'Cookie jar' critics: Calling unassigned fund balance saving account was 'insulting'

The Care Pharmacy on South Main is to stable the tax rate, councilor says. (Courtesy images)

ROCHESTER - Several critics of the City of Rochester's decision to buy the former Care Pharmacy on South Main Street are assailing a City Council member who just before the May 6 vote to purchase the $3.3 million property told the council and his constituents that the unassigned fund balance is a "saving account."
"There's been some confusion about where this money is coming from and how we're spending it, and to clarify that this $3.3 million purchase is not going to have any affect on the current tax rate or bill or the upcoming tax rate or bill," explained Ward 1 City Councilor Tim Fontneau. "This is money that we're taking from a sort of savings account ... that we believe is to ensure stability in future tax rates and tax bills. So just like you would do with your home budget we are investing some of our savings into our future to stabilize the tax rate."
City officials have said they're buying it, but they don't know what their future plans are for the property, which comprises the former pharmacy and four other adjacent Sawyer Avenue properties.
"Tim is way off on this," said former state rep Cliff Newton and a frequent critics of how the unassigned fund balance is used.
"Anytime you use government money to lower the tax rates, you're raising the taxes," Newton said.
For many years Newton has characterized the unassigned fund balance as the "the cookie jar," which city officials use over and over to circumvent the tax cap enacted around 2008.
City officials have noted the 2008 is a tax cap, not a spending cap, which is where the unassigned fund balance comes into play.
An unassigned fund balance can be used for virtually any budgetary item within the general fund. This includes offsetting property taxes, funding capital improvement projects, and other budgetary needs.
"Why isn't this in the city's capital budget, which the city is putting together right now?" added Newton.
Current state rep, business owner and longtime Rochester resident Tom Kaczynski said, "The city government is out of control and spending money that could be returned to taxpayers in the form of a tax cut.
"I figure there are around 1,000 taxpayers in this town, and they (the City of Rochester), has $25-$30 million in the unassigned fund balance," he said. "I would bet that every taxpayer could be handed a $1,000 check of that money and the city would still be in good shape. Right now 60 percent of the U.S. population can't come up with $500 in an emergency The city's got so much money they're looking for places to spend it. They'll probably sell this property at favorable price to a developer.
"The fact is they're overtaxing us and accumulating this slush fund, and now they're playing Monopoly and buying Boardwalk and Park Place."
Many cities and towns often use the unassigned fund balance to return these funds to the taxpayers, including Kevin Smith, a 10-year Londonderry town manager and former chair of the Pease Development Authority, who told The Rochester Voice he returned $11 million in property tax relief to the community.
Fred Leonard, a former Strafford 1 rep and former City of Rochester mayoral candidate, called Fontneau's comments "disingenuous and insulting."
"Yeah, to the untrained eye, they have made this purchase sound pretty good, but that was a lame excuse the way he described the unassigned fund balance," he said. "People are struggling, people could use tax relief in these uncertain times."

The decision to buy the property using the unassigned fund balance, which required a three-fourths majority, was unanimous.
The Rochester Voice sought comment from Fontneau over the past several days. He never responded.