Article Seeks Removal of Budget Committee

The Merrimack School District Budget Committee on Tuesday night voted unanimously to recommend a $65.5 million budget already recommended by the School Board, but a petitioned warrant article seeks to make this year the last time this committee would make such a vote.

Merrimack resident and former Town Councilor Tim Tenhave presented a petitioned warrant article during a public hearing for the school budget Tuesday night that seeks to disband the 12-member School Budget Committee. Tenhave gave several reasons to support his article – including the cost to taxpayers to support the committee, the fact that without it, the school board could hold off on starting budget negotiations until after the holidays and the fact that the budget committee has little more power over the budget than the town's residents do.

Tenhave said his petition was nothing personal toward anyone sitting at the table, and he complimented the committee for its dedication to the community and process, which includes reviewing the budget proposal put together by school administration and the school board and making its own recommendation on the spending plan.

“You're a rare breed,” he said.

The committee, however, has little more power than the voters, Tenhave said.

During his remarks, Tenhave said the budget committee is limited in what it can do. It isn't the governing body, it does not take action on budget issues through the year and it can't even truly make line-item specific changes during its review process. While it can vote to remove money from the school board's recommended budget, it can't remove money from specific line items. So if, for example, the committee wanted to remove $15,000 for the maintenance line, its only action is to remove $15,000 from the bottom line. The school board could later decide to pull that $15,000 from a different line and keep the $15,000 in maintenance, as there is nothing binding them to the budget committee's will.

To his point, Tenhave pointed out that this very same action can be made by voters at the annual deliberative session.

He said the town saw some of the voter influence in action on a budget last year when a group of people who strongly disagreed with the town's budgeted Pay As You Throw trash collection program led a charge to vote down the town's budget and thereby elect to go with the default budget this yea. The default budget for 2011-12 added 9 cents on the tax bill to the lesser expensive recommended budget that included PAYT.

“The voters have recourse, it's been proven, we see it here,” Tenhave said.

Tenhave's other reasons for wanting to disband the committee, something he's “wanted to do for some time,” included shortening the budget season and saving the tax payers money.

Under the current time table, in order to give the budget committee enough of an opportunity to thoroughly examine the budget before annual meeting deadlines, the school board must hold it's budget work sessions and public hearings in December and early January, a time in which voters are very distracted by the holidays, Tenhave said.

The budgeting process is “usually done with little input from the distracted public,” Tenhave said.

Without the budget committee review, school administrators and the school board could hold off their review period until January allowing them the opportunity to carve out more time for families around the holidays and it would be a calmer period of time where the public could be more involved in the process with less distraction, Tenhave said.

In the last five years, Tenhave said the budget committee has almost unilaterally upheld the recommendation of the school board, held dozens of meetings that cost tax dollars but are very poorly attended and is so large decision-making becomes a weighty task.

“Does the budget committee add enough value to justify the cost? Tenhave asked.

While the budget committee does not make recommendations on non-monetary donations, it had no vote to take on the article, however Committee Chairman Andy Schneider made a couple of comments relative to Tenhave's proposal.

Schneider said his primary concern is that a decision like this should be studied further.
He said it doesn't look at the big picture.

Schneider said he became involved in the committee, which is elected each year by the public, to make sure the budget had a second careful set of eyes. He said when the committee was formed there was talk of possible rogue school boards that come in only to spend or cut, and that it would be great to use the last five years as a litmus test to show the budget committee would always agree with the school board, but the reality is the dynamic is constantly changing.

“The school board's done a great job... every year it gets better, it gets better scrutiny,” Schneider said of the budget.

He cautioned being quick to remove the committee, because once something in the community is removed it's close to impossible to get it back, Schneider said. He added that it would be more responsible to look at the bigger picture and consider the need for the committee from every angle.

The only other comment coming from the committee was from Stan Heinrich who said in 2006, 3,921 people voted to establish the budget committee.

“Sixty-five percent of those who voted on this article said yes. That's all I'm going to say,” Heinrich said.

Because Tenhave was able to secure the 25 signatures needed to move the petition to the warrant, the article will be added to the table at the town's deliberative session on March 6.