By Editorial board et al
An important election is nearly upon us. The current City Council combines young, energetic leaders with seasoned political veterans, but will their shared vision of a Progressive Portsmouth make progress where it counts? Voters will decide on November 7, as sitting members of the Council seek reelection, while some familiar faces challenge them for their seats.
How will you vote? How will you decide?
In anticipation of election day, the Portsmouth Pulse presents what we believe are the six most important criteria for considering the candidates. We begin with fiscal responsibility.
How would we measure fiscal responsibility? To put it concisely, we would expect a budget to be conservative, easy to understand, and full of details about key items.
We would, above all, want a budget that respects residents’ finite resources of dollars and time.
The reality is that we have a labyrinth of deliberately confusing budget presentations.
We have unanimous votes from the City Council in approving the largest back-to-back budgets in decades (2022-2023 and 2023-2024).
We have the creation of 36 new full-time employees under the budgets approved by this Council. Meanwhile, the growth rate in the City’s population is only 0.4%. (See Proposed/Adopted Budgets and Financial Reports | City of Portsmouth.)
The taxpayer won’t feel the full sting of the new hires while this Council is sitting. These new hires are only partially funded for this year, as they are not meant to take place until the fiscal year is partly over.
The impact of the full annual salaries will hit after the election.
We have a City Manager, Karen Conard, who has demonstrated considerable influence over this Council, which has refused to turn down her expensive budget requests.
The Council also imprudently delegated the negotiations on the McIntyre property to Conard, and now, the City (and the taxpayers) are facing a multi-million-dollar lawsuit.
Fiscal responsibility means exercising diligence and carefully stewarding our residents’ resources. The sitting Council has boldly voiced its concerns over housing and the City’s affordability, touting its intentions for workforce housing while approving the largesse of the most recent budgets.
A swollen City budget does not make Portsmouth more affordable for anyone, nor does it respect the financial well-being of its citizens.
Fiscal responsibility also means entrusting the greatest responsibilities to the most qualified parties, people whose professionalism and experience will ensure that residents’ interests are protected.
The problems aren’t limited to the budget or the McIntyre morass. A new main water transmission line under Little Bay will cost $26 million, about three times more than the City budgeted ($8 million).
An estimating error like this in the private sector would be grounds for dismissal of the engineer or estimator responsible, and a basis for reviewing all bids over $5 million.
With property revaluations on the horizon, expenses are sure to rise for Portsmouth taxpayers. Can we afford any unnecessary expenses? Can we afford any lack of fiscal responsibility?
Can we afford this form of “Progress?” Decide on November 7!
