Town Could Seek Millions from State for Unreimbursed Spending

Hampton is in the process of defining the scope of how much taxpayers are paying to directly support state services in the hopes of addressing longstanding inequities between how much the town and state are paying at Hampton Beach and surrounding state parks.

Newly-revised projections estimate the town is paying between $4 million and $5.5 million in unreimbursed tax dollars, according to Town Manager Fred Welch, to provide emergency aid and cover costs associated with debt, depreciation and other town services on state property.

Those numbers include a variety of factors and parameters, though. Welch, town department heads and selectmen Phil Bean and Dick Nichols were scheduled this week to begin the process of refining the scope of the numbers and unreimbursed services in order for the town to schedule a the first official sit-down with the state about renumeration.

"Several million dollars is a lot of money to be carrying by taxpayers to support the beach and the state facilities," said Welch during a discussion on the issue earlier this week. "So, that alone should justify some form of renumeration by the state to assist the town in what we’re doing when their tax base is somewhat more unlimited than ours."    

Nichols, the chairman of the Hampton Board of Selectmen, said, though, that he's "absolutely adamantly opposed to any meeting with the state" about the subject until the town has numbers it can "have confidence in."

Nichols said believes there's "no way" Hampton is spending "$4.5 million" to support state operations because they can't include expenses incurred by the town on the west side of Ocean Boulevard, as the state can't control what beachgoers do at those facilities, hotels and restaurants.

"The bottom line is we are not ready to sit down and meet with somebody with these numbers," said Nichols, who has expressed interest in the vacant state parks' Seacoast supervisor position. "We will destroy our credibility, and once you destroy your credibility it's very tough to get it back. Before we start capturing numbers, the scope of the problem needs to be specifically defined.   

"That's ridiculous. It's not the state's responsibility for all of the development on the west side of Ocean Boulevard."

Not all selectmen said they completely agreed with Nichols' or Welch's assertions about how much the town should be compensated for services on state property, which solidified the argument for first deciding the focus of where and how the town would like to recoup money from the state before developing more concrete numbers.

"You need to get your ducks in a row," said Selectman Mike Plouffe.

Bean said it's the board's "responsibility" to get an "intelligent" dialogue started with the state on the issue soon, though, as the inequity has seen little progress or action in recent years despite frequent discussion.

The conversations with the state need to address services on an "actuarial basis with real numbers" because the town — not the state — is using tax dollars to pay salaries and healthcare for town employees to make arrests and provide emergency aid on state property, according to Bean.

"I think we have a lot of work to do on this," said Bean. "I think it has taken a lot of time, and I think certainly by year's end we can drill down."    

It will likely take "about 30 days before" the town is "ready to go" forward with in-depth talks with the state about renumeration for specific services, according to Welch.

Seeking the funding through legislative action is also possibility, and Nichols said this could be done through changes to the meals and rooms tax or other means.

Selectman Mary-Louise Woolsey said Hampton as at best a "snowball's chance in hell" of getting money through state government, although Nichols said he believes "it is possible" Hampton can gain support from state representatives if the town is able to compile the "right information" and "bulletproof logic" to back it up.