Hudson held its Deliberative Session on Saturday, Feb. 3, which included a number of budget items, and about 100 residents gathered at the Hudson Community Center for what turned out to be a seven-hour meeting.
“This ballot that we’re going to face in March has 51 articles,” explained Town Moderator, Paul Inderbitzen.
The first thing up for discussion was Article 2, the General Operating Budget, which included $35,527,448 in spending, slightly higher than last year’s $35,044,662.
“The Board of Selectmen directed department heads to submit level-funded operating budgets, exclusive of labor and benefit costs,” explained Budget Committee Vice Chair, Bill Cole. Labor and benefits explained why the proposed budget is slightly higher, despite an attempt to keep spending at around the same amount.
Peggy Huard of 13 David Drive spoke against the proposed increase in spending, questioning the claim of level spending.
“While I appreciate the hard work this town does, I have great concerns for the direction the financial needs of this town are going,” said Huard. “The taxpayers just endured a significant, surprise tax increase this past December, on top of many taxpayers enduring an astronomic increase the year before during a townwide assessment.”
Huard expressed strong opposition to the increase in spending compared to the previous year and criticized the Budget Committee and Board of Selectmen for not taking advantage of what she called “areas available for improvement and reduction” in the budget.
She gave costs associated with excessive paperwork and voting tabulators as examples, claiming that “a number of my colleagues would perform the audit for much less money and higher quality.”
There was no other debate on Article 2, but there were more concerns around the cost of several warrant articles, with several requests for financial clarity regarding the possible impact on tax rates.
“We talked about the general operating fund, in order to keep context of how we’re doing relative to previous years,” said Craig Powers of 31 Cedar Street. “I look at the 8.1% compounded growth on my tax bill the last few years, and I’m now at 4.5% just on Warrant Article 2. Now we’re starting to add a couple of pennies here and a couple of pennies there.
He claimed to be the “median house” in Hudson where roughly half of the houses had cheaper, and half had more expensive tax bills.
“In order to provide context, is this a 10% increase relative to last year, all things considered? Or is it 5%? Or is it a 20%?” asked Powers. “I think that would be a very valuable piece of context to provide.
While Inderbitzen did not have any such slide available, he raised the possibility of adding it to the town website before the election.
Voting for the budget will occur on Tuesday, March 12, 2024. Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 8:00 p.m. Ward one voters have the Hudson Community Center as their polling place, while Ward two voters have Alvirne High School as their polling place.