Mayor Ruais unveils budget proposal for FY 2026
Comes in 2.33% under Tax Cap, and Delivers essential services in cost-effective manner
Saves taxpayers nearly $1.5 million, rejects $1 million in spending requests
MANCHESTER, NH – Mayor Jay Ruais unveiled his budget for FY2026 on Thursday during an address to a special meeting of the Board of Mayor and Alderman. His proposed budget comes 2.33% under the Tax Cap that has been set at 4.27% for Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26).
Commenting on his spending plan overall, Ruais said, “I am proud to report that FY26 marks the second budget in a row where we have come further under the Tax Cap than any other previous Tax Cap budget. It meets the needs of our city, while also protecting taxpayers. Our singular focus is on the delivery of essential services in the most cost-effective manner. Budgets are about making choices, reaching compromise and finding balance. In doing so, we identified nearly $1.5 million in savings and rejected over $1 million in spending requests.”
Ruais described his fiscal plan for FY26 as reality-based, saying, “I concentrated on the things we could manage, and the things that were under our control.” He added, “The conversation at City hall is squarely focused on how few dollars we spend, without crossing that red line into cutting the essential services our citizens depend on every day.”
The mayor credited the city’s department heads for, “working tirelessly to provide the information needed to produce a plan that delivers for the city, and making the budget effort possible.”
Excerpts from the Mayor’s Address:
Protecting Taxpayer Dollars:
“This budget protects and provides for our taxpayers in the following ways: We do not spend a single city dollar on hiring new employees. Outside of statutory requirements, and contract increases, every department, accept Police, is level-funded. MPD received an additional $1.175 million. On the city side, we identified nearly $1.5 million in savings, and rejected over $1 million in spending requests that would have increased the tax rate.”
Limiting New Spending:
“The vast majority of new spending in this budget is from areas we have either reached consensus on as a city, or are required to by contract or law. There was a consensus on the Board of Mayor and Aldermen that we needed to bring our city employees to market rate, which, when adding in all total costs beyond salary, amounted to approximately $7 million. We are faced with increased healthcare payments for our city employees, which is estimated to cost $400,000. For perspective, that number was five times higher in last year’s budget. Additionally, we’re required by state law to cover increased costs for the Welfare Department which totaled an extra $300,000. Contracts held by our various departments increased by $79,000, and we’re allocating $1.175 million in additional dollars to the Manchester Police Department. That’s it. That’s all the new spending on the city side.”
Being Responsible Stewards of Taxpayer Dollars:
“As a city, we must live within our means. We must also continue to supply critical city services. We can accomplish both of these directives because they are not mutually exclusive. Expectations are high here. We must continue to deliver these services with consistency, pride and professionalism.”
“Another important piece to responsible budgeting is about getting creative in finding ways to provide services without balancing that on the back of taxpayers. Which is why we are:
Using the Opioid Abatement Fund to fund Hope for NH Recovery services. Utilizing this same fund to offset costs for Squad One, an essential, lifesaving unit, within the Manchester Fire Department. Tapping the Affordable House Trust Fund to expand transitional housing in the City of Manchester. Auctioning off 15 vacant city lots raising $1.13 million for the city’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund. A second auction will be coming this spring. Using a new grant coordinator to find state and federal dollars the city may be missing out on.”
“We also realized savings in our utilities, and salt, eliminating funded vacancies, and gave DPW the ability to haul containers in house, instead of paying for an outside vendor.”
Focusing on Safety and Essential Services:
Ruais noted that of the 18 city departments, three make up roughly 80% of city spending: Police, Fire and DPW. “When putting the budget together, I have a few foundational components that I think we can all agree on: If someone calls the Police, they should have the resources to answer that call. If there is a fire emergency, the Fire Department should be able to respond swiftly and Manchester residents want their trash picked up, potholes filled and road paved.”
Police
“On top of the current 3% Cost of Living Adjustment, this budget allocates an additional $1.175 million to the Department to assist in their efforts to further reduce crime and take care of our officers.”
“The Manchester Police Department recently released their Annual Report which showed a 15% reduction in crime. They reported 4,753 arrests, 854 City Ordinance Violations, and 2,086 traffic summonses all while maintaining a citizen positive satisfaction score of 85% of those they had direct contact with. A tremendous testament to the leadership of Chief Marr, AC Loui and all the men and women of this extraordinary Department.
Fire
“For the first time in our City’s history, we were awarded the SAFER Grant, totaling $3.7 million to fund the hiring of 12 firefighters which will dramatically increase our ability to respond to calls. As our city continues to grow, we are committed to protecting our residents, visitors and businesses from any and all threats. This grant will only last for three years, and then we as a city will have to pay for these new firefighters. To address that, and set Manchester up for fiscal success, our budget begins building in the dollars we will need in year four by allocating $200,000 this year to responsibly plan for when these federal dollars go away. Safeguarding those who defend us is a priority, and for that reason we are also including $100,000 for lifesaving protection equipment for the Department.”
“In 2024, the Manchester Fire Department responded to 28,794 calls for service and 55,712 units were deployed. This equates to receiving a call every 18 minutes of every day for 365 days a year, a truly remarkable statistic speaking to their own heroism on our behalf.”
DPW
“This budget makes filing potholes and polishing up our parks a priority. Last year, the Department of Public Works completed 1,798 requests regarding potholes, almost 5 per day. This does not include the ones they fill on their own, without a request. Long story short, they’ve been busy. DPW also completed over 43 miles of roadway improvement including preservation, maintenance and rehabbing. That was with $5.3 million worth of funding. This year, pulling from four different areas in the budget, we will allocate over $7 million to our roads throughout the city.”
“Additionally, through our bonding budget, we are allocating $300,000 to retrofit our playgrounds, $300,000 toward paving our parks, $250,000 in deferred maintenance for our parks and $150,000 in lighting. I also want to highlight Alderman Barry’s leadership on behalf of the Wolfe Park Recreation Complex, and thank Aldermen Vincent and Thomas as well for their efforts. In this budget, between bonding and CDBG, we have included $500,000 to begin the work of making this dream a reality.”
Lighting up our Downtown
“One of my priorities is lighting up our Downtown. When you look at other downtowns, many of them are lit up like the 4th of July. They’re warm and inviting. A well-lit downtown says come enjoy a show, have dinner, take in a concert or baseball game…in the process, you create beautiful memories. In Manchester that means, The Palace Theatre, The Rex, SNHU Arena and Delta Dental Stadium along with great restaurants. To that end, we will invest $100,000 in lighting up our downtown from our Cash CIP.”
Paying City Workers at the Market Rate:
“This budget also accounts for the generational opportunity we have to bring our city employees to market competitive pay. This will go a long way toward filling our current vacancies across the city as well as retaining our workforce in today’s competitive world. There was a consensus on the Board of Mayor and Aldermen that we needed to bring our city employees to market rate, which, when adding in all total costs beyond salary, amounted to $7 million. This means, among other things, that our city will be run more efficiently, it will be safer and our potholes will be filled more quickly. We will also ultimately realize savings as our spending on overtime will decrease as we attract and retain our employees.”
Making Progress on Affordable Housing:
“[We] are the number one hottest housing market in the United States which is clearly a sign that people want to live here, and we’re making positive improvements, it also puts upward pressure on housing prices.”
“Focusing on bringing in more housing, and more specifically affordable housing is incredibly important. Which is why we are allocating $1.16 million in federal HOME funds to Neighborworks Southern New Hampshire in order to finish the Pearl Street Lot project. This will allow us to increase our supply of decent, safe and affordable housing units in the city. This is slated to bring 125 affordable units into the city in the near future.”
Helping Seniors, Children and our most Vulnerable
“The budget I’m presenting tonight is also dedicated to helping our seniors, children, and the most vulnerable among us. Money from the FY26 Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG) has been allocated to support a variety of critical programs: $42,600 to Meals & Wheels of Hillsborough County to provide meals and support to 200 homebound elderly individuals. $63,000 to Amoskeag Health and Helping Hands Outreach to provide health care to 300 uninsured individuals and licensed alcohol and drug counseling to 55 individuals.
$15,000 to CASA and $9,000 to the Child Advocacy Center of Hillsborough County for support services to 276 children that have suffered the effects of abuse and neglect. And, $9,000 to Big Brothers Big Sisters of New Hampshire.”
“These funds will go a long way toward giving a hand up to the most vulnerable in our community, while also lifting up our community partners. I will be the first one to say we have more work to do, but we should be deeply proud of the progress we continue to make in this city.”
Making Progress on Substance Misuse:
“One area that has kept our first responders busy over the last decade is the scourge of addiction, and overdoses. We are blessed to have Director Thomas, the ROAR Team and our entire Health Department who have been doing God’s work to tackle this challenging issue.
I recently celebrated 15 years of sobriety, and I am so proud of our city, community partners and our partnerships with the State of New Hampshire because we can report that overdoses in Manchester fell last year by 21%, and overdose fatalities fell by 24%.”
“While this is cause for celebration, we must double down on our effort to further address and reduce overdoses. It also means we have to keep our staff in place to continue the advances we are making across the city in public health. In our budget, we are transferring two Community Health Nurses and a Public Health Specialist off of ARPA funding, and onto our Health Services Reserve Account. These individuals play a vital role within our community and are essential components to our healthcare continuum.”
Making strides with Homelessness:
“Homelessness, as we know, has been a chronic issue in Manchester, which is why since being sworn in, we have undertaken 18 different initiatives to address it. I’d like to take one minute and read you into my thinking regarding a recent action taken by the Executive Council.
Yesterday, the Council voted to unanimously approve $500,000 in state funding for the Beech Street Engagement Center and Shelter. As I’ve previously discussed with this Board, these dollars will take the shelter through the end of the summer.”
“All of this brings me to today’s message: The state funding we’ve received is a vital bridge. Because the need remains urgent, I’ll be asking this Board on Tuesday to approve contracts that will allow us to allocate those dollars swiftly and responsibly. We can see an end to this emergency need, but we are not there yet.”
Budgeting for Education:
“The budget I am proposing for the Manchester School District is $236.4 million, this includes an extra $2 million. We are reducing the district’s budget request by $9.5 million, while still providing a record level of funding for the coming fiscal year.”
“Funding for public schools has been an important topic of conversation across the state.
When I was sworn in, MSD’s baseline number was approximately $227 million. Over the last two fiscal years, the School District has requested roughly $16.7 million more. Last year, through the budget process we appropriated $1 million. This year I am proposing we allocate an additional $2 million. That represents a reduction in their request of city dollars of $13.7 million. Last fall, the Manchester School District received $6.5 million in State Adequacy Aid. These additional dollars did not increase the tax rate.”
“In summary, if these numbers tonight are the final allocations from the BMA, the School District will have received $9.5 million more dollars than they had prior to this Board being seated, but have seen their requested amount reduced by $13.7 million. This is a balanced approach. $9.5 million more dollars received, $13.7 million less than requested.”
FY 2026 Budget Highlights
4.27% Allowable Tax Cap:
- Mayor’s Budget is 1.94%
- 2.33% under the allowable tax cap
Municipal Spending:
- Total City spending is $200,606,398
- Includes nearly $1.5million in savings
- Rejects $1.1million in spending requests
- Level funds city departments, except for an extra $1.175million to the Police Department
- Not one city dollar towards hiring any new employees
- Covers $400,000 in increased Healthcare costs
- Covers $300,00 in increased costs per law for Welfare Department
- Includes $79,000 in additional Contract costs from various departments
- Includes $7 million to bring city employee salaries to market competitive rates
School District:
- Budget increased by $2 million; Total appropriation is $236,499,925
- A record level of funding from the city for the new fiscal year
Capital Improvements: Roads, Sidewalks and Parks:
- $7 million in road infrastructure and improvements
- $750K in park renovations, upgrades and maintenance
- $500K to begin the Wolfe Park Recreation Complex
Affordable Housing:
- Allocates $1.16 million of federal funds to finish construction of 125 units of affordable housing on the Pearl Street parking lot.
CDBG/ESG/Home:
- Funding to Families in Transition and Waypoint to address homelessness for families and youths: $149,800
- Funding to Fun in the Sun summer camp for students in grades 1 to 7: $50,000
- Funding to Office of Youth Services Summer programming benefitting 75 youths: $10,000
- Funding to demolition projects to take down unhealthy structures: $100,000
Community Improvement Program (CIP):
- Funding to Meals on Wheels to help 200 homebound seniors: $42,600
- Funding to Amoskeag Health and Helping Hands Outreach: $63,000
- Funding to CSA $15,000 and the Child Advocacy Center $9,000
- Funding to Big Brothers and Sisters $9,000 and Girls, Inc. $10,000
- Funding to MEDO for increased downtown lighting: $100,000
First Responders:
- Funding for lifesaving protective gear for MFD: $100,000
- Allocates $200,000 to start salary fund for 12 firefighters hired with federal grant that will expire
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Mayor Jay Ruais
Annual State of the City Address
“From Promises to Progress to Planning for the Future”
February 12, 2025
Thank you, Scott, and good morning to you all!
Today marks my second State of the City address, an event I truly look forward to.
Wonderful to see many of our Department Heads and Aldermen, and School Board Members, thank you all for coming and your dedication to the City of Manchester.
Thank you for the invitation to join the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce here at the NHIOP -- the perfect venue to deliver a speech.
I remember being here years ago when I worked for a Congressman. I was the stressed-out staffer in the back frantically checking emails, and sending text messages. I also had more hair. Those days remind me how blessed I am to be in my current position. Just goes to show you, fake it ‘till you make it, I guess.
Speaking of amazing changes of fate, I had an interesting thing happen 11 days ago, my wife and I became parents. Baby Brielle came a little early, proving once again that man makes plans and God laughs.
My wife is my hero. We spent a week at Elliot Hospital, and she was doing homework to make sure she finishes her Bachelor’s Degree on time in April, while also doing remote work for her job.
I’ve mentioned before that she immigrated from Peru, and I joked with her after Brielle was born that while being married to me isn’t the American Dream, I think she’s doing quite well for herself.
I know this sounds like something a politician should say, but I genuinely love every second of this job. It’s a privilege to wake up every morning and have the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of those who call the Queen City Home.
Standing here, I am reminded of the many extraordinary public figures who have taken their turn at this podium.
Abraham Lincoln was not one of them. However, I do want to wish our 16th president a very Happy 216th Birthday. He is one of my favorite, most inspiring figures in American political life. More on him later.
You might be wondering what some of my thoughts are as I reflect on one year at City Hall?
My first reality is this: While my time in office is finite, my duty to the city is indefinite. It’s incumbent upon us to leave Manchester a better place.
I want to be able to look back and say, we listened and we got things done.
In the final analysis, we are accountable. I don’t have the luxury of just saying “NO” all the time. We have to find compromise and bring people together.
Sometimes both sides of the political aisle get mad, but the only thing that matters is that we deliver for the people of Manchester.
You also need to show courage and conviction when faced with criticism, whether earned or unearned.
As I look out on this audience, I know that every President, every CEO, every Executive here can relate to what I’m saying.
One of the greatest things about being Mayor is all the people you get to meet. At ribbon cuttings, coin tosses at high school football games, big events on Elm Street, graduations, and yes, Town Halls.
You may have heard about the 14 Town Halls we’ve held. We did one in every ward last year, and have started making the rounds again. It’s the best way to get feedback and hear what’s on peoples’ minds.
It also keeps me humble. And it’s totally okay…I take it in stride because of all politicians, Mayors are absolutely the closest to their constituents.
So, what have we been up to, and where are we going?
Of all the issues we deal with, I believe Safety is my most important duty, and one that is non-negotiable.
Fortunately, we have two strong, capable partners in that pursuit: MPD’s Chief Peter Marr, and MFD’s Chief Ryan Cashin. We all share the same “everyday attention to detail” philosophy.
Bail Reform is an essential component of Public Safety.
In January, I testified in Concord in support of HB 592 which would keep violent and repeat offenders off our streets and behind bars.
Just this past week, we had two more examples of why this is extraordinarily important. You may have heard about them. One involved a man stabbed over a dozen times, the other was a bank robbery. Both of the individuals arrested for these crimes received PR Bail.
In what world does that make sense?
This is especially maddening when we learned more: the man arrested for stabbing had a conviction for Domestic Violence on his record and, the guy who held up the bank had three previous bank robberies convictions in New York. Clearly, we need bail reform now more than ever.
Where is the justice for the victims?
Where is the justice for the police?
Where is the justice for our residents and businesses?
On what planet is this acceptable and what is it going to take for this madness to end?
This problem is not just anecdotal, strong numbers back up this type of criminal behavior:
In 2024, there were 2,971 adults arrested in Manchester. These individuals accounted for 4,551 arrests because 27-percent of them were arrested more than once.
Of the 2,971 arrested, 715 or 24-percent of them were out on bail at the time of arrest. This is entirely unacceptable.
There could be nothing more transformative in Manchester than taking nearly one-thousand criminals off our streets. The city would literally change overnight.
Our police department is filled with heroes from top to bottom. Like many departments, we are experiencing a shortage of officers. Our vacancies typically hover around 20.
We ask them to do a tough job, and the difficulty of their work is compounded when they do the hard work, arrest someone, and that person is then let out to reoffend. This madness has to stop.
I have also testified in support of legislation that would raise the mandatory minimum sentences for fentanyl distribution. Those who peddle this poison should be taken off of our streets immediately.
Last year we eliminated a program and transferred the balance of funds to the MPD to create a greater police presence on our streets and in the parks downtown. This has resulted in hundreds of additional arrests and citations, and dramatically changed the look and feel of the downtown.
We also gave the MPD an additional $100K in ARPA funds to help with recruiting to fill these vacancies.
As we enter into the budget season this year, we will ensure our police have everything they need to do their jobs effectively, and I will continue to work with the Governor and Legislature to pass Group 2 Pension reform to help with retention.
For years, the Manchester Fire Department had applied for a SAFER Grant which provides federal funding to bring on new firefighters.
This $3.7 million grant is allowing us to bring on 12 new fully funded firefighters for 3 years dramatically increasing our ability to respond to emergencies in the city. Thank you Chief Cashin for all your hard work in making this possible.
We’re also budgeting now to handle the eventual loss of these federal funds to ensure our taxpayers are protected.
On the campaign trail, and throughout my first year in office, my top goal has been to increase housing in our city, more specifically Affordable Housing.
It’s telling when I speak with those involved in healthcare, or education or businesses around the city, we don’t often talk about healthcare, education, or business, we talk about housing.
Manchester has been designated the Hottest Housing Market in the Country, and ranked one of the top places to live, which is good news because it means our city is a destination for families and businesses and we’re thriving.
But it also creates upward pressure on housing prices, and with a .6% vacancy rate, presents challenges in affordability. A healthy housing market is around 6%, so we literally have one one hundredth of the housing we need.
However, we are making progress. In 2024:
- The city issued 535 Certificates of Occupancy
- 600 new dwellings came on line
- 707 units are in active construction
- Through the use of 79-E: we approved affordable housing units at Lamont Hanley Building on Elm Street.
- We made a $200K expenditure from the Affordable Housing Trust Fund to create 8 units for previously unhoused women that just opened.
- And we supported $1.65 million of federal funds for affordable housing on Pearl Street and right now, there are 300 units of affordable housing under construction.
Manchester has been designated a “Housing Champion” by the state’s Department of Business and Economic Affairs. This qualifies the city to apply for millions in grant funding to help advance innovative housing solutions and infrastructure projects.
Huge shout out to our Economic Development Director Jodie Nazaka for her work on this proposal to receive this designation.
We’re also in the process of conducting our first Zoning Re-Write in over 20 years, and only the fourth one in our city’s history. With tremendous public input, Manchester is committed to making our ordinances more user-and business friendly as well as making certain they reflect what our city needs both now and into the future.
A thank you is in order to our Planning and Community Development Director, Jeff Belanger, and his staff for the yeoman’s work they are putting into fostering open dialogue with the city, the aldermen, and myself in an effort to get this right and implemented.
We got creative and sold 15 vacant city lots at public auction generating $1.13 million for the city’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund. And thank you to Brenda Masewick who has been the driving force for this in the Tax Department, and is now an auction expert.
We are about to undertake our second round of this initiative, and I would encourage all of you to attend the auction. It is a blast!
The issue I spend the majority of my time on is addressing Homelessness. There is no silver bullet or quick fix to this challenge, but our Team of Irina Owens and Owen Westover work on it every day.
It is truly a mix of mental health, and addiction issues, unaddressed trauma, lack of affordable housing and more. None of these scream “overnight solutions”.
My message on Homelessness is simple: it should be rare, brief and one time.
As I’ve stated from the beginning, this needs to be addressed in a comprehensive way. Ensuring our ordinances and laws are enforced, addressing the underlying drivers and creating more affordable housing. And we have implemented 16 different initiatives with that goal in mind.
We know addiction can be an ever-changing issue, but we are proud to report that overdoses in Manchester are falling significantly.
Our Recovery Overdose Addiction Response Team known as ROAR – is on the street, preventing overdoses and connecting people with life-saving services. They are running into the burning buildings of people’s lives and extinguishing the flames.
Thanks to their work - drug and fatal overdoses are down by 21 and 24 percent respectively.
I want to thank Andrew Warner, his team, and our Director of Public Health, Anna Thomas for their lifesaving work on this issue.
What do those numbers mean when we break them down into human terms?
It means in 2024, we had fewer broken hearts, fewer parentless children, fewer lost futures. More hope, more tomorrows, and more lives recovered.
That is something to celebrate.
We also banned camping in public spaces - the first city in the country to do so following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision upholding that right in the Grant’s Pass case.
As I previously mentioned, we are implementing our belief that if you want and need help in Manchester it exists, but if you are here to ignore our laws and ordinances that will not be tolerated. With the additional police presence we have, our streets and parks are cleaner and more enjoyable than they have been in years.
Our city’s Engagement Center is another critical piece to solving our homeless problem. From July to December of 2024,
- Over 800 provider connections were made
- More than 35 individuals were housed
- 11 gained employment
- 8 entered rehabilitation or detox and,
- 30 vital documents like birth certificates and social security cards were issued
There’s an important subset to our homeless population: our Veterans.
Men and women who bravely served our country who now find themselves without stable housing. Some are in shelters, others couch surf. Some are living in cars. Whatever their situation, it’s heartbreaking and completely unacceptable.
In September, we launched an initiative to effectively end veterans’ homeless by the end of my term in January 2026. At the time of the announcement, we identified 47 homeless vets.
When the gauntlet was laid down, our community stood up. Thanks to 10 of our local landlords, along with a dozen community stakeholders led by HarborCare, I am proud to say, 29 veterans now have long-term, sustainable roofs over their heads.
Then, we realized some of our veterans just needed help with a security deposit, money for an application fee or emergency housing. Our community rallied yet again.
This time, 6 veterans’ groups and one individual veteran donated 7-thousand dollars to our new Sustainability Fund established to cover those needs.
To be clear, these initiatives are not handouts, they are hand ups for our veterans who need just a little more support on the home front.
This idea speaks to a larger point I’d like to make about the direction we are heading with Homelessness. We must break this number down into manageable bite sized pieces, and we must address the pressure valve we have in our emergency shelters. When a person is ready to leave a shelter, there simply aren’t enough transitional, or supportive units, and not enough affordable housing. This condemns them to their current situation.
Along with veterans, we have far too many seniors, families and youths who are homelessness in Manchester. Couple that with those who struggle with mental health, and addiction and you can begin to tackle this issue by specifically targeting these unique groups who have individual challenges.
How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. This is why we started with veterans, and we will begin to expand to these other groups as we make progress.
To be clear, our work has not, and will not stop to help everyone along the way but I think coordinated, targeted strikes at specific populations can make a significant difference.
We also have an exciting project we are working on that has the potential to greatly increase the number of transitional units in our city, while getting more unhoused off our streets. We have a real opportunity to change a significant number of lives, I only wish this address were a month later so I could tell you all about it!
Another important group that’s never far from my thoughts? Our Students. Ensuring Manchester kids get the best education possible hits home to me now more than ever.
Whether it’s public, private, parochial, charter, or home schooling, a child deserves an education best suited to their needs. Parents should never be excluded from educational decisions, and Education Freedom Accounts are an important part of this mix.
Our educational system is inherently important to the long-term health of our city.
While more work remains, we have exciting things going on within our School District. Last year, the District graduated nearly 800 students who earned almost a half a million dollars in scholarships.
Central’s FIRST robotics team reached the world championships. Students won accolades in arts and music competitions at the state level. In athletics, District students earned state championships and saw a resurgence of programs, notably including football at Memorial and West.
Following declines in prior years, the district saw stabilization in overall enrollment for the start of 2024-2025 school year.
The overall graduation rate has increased year over year as the District continues its focus on career-connected learning pathways, with career-exploration work starting as early as elementary school.
There’s good news regarding Attendance too: Our rates are going up. Kids in class more often means better learning across all grades.
20% of our students are English Learners, and with 57 languages spoken in our schools, we must remain committed to ensuring they have all the resources necessary to be successful both in school and upon graduation. Building off this effort, the District launched a dual-language immersion program, this one is Spanish to English, a first in the state, at Bakersville Elementary, with a second immersion program, French to English, set to launch in the near future.
We will continue our work to increase attendance, and graduation rates, while eliminating distractions in our classrooms like cell phones.
A few additional successes I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention!
To use an aviation term, the status at the airport is Ceiling and Visibility Unlimited!
MHT welcomed 3 new airlines in 2024, and 10 new routes, including Jet Blue, our White Whale, a partnership more than 20 years in the making.
If you’ve noticed a big difference in the cleanliness of our Downtown and our Parks - you’d be correct.
Supported by the businesses and commercial property owners of the Central Business Service District (CBSD) and lead by Jose Sanchez, and Director Nazaka, our new Street Ambassadors work in all types of weather. They have provided the following services over the past 6 months, they have made an incredible difference to our city:
- Collected 82,410 pounds of trash, and
- Removed 820 Stickers
- Pressured Washed 950 block faces
- Removed 606 Pieces of Graffiti, and
- Got rid of 174 Large Items of Debris
Next up: the City Budget
I have met with all our department heads and we’re right in the thick of it now so I don’t want to give too much away, but I will mention a couple things.
Last year, despite inheriting a $10.7 million deficit on the city side alone, the Board of Mayor and Aldermen was still able to deliver a budget that came further under the tax cap than any budget since the inception of the cap.
I will never gut essential city services, and I will always put the taxpayer first.
I want to thank Alderman Morgan for his leadership in righting a wrong. For six years, the city has operated without a Charter Mandated Independent City Auditor. The Alderman and I worked together to identify funding to bring on this important position to ensure our city dollars are spent wisely, with oversight, and accountability.
Two years ago, the Manchester School District entered into contracts which brought their employees to market rates, giving them a competitive chance to land the best educators.
This year, we have a similar opportunity on the city side with our own comprehensive compensation study that was completed. I have ridden on the garbage trucks, removed graffiti, done ride-a-longs with the police, and Squad One at the fire department, while visiting every department, and I know we have the finest workers around.
I am committed to ensuring our city workers are compensated fairly, while continuing to ensure our taxpayers are protected. And I want to thank Director Lisa Drabik, and her team, for their steadfast leadership in shepherding this through the process these last few years.
I’ve talked about the countdown clock in my office a lot. Today, the clock tells me I have 328 days left.
Yes, it’s a good visual and conversation starter, but, as I tell my wife, there’s a method to that madness.
We cannot, and we must not focus solely on the tactical, we have to simultaneously implement a long-term strategy to take Manchester to an even higher plane.
Far too often, politicians think only in terms of election cycles, and not what’s best for their community over the long term. It’s tremendously important for us as leaders to lay out a vision for what we’d like to accomplish, while also planting the seeds for future success.
And that’s what we are committed to doing here. In the coming weeks, we will unveil our “Together We Rise: 50 Initiatives, One Future” collection of plans we would like to implement in the coming years. These ideas come from our countless town halls, community and Aldermanic meetings and more.
It’s aggressive, but that’s what people expect from the city that is as enduring as its iconic mill buildings. The city that always leads the way.
So, let me give you a sneak peek into some of these ideas:
Our downtown should be as bright as our future. You look at photos of other cities and their downtowns are always lit up like the 4th of July. This creates a warm, and welcoming environment, it also helps to deter crime. In our upcoming budget, we will allocate funds for this purpose and work to get them installed ASAP.
One of the consistent refrains at our Town Hall meetings is the condition of our roads. I am committed to making an historic investment in our infrastructure this year.
It’s becoming clear that Artificial Intelligence is the wave of the future, and we are seeing more cities utilize this technology to help deliver services. We will develop both an AI Policy Guide for our city’s future, and also seek to implement items like an AI Chatbot to facilitate user interaction between our departments and our residents.
For the first time in our city’s history, we have hired a grant coordinator, which presents us with an incredible opportunity to deliver more resources to our community without burdening the taxpayer. Utilizing this position, we will increase communication and collaboration between our city departments, residents, and nonprofits to advance our service delivery in Manchester. I want to thank Alderman Vincent for his leadership on this.
Through the work of our Community Needs Assessment it has become clear that Manchester needs an Age-Friendly Action Plan for our senior population. The William B. Cashin Senior Activity Center on our West Side has been a tremendous success but we know the need for the services offered there is growing.
With this in mind, we have already begun conducting a study to develop an action plan for our seniors' future. Another thank you to Director Thomas, and her entire team, for identifying this issue and taking action.
That’s 5 of the 50 ideas we have. I can’t wait to release the full plan!
I began my remarks this morning wishing Abraham Lincoln Happy Birthday. I’ll end my remarks with some final thoughts on our 16th president.
Lincoln faced numerous challenges during his presidency, the Civil War being the most obvious and serious, of course.
While none of us can match his extraordinary courage in preserving The Union, Lincoln’s management of this country’s greatest existential crisis is a master class in Leadership: setting clear goals, staying focused and being committed to the greater good.
He showed in his actions, magnanimity in victory, and defeat. He was not known to yell and scream. He was prudent. He used humor. He had no ego. He took the long view. And he welcomed differing opinions.
Lincoln also left a legacy for everyone in a position of power to emulate: He showed us Leadership is about meeting your moment.
Because -- at one point or another -- everyone in this room has been forced to meet our own moment.
I think about this often. It’s easy to get lost in the day-to-day grind, or give in to the loudest voices in the room and take short term victories that give you a sugar high.
It’s far more difficult to take the long view, to ignore the noise, the petty squabbles, and do what you believe is right. We are better than the political rhetoric of our day suggests, it hurts our ability to get things done.
Years from now when all the speeches are given, all the votes have been taken, and all the campaigns have long since been run, how do we want to be remembered?
To me this is easy.
We should strive to be remembered by the moments when the chips were down, we rolled up our sleeves, we worked together, and we made the difficult decisions that moved our city forward.
The strength of America has always been with its citizens.
The strength of our city is in you.
We are a great American city with so much to celebrate. We are blessed with a foundation of residents, civic leaders and business owners who care deeply about our hometown, people who work every day to ensure it flourishes.
As mayor, my focus is on making Manchester the best mid-sized city in the country, and I’m proud to report the state of our city is STRONG.
Thank you for your time this morning and for everything YOU do to make Manchester a vibrant city. I appreciate you being part of our city’s story and bright future.
The opportunity to lead Manchester as its 49th Mayor is the privilege of a lifetime, and I will be forever grateful for the opportunity and the trust the city has placed in me.
Thank you!
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