Terrio: Will he crack the cap?

MANCHESTER, NH  June 1, 2026–Republican Manchester aldermen Ross Terrio (Ward 7), Norm Vincent (Ward 11) and Kelly Thomas (Ward 12) have sent a list of budget recommendations to the Board of Mayor and Aldermen.  For simplicity, we will refer to this proposal as the “TVT Budget.”

Rather than present what’s knows as the “budget sheet,” which identifies total spending and taxes raised and projects the tax rate increase, the GOP trio sent out a spreadsheet comparing their spending recommendations to those proposed by aldermen June Trisciani (D-at-Large) and Jim Burkush (D-Ward 9) on behalf of the board’s nine Democrats on May 19.  That budget raised an astonishing $22.1 million in new property taxes, almost tripling the $8.1 million allowed by the cit’s popular tax cap.  The Democrat’s budget hiked the tax rate by almost 12% and requires an override to three sections of the charter to be enacted, taxes raised, the use of revaluation revenue, and total expenditures.  The nine Democratic aldermen issued a statement after their budget failed to pass, criticizing the Republican counterparts for their opposition.

Vincent

Based on the limited information provided, Girard at Large estimates that the TVT Budget will raise about $3,9 less in new taxes than the $22.1 million raised by the Democrats.  Doing the math on that $18.2 million in new taxes, Girard at Large calculates a tax hike of between 6.5% and 7%.

Mayor Jay Ruais proposed a budget that hit the tax cap and raised the tax rate by 3% at the end of March.

On Thursday May 25, Republican aldermen Crissy Kantor (Ward 6) and Ed Sapienza (Ward 8) released a budget that came in $557,178 below the tax cap, but requires an override of charter section 6.15 E Total Expenditures because even though spending went up by just $853,218, the charter requires a cut of approximately $3,8 million to offset the loss of non-property tax revenues.

Relative to the Sapienza-Kantor budget, we estimate that the TVT Budget raises $9.4 million more in property taxes and total spending by about $8.8 million more.  Versus the mayor’s budget, it raises spending by almost $10.5 million and taxes by about $10.1 million.  The TVT budget would appear to need overrides of at least two sections of the tax cap, including the amount raised in property taxes in excess of the cap and to exceed the total expenditure limit.

Thomas

The TVT Budget spreadsheet is tricky to read.  The column on the far right is entitled “REDUCTION.”  The numbers it contains are a reduction from the Trisciani-Burkush Democratic Budget.  The column immediately to it’s left, entitled “AMOUNT,” is money that’s actually being added to the mayor’s budget.

Earlier today, Girard at Large published a commentary indicating that the size of the coming tax increase would be a function of how high Republicans were willing to raise taxes.  We also discussed why everything would work out if Ruais’ budget was adopted by default.

While it remains to be seen whether any of the nine Democratic aldermen would sign on to this budget, and seven would be needed to override the tax cap, these three Terrio, Vincent and Thomas have released a proposal that more than doubles the allowed increase in property taxes, while also exceeding the limit on expenditures by approximately $5 million.  Given the crusade of at least one Democratic alderman to adopt that budget, it’s doubtful the Democrats will agree to any reduction.  If they do, it will be because Terrio, Vincent and Thomas caved in to their pressure to crack the cap and the failure of Ruais to uphold his campaign promise to never override the tax cap, which he indicated he was willing to do to find a “compromise” and “balance” in the budget.

All three alternative budgets included a $1.5 million increase in the health insurance budget, a $425,000 increase in the comprehensive general liability insurance budget, and $400,000 increase in the overlay account to deal with tax abatements.  Ruais said his budget didn’t contain those numbers because they weren’t available.

The TVT Budget spreadsheet is below.