couple inches +/-of snow,when the snow starts to measure okay than start plowing until done.

Some people rather point the finger at DHW when the roads aren't plow to there likes...hey its the driver that should be perpare at all times...don't like they way roads are plow or sand salted stay off roads or find other means....It's New England folks and old man winter calls the shots since day one.

Councilor Cormen · Rainy day account.

Thank you for your many posts on City $$$ matters, Thomas. Money is the uppermost concern on everyone's minds, based on direct e-mails and other correspondence I've received from constituents and that other Councilors have mentioned as well.

As you've probably heard/read by now, the City Council has begun our annual review of the City budget, leading up to public hearing and Council vote on Dec. 16 at 7 pm. Our 8 work sessions are public meetings and you are welcome to attend. The sessions where we review individual departments are very helpful for staff to hear from us and the public as well as for us to understand what their budgets are trying to accomplish.

The entire schedule and budget are online at
http://lebanonnh.virtualtownhall....inance/budgets/2010proposedbudget

You might want to start by reading the City Manager's memo to the Council, dated 10/31/09, for an overview of the budget: where we are at, what the Manager instructed department heads to do, what factors are driving costs up--several outside our control, unfortunately-- and what the City has done to lower expenses.

Right now, the City Manager's proposed budget would raise the City property tax to $9.12 per $1000 of assessed value. This is up 31 cents or 3.5% compared to the 2009 tax rate of $8.81 per $1000 of assessed value. As you probably know, the City portion makes up about 37% of the total Lebanon property tax bill. The School portion (local & state) makes up about 57% and the County portion about 6%.

Seeing as how current inflation is flat or slightly negative, and based on how much so many citizens are struggling to stay afloat, I certainly am looking at cost savings wherever we can find them. I know that other Councilors feel the same way. The trick is to make sure that short-term cuts are a true savings rather than actually raising expenses in the long run. For example, roadwork and other maintenance that we stop doing regularly will cost us more later on. We have to maintain essential services and priorities that residents have communicated are important to them.

Thanks for mentioning the plowing, by the way. Over the past year, the Council & DPW have had several productive meetings on this subject. Please check out the winter maintenance info & feedback page at
http://lebanonnh.virtualtownhall....blic_Documents/LebanonNH_DPW/snow
You also can get to it from the City's home page, www.lebcity.com

Lebanon's resident population is about 13,500 but daytime nearly triples that number as people come here to work, shop, get medical care, and access services not found elsewhere. The result is a much larger City government than one might expect for a population of 13,500 as we need police, fire/EMS, water, sewer, roads, and other public services. The property taxes that pay for all this fall about 50-50 between residents and the commercial sector, according to our City Assessor.

Clearly our work is cut out for us. I hope this information is useful to you, and that perhaps we'll see you at an upcoming budget work session.

Please let me know what's on your mind and I will reply as best I can.

Thank you for caring about our City!

Nicole