Let me ask you a question – which three people, aside from your parents, had the greatest impact on your life? In my case, they are all teachers: the late Joan Ruhlman, my 4th grade math teacher; Mr. Rich Andra, my high school physics teacher; and Dr. Min-chang Lee, my thesis advisor at MIT. I’m sure many of you can also think of a teacher or two who greatly improved your life.
Let me ask another question – how does the NH median household income for 2013 compare to that of 2001 or 1989? In inflation adjusted dollars they are all equal, meaning that for at least 30 years the nation’s median household income has tracked inflation almost identically. In other words, salary increases have matched the rising cost of living.
And finally, a third question – what percentage of the Nashua city budget is spent on salaries and benefits? In some departments it’s a little higher, in others it’s lower but, depending on what items you include, it is approximately 75%.
How are these three things related? They all come together when we have to strike the right balance between budget pressures and city employee contracts.
The Nashua School Department is currently faced with a budget challenge. The challenge this year is more difficult than past years because the salary contracts, for which the teachers’ union lobbied, cost more year-over-year than inflation – by about 150%. Sadly, this budget challenge has already resulted in the elimination of ice hockey and skiing as varsity sports. In New England, this is a huge missed opportunity for our young students.
I believe we need to fully fund all aspects of our school system and I also believe that our city budget should be managed so that it does not grow faster than inflation. That way our community’s ability to pay can keep up with our expenditures. The logic is this: our community’s ability to pay is derived from families’ household incomes, and families’ household incomes track inflation. This is why the City Charter has a provision which attempts to limit our budget growth to be no faster than inflation. (This year the law was changed to allow it to grow faster than inflation.)
The salary contracts of the city’s employee unions tend to come up for a vote in the fall, but the budget which pays for these contracts gets voted on in the summer. This six month separation of these two events causes a combination of memory loss and disbelief of claims of future financial challenges. The consequence is salary contracts that grow faster than inflation, which inevitably force cuts in important budget items – like varsity sports and infrastructure investment. The math describing this problem is quite simple. If you have $3,000,000 to spend but you approve $3,000,000 in salary increases there will be nothing left for building maintenance, books, or sports programs.
Some people would rather we raise the school budget faster than we already are; but, that would require us to raise property taxes even more to support that budget. This is not a sustainable approach. As elected officials, we have a duty to ensure that our hard working public servants are rewarded for the important job they do. Yet we also have a duty to protect hard working families from onerous property tax increases. As much as I would like to give every city employee a big salary increase, I also recognize that it is not in our power to give every resident an equally large salary increase to pay for the property tax burden.
I support salary increases for individuals because I know the value of good, well rewarded teachers. But I supported a 2.5% increase, rather than the inflation-busting 3.5% that’s currently in place, because I also know the value of properly funding our school system and keeping property taxes down. I believe most taxpayers and most teachers would agree that a pay raise to match increases in the cost of living is reasonable, even if union bosses don’t see it that way.
I remember well those three teachers who were most impactful on my life and I want every young person in our community to benefit from educators as great as them. The single most important thing those three teachers taught me was how to add. Keeping our budget balanced and our school system well funded isn’t only a case of responsible policy making, it’s just simple math.
Dan Moriarty is a Nashua Alderman-at-Large, triathlete, father of four, and is considering a run for Mayor of Nashua
About Me
Alderman At-Large Dan Moriarty Biography
About Alderman At-Large Dan Moriarty
You almost certainly know one famous person from my home town of Atchison, Kansas: Amelia Earhart. It's unlikely you know that she grew up on the same street as me although obviously not at the same time. I like to tell people that I grew up in the inner city - inner city Atchison, Kansas, population 13,000. Typical of most mid-western towns the streets are laid out in a grid and there's an alley between every street. My neighborhood is 1/4 acre zoning so the houses are surprisingly closely spaced for being in a state with so much open space.
Atchison looks very similar to Nashua's North End with all its Victorian homes. My mom's house was (still is) a medium sized Victorian with a big porch in front. Since Atchison was settled in the 1760's it is filled with many impressive homes made of stone and brick, one with a set of gargoyles on the roof keeping watch. The house I grew up in is still there, same phone number since before I was born. A symbol of stability and reliability that has contributed to my personality.
Atchison residents are mostly blue collar, with the largest employer being the steel foundry along the river, formerly owned by Rockwell. Their claim to fame is having the ability to make the largest (at least while I lived there) single-pour castings: tank turrets, railroad trucks, etc.The second largest employer is Midwest Grain Products. Allegedly they produced more alcohol than any other location in the country, used in low-cost beverages such as vodka and gin that comes in plastic jugs and the grain-mash would be used for livestock feed.
I went to Central School (public) from K-5 and walked to and from home since 1st grade. Imagine these days letting your 6 year old walk home from school, make a snack, and wait for you to return home from work. note: never in my life did I have a key to my house because we never locked our doors. We often toss our car keys on the floor when we get out to go shopping. I spent the weekends with my dad who travelled during the week as a sales rep in the casting industry. My mom worked full time to support us five kids first as a waitress then for most of her career keeping the books for payroll at Rockwell. There were days I was home sick from school watching educational TV on PBS. My mom would call from work to check up on me (which annoyed me to no end). Now days that would be frowned upon but the whole arrangement instilled a sense of personal responsibility.
My dad was a sports nut and as such I first started competing in swimming when I was 6 and "retired" when I was 11. After that it was baseball, football, basketball, and soccer. Eventually I managed to stop playing basketball which I was never any good at and wrestled instead. By the end of high school it was just cross-country in the fall and track in the spring. I ran every single day for three years and managed to get 11th at the state champs in the 2 mile (10:02) and 4th in the 4x800 relay (8:17). The next day I hung up my shoes and essentially didn't run again until the summer before my 30th birthday....because while at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology my main focus was academics. There were times during the latter parts of the semesters when there weren't enough hours in the week to get everything done. So, we would skip lectures in order to get the homework done. Quizzes were a treat because it meant there was no eight hour homework assignment due that week. I was in electrical engineering which was the largest department at the Institute. I remember one class being so oversubscribed, (MIT had a policy that you could go to any class you wanted without ever having to get on a wait list) that the professor decided to crank up the difficulty of the homework until the students began to drop out of the class. Eventually through attrition he got the class down to a manageable size. (6.013, fall junior year.)
Aside from the obvious technical training, probably the single biggest thing I learned from MIT was what I call their "No Excuses Policy." If there was an assignment due on Monday and a gigantic snow storm left two feet of snow on Saturday morning making it next to impossible to get to the lab, the assignment was still due. You were supposed to know the storm was coming and start early. If there was any conceivable way the work could get done it shall be done. At the same time the students could apply this policy on the administration. There better be benches and test equipment available. The electronics better be available, and same with the teaching staff. The 'Tute gave us infinite resources and flexibility to accomplish our work and expected nothing short of perfection.
After getting a doctorate in applied physics in the department of Nuclear Engineering, my first job was in Los Angeles at TRW, an aerospace and security company. After two years I returned to New England to join the MIT Lincoln Lab, then four years at a telecom startup. Most recently, 9 years at BAE Systems where I am now. This is a great place to work: almost no corporate politics, a meritocracy, plenty of resources, driven toward deliverables. It's a lot like MIT; but, without the competition between peers. In my role as Alderman I often resort to my experience at my current employer as a guide of how things should function. At the moment I envision myself retiring here at BAE Systems.
I have one real hobby: racing triathlon. It's almost a profession since I train about 10 hours per week (150 miles on the bike, 25 miles running, 2 hours in the pool). My first race was in Hyannis, Mass in 1999. Since then I've competed in about 50 triathlons from sprint, to Olympic distance, to half-Ironman. I've raced three times for Team USA at the Age Group World Championships: Gold Coast, Australia; Budapest, Hungary; and Beijing, China. My best ranked performance was 10th in my age group at the Beijing World Champs.
My four kids keep me busy every other weekend and a few weeks a year. Amelia is now 13 and after a great first season of track is back to ballet. Rebecca, 11, is interested in gymnastics and saving money. Charlotte, 11, likes ballet and has a goofy sense of humor like her brother. Owen, 8, just finished his first season of T-ball. The girls, especially Amelia, are amazing artists.
Nashua suits me. It has everything I need and no traffic. But, I do miss the thunderstorms of Kansas' springs.
You almost certainly know one famous person from my home town of Atchison, Kansas: Amelia Earhart. It's unlikely you know that she grew up on the same street as me although obviously not at the same time. I like to tell people that I grew up in the inner city - inner city Atchison, Kansas, population 13,000. Typical of most mid-western towns the streets are laid out in a grid and there's an alley between every street. My neighborhood is 1/4 acre zoning so the houses are surprisingly closely spaced for being in a state with so much open space.
Atchison looks very similar to Nashua's North End with all its Victorian homes. My mom's house was (still is) a medium sized Victorian with a big porch in front. Since Atchison was settled in the 1760's it is filled with many impressive homes made of stone and brick, one with a set of gargoyles on the roof keeping watch. The house I grew up in is still there, same phone number since before I was born. A symbol of stability and reliability that has contributed to my personality.
Atchison residents are mostly blue collar, with the largest employer being the steel foundry along the river, formerly owned by Rockwell. Their claim to fame is having the ability to make the largest (at least while I lived there) single-pour castings: tank turrets, railroad trucks, etc.The second largest employer is Midwest Grain Products. Allegedly they produced more alcohol than any other location in the country, used in low-cost beverages such as vodka and gin that comes in plastic jugs and the grain-mash would be used for livestock feed.
I went to Central School (public) from K-5 and walked to and from home since 1st grade. Imagine these days letting your 6 year old walk home from school, make a snack, and wait for you to return home from work. note: never in my life did I have a key to my house because we never locked our doors. We often toss our car keys on the floor when we get out to go shopping. I spent the weekends with my dad who travelled during the week as a sales rep in the casting industry. My mom worked full time to support us five kids first as a waitress then for most of her career keeping the books for payroll at Rockwell. There were days I was home sick from school watching educational TV on PBS. My mom would call from work to check up on me (which annoyed me to no end). Now days that would be frowned upon but the whole arrangement instilled a sense of personal responsibility.
My dad was a sports nut and as such I first started competing in swimming when I was 6 and "retired" when I was 11. After that it was baseball, football, basketball, and soccer. Eventually I managed to stop playing basketball which I was never any good at and wrestled instead. By the end of high school it was just cross-country in the fall and track in the spring. I ran every single day for three years and managed to get 11th at the state champs in the 2 mile (10:02) and 4th in the 4x800 relay (8:17). The next day I hung up my shoes and essentially didn't run again until the summer before my 30th birthday....because while at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology my main focus was academics. There were times during the latter parts of the semesters when there weren't enough hours in the week to get everything done. So, we would skip lectures in order to get the homework done. Quizzes were a treat because it meant there was no eight hour homework assignment due that week. I was in electrical engineering which was the largest department at the Institute. I remember one class being so oversubscribed, (MIT had a policy that you could go to any class you wanted without ever having to get on a wait list) that the professor decided to crank up the difficulty of the homework until the students began to drop out of the class. Eventually through attrition he got the class down to a manageable size. (6.013, fall junior year.)
Aside from the obvious technical training, probably the single biggest thing I learned from MIT was what I call their "No Excuses Policy." If there was an assignment due on Monday and a gigantic snow storm left two feet of snow on Saturday morning making it next to impossible to get to the lab, the assignment was still due. You were supposed to know the storm was coming and start early. If there was any conceivable way the work could get done it shall be done. At the same time the students could apply this policy on the administration. There better be benches and test equipment available. The electronics better be available, and same with the teaching staff. The 'Tute gave us infinite resources and flexibility to accomplish our work and expected nothing short of perfection.
After getting a doctorate in applied physics in the department of Nuclear Engineering, my first job was in Los Angeles at TRW, an aerospace and security company. After two years I returned to New England to join the MIT Lincoln Lab, then four years at a telecom startup. Most recently, 9 years at BAE Systems where I am now. This is a great place to work: almost no corporate politics, a meritocracy, plenty of resources, driven toward deliverables. It's a lot like MIT; but, without the competition between peers. In my role as Alderman I often resort to my experience at my current employer as a guide of how things should function. At the moment I envision myself retiring here at BAE Systems.
I have one real hobby: racing triathlon. It's almost a profession since I train about 10 hours per week (150 miles on the bike, 25 miles running, 2 hours in the pool). My first race was in Hyannis, Mass in 1999. Since then I've competed in about 50 triathlons from sprint, to Olympic distance, to half-Ironman. I've raced three times for Team USA at the Age Group World Championships: Gold Coast, Australia; Budapest, Hungary; and Beijing, China. My best ranked performance was 10th in my age group at the Beijing World Champs.
My four kids keep me busy every other weekend and a few weeks a year. Amelia is now 13 and after a great first season of track is back to ballet. Rebecca, 11, is interested in gymnastics and saving money. Charlotte, 11, likes ballet and has a goofy sense of humor like her brother. Owen, 8, just finished his first season of T-ball. The girls, especially Amelia, are amazing artists.
Nashua suits me. It has everything I need and no traffic. But, I do miss the thunderstorms of Kansas' springs.
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