Merrimack proposes $42.86 million operating budget; town projects a 31-cent tax-rate increase

Merrimack’s proposed operating budget of $42,863,616 was moved to the ballot at the deliberative session. Officials said the proposal would increase the tax rate by about 31 cents.

Meeting remarks outlined the primary budget drivers: wage and benefit increases tied to union contracts (about $510,000) and nonunion raises (about $195,000); converting an IT assistant coordinator from part time to full time (approximately $71,000); making the welfare administrator position full time following a retirement (about $74,000); roughly $69,000 more in overtime for police and fire; and an $80,000 decrease in the town’s New Hampshire Retirement System contribution that staff listed as an offset. “Other” costs were said to increase by roughly $476,000, with a major item identified as higher solid-waste disposal costs (about $54,000).

Capital outlays were described as increasing by about $930,000. The transcript lists two primary capital items: constructing an 800-megahertz communications tower on the town’s west side to improve public-safety radio coverage, and a master-plan update budgeted at about $200,000. The meeting also noted a debt-service increase of roughly $1,315,000 tied to a roughly $33,000,000 wastewater upgrade now substantially complete.

Officials stated the default budget figure during remarks but the numeric value in the spoken record was unclear; that default amount is therefore recorded as not specified in this article. The deliberative session did not adopt the budget at this meeting; the article was moved to the ballot so registered voters can approve or reject the town’s proposed operating budget.