L-R foreground: Chris Tague, Dick Carpender, Dr. Susan Lusi; on dais, Councilors Dennis Canario, Jim Seveney, Huck Little, Peter McIntyre, Jeff Plumb, Karen Gleason. (not pictured: Keith Hamilton).

At a joint meeting with the School Committee this evening, the Portsmouth Town Council voted 4-3 not to reduce this year's school appropriation by $217K, the amount left over in the department's general fund. Despite being advised by the Town Solicitor that the action would pass legal muster, the Council, after lengthy discussion, made the decision in a vote that cut across party lines, with Republicans Hamilton and Plumb joining Democrats Canario and Seveney.

An earlier offer by the School Committee to transfer to the town approximately $114K, some of which was due to be paid next year, was rejected by the Council. The School Committee later met separately and voted unanimously to approve the resolution, according to School Committee chair Dick Carpender.

[update follows][update 2: changes to following paragraph to be more precise about numbers and add download link for resolution (PDF 43Kb).]

During the joint session, Carpender explained the School Committee proposal as an attempt to "work with the town," saying that because of unexpected imapact aid from the Federal government, they would be able to contribute $60K from the fund balance (with the recognition that it would be credited to the Wind Turbine enterprise fund next year) and increase the payment for the building warrant to $14K for an immediate contribution of $74K, with a promise to make a contribution of another $40K in June assuming the financial picture remained constant. He did warn the Council that the school had some early warning that the district's Special Education numbers were up, which could increase the payment to the regional SPED consortium by as much as $300K. "That's why we're asking the Council to work with us," said Carpender, so that the schools were not "going into next year with at $200K shortfall."

After discussion, which raised the issue of dipping into the fund balance as the only likely alternative, Councilor Jim Seveney moved to accept the lower amount, but the resolution failed 5-2 with Seveney and fellow Democrat Dennis Canario the sole yes votes.

Then Tailgunner Gleason moved to reduce the Town's appropriation for the schools by $217K, and Councilor Huck Little seconded.

Canario immediately voiced opposition to this approach. "My concern is that the school department is going to be stretching themselves too much for comfort." He questioned whether dipping into the fund balance was necessarily a risk, given that the town been able to put more than anticipated away in the past year ($1.2M when we had promised the rating agencies $120K)

Seveney argued that taking the money from the schools made it appear that the Council "will take [money] from the schools even if it does create problems tomorrow" and suggested that dipping into the fund balance posed less risk. Councilor Keith Hamilton agreed, saying that reducing the school appropriation was "robbing Peter to pay Paul."

The discussion was opened for brief public comment, and Phil Driscoll pointed out that $217K is "not an awful lot of money considering a $35M budget." Chris Carceller asked about the specific impacts — a potential bond rating increase weighed against the places in the school budget where a 200K savings might be realizable: closing a school, cutting sports or extracurriculars. "I don't know where you make up those kind of numbers," Carpender replied. "You go to the places that were just mentioned. A bunch of things that would not be pretty."

Parent Jon Harris questioned the risk of a lowered bond rating. "I'm a managing partner at a wealth management firm," he said. "I deal with rating agencies all the time. If you increased your fund balance by $1.2M and your agreement was 10%, I don't think there is any risk. To raise that tonight is not that responsible a remark. You've got a proposal to get $114K on the table," he advised. "Take it"

Whether Harris's comments were decisive is a matter of speculation, but it certainly took the wind out of the "bond rating" argument, and when McIntyre called for a vote, it was just him, Little, and Gleason supporting her motion to cut the school budget.

I want to very publicly thank Councilors Hamilton and Plumb (and I suggest that other school supporters might want to do the same.) This would have been a disaster for Portsmouth students, and these guys voted with great thoughtfulness.

The School Committee reconvened in the planning board room, where Carpender told me later they unanimously approved a resolution to transfer the $114K to the Town.

The Council moved on to the second half of their agenda, the first round budget hearing for civic support, as groups that provide services for Portsmouth residents come to ask the Council to help with expenses. This is the third year I've been covering this (see 2008, 2007) and it never stops sucking. The groups that are absolutely critical agencies (the "A" list) never get what they ask for, and the "B" and "C" groups (public service organizations and youth athletics) get zero.

It's two hours of "We help pay for heating for seniors," "we provide hospice care," "we prevent suicide," and the Council reduced to saying, over and over, "You do great work. Please don't take this personally." Followed by: Zero dollars.

This is not the fault of the Council, nor the Town Administration, nor the residents of Portsmouth. The only analogy I can summon is from an episode of Star Trek, The Original Series, called The Trouble with Tribbles. Tribbles are cute, furry, featurless critters sold to folks on the Enterprise as pets. The "trouble" with them is that, freed from their natural predators, they reproduce exponentially, rapidly filling up the ship. They get into a storage compartment of wheat and soon consume it.*

[I can practically hear the folks in the PCC drawing their own inferences about liberal spenders and big government. But wait.]

When the crew finds the tribbles, they are all dead. "In the middle of a compartment full of grain," muses Captain Kirk, "They starved to death." The grain, we discover, was infected with a virus that prevents them from absorbing nutrients.

In this evening's performance, the part of the virus will be played by the S3050 tax cap.

Because in a real sense, people in our community are starving with food all around them. Do you know how much your tax bill would have gone up to cover that $200K the Town wanted to take from the schools? About $17. Or to fully fund organizations like the Samaritans, Newport County Community Mental Health, and the Visiting Nurse Service? About 8 bucks. That's not 8 bucks a thousand. That's 8 bucks on the total tax bill for your $300,000 house.

Eight bucks is an invisible rounding error on a $3,000 yearly tax bill. And yet, with that money, we could literally be saving people's lives.

And we're not. Today, we are all tribbles.

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Also announced at the meeting: the formal dedication of the Portsmouth Wind Turbine will be May 12 at 3:30, in an event featuring Gov. Carcieri.

*Editorial note to the fen: Please, please read this before sending me angry e-mails. I *know* I'm simplifying the story here. I know it's a space station, and I know it's quadrotriticale, and I know it's based on Heinlein's flat cats.