Kingston budget committee approves $9.94 million 2025 operating budget after votes on clerk pay and bridge grant

Kingston’s municipal budget committee approved a $9,941,369 operating budget for fiscal 2025 on a final vote after a daylong public hearing that included a contentious debate over the town clerk’s pay and how to allocate money for employee raises.

The budget committee, meeting as the Kingston Budget Committee, approved the package after several amendments: reducing the proposed town clerk/tax collector salary from a previously proposed $114,000 average-based figure down to $99,000; leaving a $30,000 placeholder for raises in contingency (with later questions about how that contingency can be used); and removing a $1,000,000 New Hampshire Department of Transportation bridge grant from the operating budget and asking the select board to present that grant as a separate warrant article to voters.

Why it matters: The vote ends the committee’s formal review and sets the townwide spending plan and the fiscal numbers that will appear on the town warrant. The debate highlighted tensions over how the town should correct perceived pay inequities, whether to use a townwide wage matrix or an ad hoc contingency, and how to present large grant-backed projects to voters.

The meeting opened with…