City Manager presents proposed FY2025 budget to Council

posted on 2/16/2024

City Manager J. Michael Joyal, Jr. presented the proposed fiscal year 2025 budget to the City Council at its meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2024. The presentation kicks off several weeks of budget meetings, workshops, and public hearings.

The City Manager's proposed budget includes the School Board's recommended budget for the School Department, which it adopted on Jan. 16, 2024. The proposed budget and a video recording of the City Manager's presentation are posted on the FY2025 Budget Revealed webpage. Other budget meetings, presentations, and associated budget documents will be posted to this page. Video recordings of the School Board's budget review and associated budget documents are posted on the Budget Revealed page. Physical copies of the complete budget are available for review at the City Clerk's office and Dover Public Library.

The total proposed FY2025 budget totals $198,713,177 across all funds, an increase of $12,036,666, or 6.4%. The General Fund budget totals $157,993,146, an increase of $8,432,880, or 5.6%.

As proposed, the budget exceeds the tax cap calculation for the General Fund by $2,110,950, with the School Board's recommended budget being $2,136,019 above the school side of the tax cap calculation, which is slightly offset on the city side being $25,069 below its half of the tax-cap calculation. This week, Joyal told the City Council the tax cap overage results from a $2,511,925 decrease in anticipated state education funding for FY2025. For the City Council to adopt the budget as currently proposed would require a two-thirds affirmative vote by the City Council as opposed to a simple majority.

Based on the average residential property assessment of $457,687, the estimated average property tax bill, based on the proposed budget, is $9,040, an increase of $481, or 5.6%. The final tax rate for Fiscal Year 2025 will be certified by the New Hampshire Department of Revenue Administration in the fall of 2024 once it has information on the adopted budget and taxable assessed property values.

The City Council will hold a public hearing on the public education side of the budget at its meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024. The public hearing on the city-side of the budget will be held at a special meeting on Wednesday, March 20.

Upcoming budget meetings and workshops

Wednesday, Feb. 21, 7 p.m.
City Council workshop
Budget review: School, Executive, Finance, Library, Welfare, and DoverNet departmental budgets

Wednesday, Feb. 28, 7 p.m.
City Council regular meeting
School budget public hearing

Wednesday, March 6, 7 p.m.
City Council workshop
Budget review: Police, Fire and Rescue, and Planning departments

Wednesday, March 20, 7 p.m.
City Council special meeting
City budget public hearing
City Council workshop to follow the special meeting
Budget review: Community Services and Recreation budgets

Wednesday, April 3, 6 p.m.
City Council workshop
General budget review
Following workshop: City Council special meeting for budget adoption

Wednesday, April 10, 7 p.m.
City Council regular meeting
Fallback budget adoption date

Sign up for the Budget Revealed newsletter

The City Manager releases a weekly newsletter, Budget Revealed, which provides a host of information about the FY2025 budget process, including a recap of any budget presentations that week and a preview of what will occur the following week. Sign up for the newsletter here: https://bit.ly/doverdownload. Select "Budget Revealed" from the list of newsletters.

An archive of the newsletters will be posted to the FY2025 Budget Revealed page.