Plaistow budget committee recommends $13.3 million operating budget after debate over ambulance enterprise account

The Plaistow Budget Committee voted to recommend the town’s general fund operating budget, warrant article p25-2, totaling $13,306,304 after a prolonged discussion about whether ambulance fee revenue should be segregated into an enterprise or revolving fund.

Committee members spent most of the meeting debating whether ambulance net revenue already being remitted to the town general fund should be removed now and placed in a separate account to offset ambulance costs. A motion to amend the proposed operating budget by reducing it by $200,000 — a figure committee members said represented roughly eight months of net ambulance revenue — failed; the committee then voted to recommend the budget as proposed.

The operating warrant article, read aloud during the meeting, states that if the article is defeated the default operating budget would be $13,270,845 and that a special meeting could be required under RSA 4013, 1011 to take up a revised operating budget only. Committee…