NEWPORT — Eight members of the Sullivan County Delegation wasted no time Wednesday morning deciding how to use $1,417,819 from increased Fiscal Year 18 Proshare funding from the State of New Hampshire to the county.
On a voice vote, the delegates approved a supplemental Fiscal Year 19 appropriation to increase the Fiscal Year 18 property tax offset by $417,819, using surplus Fiscal Year 19 ProShare funds.
Rep. Jim Grenier of Lempster asked how this move would affect the county tax rate.
“A reduction of about five cents per $1,000 or about 1.5 percent,” County Manager Derek Ferland responded. He also mentioned this could vary from community to community based on the overall valuation of each community.
Also approved on a voice vote was the transfer of $1 million of surplus FY18 ProShare funds to the Sullivan County Capital Reserve Fund for future use in a renovation project at Sullivan County Heath Care Facility should the project be approved in the future.
Information on preliminary payments to cover 20 and 25 years were shared by Ferland. Today’s Bond Bank interest rate on a 25-year bond is 3.55 percent, Ferland stated. Over a 20-year period it would be 3.24 percent.
“I doubt this is where those rates would be in two years,” Ferland revealed.
The county manager said he didn’t know yet what the overall price tag for the renovation work would be.
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