News – Politics – Opinion – Podcasts
Laura Colquhoun 
Nashua taxpayers deserve full transparency, accuracy, and candor from their elected officials. Recent developments, however, raise serious concerns about how Mayor Jim Donchess and the Board of Aldermen are managing the City’s finances, and how residents are being informed about those decisions. The FY2026 budget initially presented to residents totaled $474,895,381. Yet the City now … Read more
Loyalty within municipal government often carries a cost, and Nashua taxpayers are paying it without knowing how much. A review of Nashua’s payroll shows that municipal salaries are significantly higher than both the New Hampshire state average and national benchmarks. In 2024 payroll data, the average salary for City of Nashua employees is $84,948, which … Read more
Nashua taxpayers deserve full transparency, accuracy, and candor from their elected officials. Recent developments, however, raise serious concerns about how Mayor Jim Donchess and the Board of Aldermen are managing the City’s finances, and how residents are being informed about those decisions. The FY2026 budget initially presented to residents totaled $474,895,381. Yet the City now … Read more
Nashua taxpayers invest substantial resources in municipal salaries and in the software systems intended to ensure transparent, accessible government. Residents should be able to rely on the city’s website as a complete, accurate, and trustworthy source of information. Unfortunately, that is not the reality. Through a Right‑to‑Know request, I obtained the Land Influence Factors Report, … Read more
Nashua taxpayers deserve public accountability, not silence, and the situation at 181 East Hollis Street makes that painfully clear. City records show: For a 12,000‑square‑foot commercial building, this level of inaction is unprecedented, and it raises serious questions about oversight, consistency, and fairness. I asked the Board of Aldermen, Mayor Donchess, Mr. Cummings and Ms. … Read more
Nashua residents deserve a city government that is transparent, accountable, and respectful of the people it serves. Over the past several years, however, the City of Nashua’s financial administration has moved in the opposite direction, away from openness and toward practices that make it harder for residents to understand how their tax dollars are being … Read more
Nashua residents deserve full transparency into how our City manages taxpayer‑funded housing programs and vets individuals placed in our neighborhoods. Recent events have raised serious and urgent concerns about the City of Nashua’s screening practices, concerns that City officials have repeatedly refused to address. A Nashua resident recently informed me that her father, a local … Read more
Nashua residents should be paying close attention as the city heads toward what could become an 8% property‑tax increase in 2027. Despite public assurances from Mayor Donchess that departments were instructed to hold budget growth to 3%, many divisions have submitted increases far beyond that limit, and the Board of Aldermen appears content to approve … Read more
The Debt Service section of the City of Nashua’s FY2027 Budget raises serious concerns about transparency and accountability. When residents review a city budget, they reasonably expect to see a complete and accurate picture of the debt obligations for which Nashua taxpayers are ultimately responsible. Unfortunately, the FY2027 presentation does not meet that standard. On … Read more
Nashua residents deserve a budget process grounded in accuracy, transparency, and accountability. Yet the FY2027 Budget Book, distributed publicly and posted on the city website, contains significant omissions and inconsistencies that materially distort the city’s financial picture. Whether these errors stem from oversight or mismanagement, the impact is the same: taxpayers are being presented with … Read more
In every city, trust in government is built on a simple principle: taxpayers have the right to know how their money is being spent. In Nashua, that principle is now being tested. As the FY2027 budget moves forward, residents are being asked to accept a spending plan without access to the detailed line‑item information that … Read more
Since moving to Nashua in 2013, I have seen a significant shift in how City Hall interacts with residents. For many years, City Hall operated with an open‑door policy: any resident could walk in, pay or obtain a bill, review assessment files, or speak directly with a city employee without an appointment. Customer service and … Read more
For many years, I heard references to “Sunshine Week” without understanding what it truly represented. I assumed it was simply a New Hampshire expression signaling the arrival of spring. Only later did I learn that it stands for something far more significant, something that has become personally very important to me. When I purchased my … Read more
A Closer Look Mayor Donchess wanted the State of New Hampshire to spend $20 million to acquire the Xinhua property for housing development, yet this plan omits critical financial realities. The City of Nashua stands at a crossroads where enforcing existing tax regulations could recover significant unpaid revenues from delinquent property owners, including Xinhua itself. … Read more
The City of Nashua is designated a “Welcoming City,” and Nashua taxpayers are funding a $191 million school budget, yet there has been very little public discussion about how staffing levels connect to that cost. According to district information, 49 languages are spoken among Nashua students of 9,701, reflecting policies that encourage immigrant and refugee … Read more
Maintaining High Performance and Efficiency on the Bench Demands a Firm Retirement Standard, Not Political Convenience. New Hampshire voters have already spoken, rejecting a constitutional amendment to raise the mandatory retirement age for judges from 70 to 75. Yet, despite this direct public feedback, this costly and ill-advised proposal, CACR9, is back on the legislative … Read more
It was disappointing to read Alderman Derek Thibeault’s recent Union Leader op-ed claiming that “some candidates are distorting the truth” about Nashua’s debt. In fact, it is Alderman Thibeault who has misled the public about the city’s financial position. Alderman Thibeault stated that “claims of Nashua having $500 million in debt are flat-out false” and … Read more
By now, most Americans have heard about the Justice Department’s 2025 National Health Care Fraud Takedown, which uncovered $14.6 billion in fraudulent schemes involving Medicare and taxpayer funds. What you may not realize is that this kind of fraud is happening quietly and regularly, to people like me, and possibly to you. In January 2023, … Read more
I am writing to express my deep concern regarding your appointment of Attorney Timothy Bush to the Judicial Selection Commission, which is tasked with reviewing candidates for vacancies on the New Hampshire Supreme Court and lower Courts. My concern arises from direct experience with Attorney Bush in his role as Chair of the Nashua Ethics … Read more
Mayor Donchess likes to remind us that a few residents are costing the city thousands of dollars on Right To Know Requests. The problem is that Mayor Donchess does not want transparency and would like to keep the residents from knowing what he is doing with our tax dollars and how he is running the … Read more