The Hooksett Budget Committee on Monday reviewed council-recommended changes that raised the town’s proposed operating budget and identified large increases in insurance premiums as a leading reason for the jump.

Christine Tuxbury, the town finance director, told the committee the council recommended an operating figure of $22,918,112 (not including wastewater) after voting to add roughly $573,000 in amendments. That council recommendation, when combined with wastewater figures presented separately, brings the combined working total the committee will consider to $25,699,803.

“The premiums are not an average of 14.5%, but we also had employees change plans,” Tuxbury said, describing the health-insurance impact on the budget as $466,880. She said the three-year history of health-premium increases showed 14.5% this year, compared with 11.3% and 11.4% the two prior years.

Tuxbury also outlined other insurance impacts: workers’ compensation premiums rose 6.8% (an effect of about $23,313 on the budget) and property-liability premiums rose 31.8% (about $85,000). She said the large property-liability increase reflected the end of a multi-year CAP program that had capped increases and the effects of two significant claims: a tanker-truck crash that generated roughly $750,000 in third-party damages and a roughly $200,000 library roof claim the insurer paid this year.

“Every year, if you look at our history, we got a 5% rate increase [under the CAP program], but really we should have been getting 8, 9, 10,” Tuxbury said, explaining why the insurer’s removal of the cap produced a steeper one-year rise.

Tuxbury told the committee the council recommended that the town put its workers’-compensation and property-liability coverages out to bid in the coming season to seek better rates.

Committee members pressed staff for additional detail on the insurance experience and whether combining school and town coverage might reduce costs. Members discussed the challenges of consolidated plans, including union contract provisions and the logistics of changing plans for employees; Andre Garen, the town administrator, said consolidation is feasible in some contexts but can be complicated by union-specific plan provisions.

The committee voted by voice to accept the council’s presented package as its working number for further budget committee work; the voice vote did not include a roll-call tally recorded in the minutes. Committee members agreed to ask staff for additional supporting detail (for example, insurer experience reports and the specific grant/encumbrance adjustments cited on the budget spreadsheet) and to continue discussion at upcoming meetings.

What happens next: the committee scheduled a follow-up meeting for Dec. 11 to review warrant-article language and hear department heads, and staff agreed to return with requested detail — including the insurer “experience” numbers and copies of the spreadsheet entries supporting the changes.

Provenance: Topic intro — excerpt at 00:18:33: “Last night, the council did amend their recommended operating budget. I have put the Excel spreadsheet in front of you with all the lines...” (block_1113.81). Topic finish — excerpt at 00:36:19: “I moved to accept the budget as presented.” (block_2179.2449).