School Board, City Council discuss tax cap, wage study

posted on 12/9/2022

The City Council and the School Board met in a joint workshop on Dec. 7 to receive preliminary budget estimates and a preliminary tax cap calculation.

The joint budget session occurs annually at the beginning of the budget season to help the School Board and City Council with budget planning. In the workshop, Finance Director Daniel Lynch discussed the tax cap and how it is calculated.

The tax cap will not be finalized until early 2024 when the Consumer Price Index for Boston-Cambridge-Newton MA-NH and the net construction/demolition permit value for Dover are finalized for 2022.

The School Board and City Council also discussed the recent findings of the teacher salary benchmark survey, which the City Council had requested during the fiscal year 2023 budget adoption process.

The School Board is in the process of creating a budget for fiscal year 2024. The School Board has met the last two Mondays for budget workshops and will continue budget discussions at its meeting on Monday, Dec. 12, followed by another budget workshop on Monday, Dec. 19. The School Board plans to adopt a budget at its Monday, Jan. 9, regular board meeting, with a fallback adoption date the following week.

Videos of budget discussions and accompanying documents are posted on the FY 2024 Budget Revealed webpage www.dover.nh.gov/government/open-government/budgetrevealed/fy2024-budget/.