Council proposing budget that includes levy rate drop

Nashua’s mayor wants the City Council to roll up its sleeves and get to work on fixing the city’s budget problems.“We have a lot of work to do,” said Mayor Angie Dietz, who said the city must get a handle on its budget problems. “We can’t leave this for the next mayor or council.”The good news for Nashua residents is that it appears the city’s tax levy rate will drop next year — from 16.70 per $1,000 valuation to $16.21 per $1,000 valuation — by 2.9 percent.Council members discussed the budget and said there will be a public hearing held on April 24 before the budget is approved. But council members are looking into more is increasing the rates for water and sewer since the city is losing about $50,000 a year.The rates have not been raised in many years, and after the rate increases residents could be paying double the amount they are currently paying and the minimum usage payment would also be raising.The mayor said she does not want to place blame she just wants to move forward.Council members also discussed a state audit report that was finished the day before.They received five pages of findings, which the council is looking over and finding ways to correct the issues.Among the areas that needs to be “cleaned up,” according to the report are outstanding checks, Water Over the Dam Days funds, employee credit card usage and employee evaluations.For the complete story see the 4/13/2017 Nashua Reporter