Budget committee sends FY2027 spending plan to full board after votes on firefighter pay, encampment funds and economic development cuts

The Budget Review Committee of the Nashua Board of Aldermen voted June 11 to forward the mayors proposed FY2027 budget (R-26-028) to the full Board as amended, after several hours of debate over personnel costs, encampment cleanup funding and economic development spending.

Chair called the meeting to order and allowed one member of the public to speak during public comment. "A budget is a moral document," said Bob Keating, who urged aldermen to add new funds for homelessness response. Keating said the proposed $383 million spending plan contained "no new money" for shelter capacity and urged the committee to prioritize housing funding.

Mayor Jim Donchas described a review of peer cities that shows Nashuas economic development staff and event budgets are smaller than comparable communities. "We are considerably more lean in this area than, communities right around us," he said, arguing that matching peer cities would require more resources.

Committee members then considered motions to change individual line items. Aldermen restored unaffiliated wage increases for firefighting staff and approved related payroll-tax and pension adjustments after the citys fire chief and finance staff confirmed the prior ordinance and accounting treatment. "The ordinance we passed last year, we did receive the money for that, and we have received the compensation," Fire Chief Steve Buxton said. The CFO confirmed the total FY27 impact across wages, FICA and pension lines would be $14,417 for the affected entries.

A proposal to eliminate a $110,000 Risk Department line for encampment cleanup drew sustained questioning from the committee and from administrative staff. Tim Cummings, the director of administrative services, said the funds pay for cleanup, towing and disposal when on-site work exceeds departmental capacity and that a single contracted hazardous cleanup can range "from a $10,000 to a $30,000 type expenditure." Committee members amended the cut and agreed to reduce the line to $100,000 to preserve a limited rapid-response fund.

A motion to make a $1.5 million bottom-line cut to Administrative Services failed after counsel warned that blanket reductions could violate statutory obligations, collective-bargaining commitments and grant terms.

The committee also debated several department-level adjustments. Aldermen trimmed $29,000 from the economic development "other contracted services" line and $23,457 from marketing and public relations after Director Liz Hannam said most of the restored funding had already been committed; she cautioned that zeroing the marketing line would make later work difficult without a supplemental appropriation. Hannam said she had roughly $2,000 left to spend from one line and that cutting restored funds would push marketing and recruitment work further into the future.

On public safety technology, Alderman Kelly proposed removing $900,000 in funding intended to lease a new body-worn camera system and associated storage and software. Deputy Chief Brian Kenny told the committee the existing system is failing in critical incidents and that switching vendors requires overlap to avoid a gap in footage and substantial data-transfer work. "We have had officer involved shootings in the past 2 years that we have no body camera footage of," Kenny said; the motion to remove the funds failed.

Debate over a half-year-funded facilities manager position in the city buildings division produced disagreement about priorities. Director Cummings defended the role as a cost-avoidance measure to manage deferred capital maintenance across more than a dozen city buildings; a motion to eliminate the half-year funding did not pass.

Near the end of the meeting Alderman Kelly successfully moved to remove a clause in the budget resolution that would have modified the unaffiliated compensation structure and instead grant fire department chief officers a 2% increase effective July 1, 2026. That amendment, together with the other adopted changes, was incorporated into the resolution the committee recommended to the full Board.

By the end of the session the CFO reported a proposed general fund total of $384,022,842, a 6.36% increase over the prior year; the committees net motions reduced the total by roughly $265,473 over two evenings. A motion to recommend final passage of R-26-028 as amended passed on a committee vote and the measure will go to the full Board of Aldermen for final action.

The committee adjourned at about 9:46 p.m. The full Board is scheduled to consider the resolution at its next meeting per the Boards calendar.