Town Hall
16 School St.
Allenstown, NH
485-4276
Check town web site for current business hours.
Don't let the tail wag the dog. Study the budgets and then vote knowledgeably.
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2023 Budget Issues
November to March is Town Budget & Election Season. After a careful review by the Selectmen and the Budget Committee, the town, sewer dept., and school district budgets and warrant articles were posted on the town and SAU web sites. The following sections highlight all that information.
For more information than you can shake a stick at, go to the 2023 Town Meeting/Budget page on the town web site.
Information on this page:
Budgets and Warrant Articles
- Town Budget – The selectmen directed department heads to keep their budgets as flat as possible, but allowed for a 2% step increase and a 3% Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA).
- 2023 Proposed Town Budget = $4,501,630
- 2023 Default Town Budget = $4,437,750
- Last Year's Approved Town Budget = $4,342,740
- 2023 increase/decrease = +$157,890
- An increase in several salary line items was due to the need to replace the outgoing part-time Administrative Assistant for the Building and Fire Departments with a full-time Admin who will assist five town departments.
See the Town Budget pdf file on the Town web site for line-by-line budget details.
See the Town Budget Overview pdf file on the Town web site for an executive overview of the town budget.
- Non-Property Tax Revenue – This includes income such as meals & room taxes, motor vehicle registrations, building permit fees, and highway block grants. For 2023 this revenue equals $1,342,900. In addition, $195,000 is to be transferred from the Unassigned Fund Balance to offset the budget increase. Consider this formula:
(Proposed Budget) - (Non-Property Tax Revenue) - (optional Unassigned Fund Balance) = (Amount due in property taxes)
As a result, the amount stated in the town budget warrant article is not the only amount used to calculate the town property tax rate.
See the Budget Overview pdf file on the Town web site.
- Sewer Dept. – The sewer commissioners provided the following budget numbers. The operating costs are shared by Allenstown and Pembroke. Revenue comes from Septage Haulers and Rate Payers.
- School Budget – The school board provided the following budget numbers at the Deliberative Smackdown. The 2023-24 school budget shows an "Estimated Local Tax Rate" of $21.36 which is $3.30/$1,000 higher than last year's local school tax rate of $18.06.
- 2023-24 Proposed School Budget = $12,110,949 for 505 students
- 2023-24 Default School Budget = $12,058,435
- 2023-24 Default Budget is $52,514 less than 2022-23 Proposed Budget
- 2021-22 Current Approved School Budget = $11,782,385 *
- 2023-24 increase/decrease =
$12,110,949 - $11,782,385 = +$328,564
- Warrant Article 2: Requests $83,000 for another Kindergarden teacher to reduce overcrowding.
Resulting 2023-24 budget increase/decrease =
$328,564 + $83,000 = +$411,564
* 2021-22 approved budget was $11,457,385 (school warrant article 3). Additional costs included a $325,000 school bond interest payment bringing the total budget to $11,782,385. There was also $225,000 that came from their unassigned fund balance (money in the bank) for three capital reserve funds. That was actually revenue. The school board added that for a total of $12,007,385.
See the School District Budget pdf file on the School Board web site for line-by-line details.
See the School District Presentation pdf file on the School Board web site for an overview of the school budget.
- Town Warrant Articles – Warrant articles #2, 3, and 4 propose revisions to the Town Zoning Ordinance(s) on which the Planning Board has diligently labored over for a full year. The goal of these revisions was to improve organization, clarity, consistency, and readability.
Articles 5 & 6 are for the Town and Sewer Dept. budgets.
Articles 7 to 16 propose putting portions of your unspent tax money (AKA the Unassigned Fund Balance) into several funds as a way to save for expensive one-time expenditures.
Articles 17 & 18 propose purchasing AES (the elementary school) and setting aside funds to remodel and renovate it, once it has been vacated, for town offices and offices to rent or lease. The school district needs to propose its own warrant article that accepts the town's offer to purchase the school.
See the Town Warrant Articles pdf file on the Town web site.
- School Warrant Articles – Warrant article #1 proposes the $12+ million budget.
Article 2 proposes spending an additional $83,000 for salary and benefits for a new teacher, possibly for the kindergarten level. It's not clear why this was not built into the main budget.
Article 3 proposes the transfer of $50,000 from the school unassigned fund balance to the Special Education Trust Fund to help pay for unplanned and usually excessive Special Ed expenses.
Articles 4 & 5 are boilerplate proposals to set aside 5% of unassigned funds for tax reduction or emergency use and to accept gifts for the school district.
See the Warrant and Budget pdf file on the School Board web site.
Public Budget Events
Saturday January 14 at 9:00 a.m.
Public Hearing on the proposed budgets and warrant articles at St. John the Baptist Parish Hall on School St.
A frigid temperature of 0°F reduced attendance to 25, all of whom were either town/school employees or committee members.
Saturday February 4 at 9:00 a.m.
Deliberative Smackdown Session at St. John the Baptist Parish Hall on School St. At this meeting, voters get to discuss/question/argue about the budgets and attempt to change them.
Tuesday March 14 from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Town Election at the St. John's Parish Hall on School St.
Ballot Details for the 2023 Election
Click on one of the following links to see who is running for office and what budgets and warrant articles are on the ballot.
 Town Warrant Articles pdf file on the Town web site.
Town Candidates
School District Warrant on the School Board web site's "Learn More" panel. Good luck finding it.
School District Candidates
Summary of Election Results
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Dept. of Revenue Tax Rates by Town since 2009
Click on "Tax Rates" for any year
Allenstown Tax Rate History since 1994. Ever increasing since 2004.
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