Nashua Alderman Comeau, Gouveia, and Sullivan recently voted against an ordinance (O-22-019) to fund the Downtown Improvement Committee (DIC). The DIC, in the past, received money from downtown parking revenue.
This source of funding dried up when the Alderman approved the ordinance for extended outdoor dining, closing North and South bound lanes on Main Street, thereby eliminating parking spaces. No parking, no revenue.
The Board has now approved spending $100,000 out of the general fund for the DIC to fund banners, extra street cleaning, Christmas lighting, and a part-time employee tasked to gather downtown dining data.
Taxpayers have been forced to fund the downtown cultural explosion.
The Nashua Center for Arts is costing taxpayers upwards of $2,000,000 per year, which includes the payments on a $21,000,000 bond, a yearly rental fee to the operator of the facility of $500,000 increasing to $750,000, yearly equipment rental fees of approximately $165,000, the yearly property taxes on the building and property insurance. Taxpayers will be responsible for building maintenance beyond custodial work.
What do we get back? The management company must employ people from the local low income neighborhoods because the Board accepted money from a New Market Tax Credit financing program. Additionally, the management company must donate 1500 tickets per year to low income people, provide 1% of the food and beverage sales back to the city and allocate $1.00 from each ticket sold to a building maintenance fund.
It is clear, supporting the Arts requires bundles of tax dollars.
The Board members above believed that the conscious vote to dry up the source of revenue for the DIC should not shift the burden to taxpayers for additional costs, and, this request for money from the general fund should have been vetted through the budget process, not through a special ordinance.
I agree with the Board members who voted no. But I offer another reason to not fund this Committee of the City. They have no public comment policy, do not list public comment on their agendas, and react hostile to public comment. Citizens have no way to communicate with Committee members; the general email address for the committee only reaches Director Cummings and the Chairwoman, who operates like a battle-axe.
All City committees funded with our tax dollars should permit public comment. The Board of Alderman has repeatedly stated that citizens should attend committee meetings to voice their opinions; a useless suggestion when comment isn’t allowed. The Board should legislate a public comment policy. Having only attended three DIC meetings, at all meetings, public comment was not on the agenda. Citizens have to uncomfortably argue with the Chair to attempt to speak. This creates unnecessary acrimony so typical of this City’s stifling of the citizen’s voice. No voice, no money.
Projects like this have created a heavy financial burden to property owners, many of whom will not enjoy the facility because the cost of tickets and an evening out is beyond their budgets.
Thank you Alderman Comeau, Alderman Gouveia, and Alderman Sullivan for the NO vote.
