Telegraph file photo Mayor Jim Donchess, during a recent Board of Aldermen meeting. (Telegraph file photo)

NASHUA – The Board of Aldermen Tuesday night voted 13-2 to override both of the line item vetoes that Mayor Jim Donchess submitted on July 7, thereby putting in place the city’s overall $425.4 million operating budget for fiscal 2022.

The dissenting votes were cast by Ward 3 alderwoman Trish Klee and Ward 5 alderman Ernie Jette. The 13 votes in favor easily met the two-thirds majority requirement necessary to override a mayoral veto.

Donchess’s vetoes involved the fire and police department budgets as approved by aldermen at the previous meeting. He said he cut in half his initial offer of 1.7 percent to each of the departments, which amounted to a $209,000 cut to the fire department’s bottom line and cut of $120,000 from the police department’s bottom line.

By overriding Donchess’s vetoes, aldermen gave final approval to a fiscal 2022 budget whose bottom line comes to $425,353,036 million.

Donchess said ahead of the vote that if the budget were to pass as proposed, “I think we could be headed for a 4 percent property tax increase.”

In other matters aldermen took up Tuesday, they voted unanimously to approved a petition to discontinue a section of Groton Road, also referred to as Old Groton Road.

They also authorized by unanimous vote the acquisition of a portion of property at 44 Buckmeadow Road, which is one of several parcels, most of them already owned by the city, that will comprise the site where the new middle school will be built.

Regarding the budget, Jette, one of the two board members who supported sustaining Donchess’s vetoes, said he didn’t agree with the position most of his colleagues took – that reducing the two departments’ proposed increases could have a negative impact on the services firefighters and police provide.

“I don’t think that by reducing the budget by $209,000 for the fire department and $120,000 for the police is going to drastically affect services,” he said.

But Ward 2 alderman Rick Dowd, who made the initial motion to override Donchess’s vetoes, said that while he “understands the complexity of this year’s budget” and the financial impact on the city caused by the drop in state revenue, he “cannot support the veto.

“We should not reduce the safety of our city …,” Dowd said, adding that the difference in the fire and police proposals and Donchess’s proposed cuts would raise taxes on a $300,000 home about $10-$11 per year, or less than a dollar a month,

Fire and police officials “are asking for that amount so they can continue providing the same services they did last year,” Dowd added.

Ward 4 alderman Tom Lopez said that while “I appreciate the mayor’s efforts to keep the tax rate down,” he agrees that “we can’t afford to cut back on the services” the two departments provide.

“I definitely empathize with the mayor, but we need to be fully equipped and well-trained,” he added, referring to firefighters and police.

Alderwoman-at-large and board president Lori Wilshire agreed that the budget numbers appear high, “that is what it costs to run those departments. I don’t think there’s any fat at all in this budget.”

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.