Democratic candidate for Manchester mayor Jess Spillers believes every city budget should be as high as possible under the tax cap, which is one reason she continues to insist incumbent Mayor Jay Ruais “cut” the school budget — despite spending going up.
In a wide-ranging interview with WFEA radio’s Jeff Chidester, Spillers was asked about her claim that she “felt the call to action” to enter the mayor’s race as a response to Ruais allegedly cutting $9.5 million from the school budget.
In fact, spending on Manchester schools was increased by $2 million in the latest budget negotiated by Ruais and the Board of Aldermen.
Spillers, who is currently serving on the Manchester School Board, explained that she called it a cut because the city spent less than the school district asked for — essentially allowing the district to set its own budget.
“Whether you call it a cut or not, it is below what the school district had asked for,” Spillers said, “and the school district presented a tax-cap compliant budget. It wasn’t a needs-based budget. I think if we had seen a needs-based (budget), it would have had the potential to be higher.
“And so to me, that budget was like the baseline. This is what we need to just keep the doors open and keep doing what we’re doing, making the progress that we’ve already made. And so to me, this is a cut.”
Ruais, who is seeking his second term as mayor, is highlighting his record on fiscal issues.
“In our first 18 months, crime has fallen by 15 percent, overdoses have been reduced dramatically, hundreds of new affordable housing units are in the pipeline, our downtown is cleaner and more vibrant than ever, and the taxpayers have been put first with two consecutive budgets that have fallen further under the tax cap than any previous budget,” Ruais said when he launched his reelection campaign.
But rather than brag about coming in under the tax cap, Spillers said Wednesday the city should at least max out the budget, spending up to the tax cap limit, every year.
“When it comes to schools, when it comes to our Department of Public Works, when it comes to firefighters, when it comes to police — all these other departments that rely on the city to fund them — we need to do them a service and fund them at the tax cap level.
“You know, no one’s getting a check back in the mail.”
Manchester operates under a ‘tax cap’ that limits tax revenues and expenditures – excluding bond payments – to the previous budget plus core inflation. The budget could have increased by a maximum of 4.27% for the 2026 fiscal year according to city officials.
The tax cap was overridden frequently under previous mayor Joyce Craig, allowing spending increases beyond inflation.
Manchester’s school spending has been a rising source of political conflict. During the state budget process earlier this year, Gov. Kelly Ayotte threatened a veto over a spending formula that would have cost Manchester schools more than $10 million in the 2026-2027 school year. The GOP majority re-worked the final budget to restore that funding.
At the same time, more voters are asking questions about the steadily-rising spending on Queen City schools, even as enrollment has been trending downward.
In 2001, there were 17,407 students in Manchester schools, and the budget was around $152 million.
In 2019, the number of students had fallen to 13,522, while spending increased to $186 million.
Today, Manchester educates 11,865 students — a loss of 5,542 pupils — and the budget is 55 percent higher than in 2001.
Asked about Spillers’ budgeting approach, Board of Alderman chair Joe Kelly Levasseur replied, “Her ‘spend it all’ mentality is exactly why our country is $37 trillion in debt, and why she will never be mayor.”
