By ROGER AMSDEN, LACONIA DAILY SUNLACONIA — Belknap County Commissioners say many of the increases in this year’s proposed $29,055,233 budget are already “baked in the cake” by previous actions of the Belknap County Delegation. In a letter to the editor published in Wednesday’s Laconia Daily Sun, commissioners say that the virtual depletion of the county’s fund balance automatically created a $2.2 million tax increase for 2018. The lack of money in the fund balance is estimated to increase borrowing costs by $144,000. Commissioners decided against using any money from the depleted county fund balance, which is projected to amount to only $770,000 at the close of the current fiscal year. The fund balance, which stood at $6.991 million in 2006 and peaked at $8.234 million in 2011, has been dropping ever since.

Source: Daily Sun December 07, 2017 09:56 UTC