Board approves ad hoc committee's capital expenditures and debt service plan

On Aug. 11, 2026, the Nashua Board of Aldermen approved the ad hoc Joint Committee on Capital Expenditures and Debt Service Planning's draft plan, endorsing guidance for how the city will manage upcoming capital spending and bond sales.

Tim Cummings, director of administrative services, said the plan is a "living document" intended to provide policy guidance rather than authorize spending. "We should continue to to use cash when we can for projects under $1,500,000," Cummings said, and described a target to limit new debt sales to approximately $25,000,000 per year averaged over five years, with an inflationary factor applied. He told the Board staff intends to bring bond resolutions in September and pursue a bond sale in the late fall or early winter.

CFO Dawn Enright said the assumptions were developed with bond advisors and counsel and that the approach supports a positive outlook for the city's bond rating. "It is a positive, outlook for our bond rating," Enright said, and she cautioned that the example tax calculations presented were based on the FY27 budget "with no changes," a simplifying baseline used for visuals.

Aldermen pressed for clarifications about the plan's categories and tax impacts: the materials separated already-authorized items (white), unauthorized but programmed items (blue), and unprogrammed priorities (green). Staff noted the plan does not itself authorize the blue or green items; each bond authorization will require separate Board approval. The materials included an illustrative tax-impact figure shown as roughly 7 on the thousand of assessed value under the baseline used for the presentation.

An alderman moved to accept the plan and recommendations as presented; the Board approved the motion by voice, with an abstention recorded, and the president directed staff to proceed with preparing resolutions and next steps.