Teeboom v. City of Nashua

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Plaintiff Fred Teeboom appealed a superior court order dismissing his claims for declaratory, injunctive, and mandamus relief based upon the court’s determination that the budget spending cap in the Nashua city charter was unenforceable because it violated state law. In April 2017, by a vote of nine to six, the Nashua Board of Aldermen (board) passed an ordinance exempting the entire wastewater treatment fund from the combined annual municipal budget. Later that month, Nashua’s mayor proposed a budget for fiscal year 2018 that, consistent with the ordinance, removed the wastewater treatment fund from the spending cap calculation. In so doing, the mayor did not adjust for the fact that the 2017 combined annual municipal budget included $8.1 million of wastewater treatment funds that were not included in the proposed 2018 combined annual municipal budget. This process had the effect of allowing the mayor to allocate a significant amount of additional funds to other areas without running afoul of the spending cap. On the surface, the proposed 2018 combined annual municipal budget appeared to comply with the spending cap. The maximum allowable budget pursuant to the cap was $267,517,084, and the 2018 combined annual municipal budget was $265,598,979. Faced with a proposed 2018 combined annual municipal budget purporting to be $1,918,105 below the spending cap, the board voted, ten to five, to adopt that budget. Teeboom filed this lawsuit against the City of Nashua (City), asking the trial court to enforce the spending cap provision on the ground that the ordinance exempting the wastewater treatment fund from the combined annual municipal budget violated that provision. The New Hampshire Supreme Court affirmed the trial court's determination that the City’s spending cap was unenforceable because it did not contain an override provision. View "Teeboom v. City of Nashua" on Justia Law