Heath Partington for Windham Board of Selectmen

09/03/2026

Tomorrow is the Town of Windham 2026 local election. Polls are open from 7am to 8pm at Windham High School.

Sample ballot: https://windhamnh.gov/DocumentCenter/View/19794/Town-Ballot-2026

Voters Guide: https://www.windhamnh.gov/DocumentCenter/View/19810/2026-Windham-Final-Voters-Guide

29/01/2026

Deliberative Session is this Saturday at 9am:

https://windhamnh.gov/DocumentCenter/View/19647/2026-Public-Notice-re-2026-Town-Meeting

If you wanted to understand the entire town side of the ballot in one sitting this is the one to be at. You also get to be part of the town meeting process. Usually goes 2 to 3 hours.

07/01/2026

The Windham Board of Selectmen will hold its annual public hearing on the Town Budget and Warrant for 2026 next Monday January 12th.

10/08/2025

I sense a lot of anxiety about the new assessments. It seems due to the size of the change caused by market forces we should have done a better job with advertising appropriate information.

Some data/thoughts that might help:
• The town of Windham re-assesses the entire town every 5 years. If it seems like there hasn't been a change in your assessment in a long time, we last did this in 2020. Property values have risen considerably during that time.
• If we lived on a frictionless surface the total amount of property tax you will pay in December of 2025 will be the same as what you would have paid in December of 2025 with your lower assessment as of last month. We do not live on a frictionless surface.
• Variables. This is why no one can tell you exactly what the tax rate will be when you get your bill in December.

o The 2025 budgets (town & school) approved by the voters in March of 2025 were estimates. We won’t know exactly how close we were to those budgets until the end of the year.

o Revenues (for example car registrations and property tax payments) vary every year.

o Your individual property’s assessment. Market factors influence every property’s assessment. For example, commercial property value may change differently than residential property.

• What will happen at the end of the year is that the amount spent by the town (town & school) will be divided by the total assessed value of all the properties in the town to get the per 1000 tax rate. The total assessed value of all the properties in the town will be significantly higher which will lower the tax rate.

What should you do now? Confirm that the new assessed value of your property is in line with reality especially compared to other properties in close proximity. If it is not, then contact the assessor's office per the information in the letter you received to discuss your individual assessment with them.

14/03/2025

Thank you to the Windham Voters!

I do not take your support for granted and will spend the next three years working for you. It is an honor to serve the Town of Windham. If there is ever a decision that does not make sense to you, please reach out and I will clarify. I pride myself on making logical decisions based on the information available. Sometimes your phone call will give me a perspective that I have not yet considered.

I want to thank all of you that came out to vote this past Tuesday. There were more discussions about the issues and questions about individual articles on the ballot than I can remember in recent history. The more people that are willing to engage in these discussions, whether we agree with each other or not, the better the result will be for our town. I have a few things on my to-do list based on these conversations.

Heath Partington
Windham Board of Selectmen

09/03/2025

07/03/2025

Had a great time at the Friends of Searles Trivia Night last night. It was great to see everyone at Margaritas in Salem. Thanks to Ross, Betty and Jim for joining me... there were no losers here. Money raised for a great cause. Thanks to everyone else who came out!

27/02/2025

There have been some discussions about the budget recently; some of those more accurate than others. I wanted to give you my thoughts on how we got here, what this year’s budget looks like and give some examples of how we can continue to keep the budget as low as possible while continuing to support the community we love.

In November, I voted with the Board of Selectmen to reduce the potential tax rate with $800,000 of the unexpended fund balance. This resulted in the local town portion of your tax bill going up 1 cent from $3.82 (2023) to $3.83 (2024). Any additional tax rate increase in 2024 is attributable to a combination of the school system and state increases.

During that same time frame the Board started meeting with our Department Heads at public workshops to work through the 2025 budget. This resulted in a budget that I am proud of, and the rest of the Board of Selectmen voted to recommend on this year’s ballot. The year over year increase in the 2025 operating budget is at 4.3%. This is mainly attributable to three factors:
• A 3.1% cost-of-living increase for all our employees based on the Consumer Price Index that was negotiated as part of all the union contracts in 2022.
• Wage increases and an additional pay step that were supported by a wage study for our non-union employees. Many of the non-union employees are our Department Heads. This will help us retain our top talent.
• Approximately $212,000 of new land bond payments for 40+ acres of conservation land on Lowell Road. The Board of Selectmen supported this purchase working with the Conservation Commission due to the conservation article that overwhelmingly passed at the 2022 town election.

These are some ways I will continue to keep the tax rate as low as possible:
• Continue to support the bid process. The bid process gets the town the most competitive pricing for all our projects.
• Put permanent budget additions as separate warrant articles. For example, this year Article 13 contemplates changing a part-time role in the Tax Collector’s office to a full-time role. Any time a full-time position is added it affects the budget both in terms of additional salary and benefits. A separate article allows the voters to vote down the addition without voting down the entire budget.
• Continue to look for and find additional revenue increases. For example, recently the town started doing business with a new bank which is now paying significantly more interest on any money that is maintained by that bank.
• Gradually increase maintenance and reserve funds over time (as opposed to all at once) so that individual year increases remain minimal.

I ask for your vote on March 11th so I can continue to keep our costs as low as possible while maintaining the level of service that you have come to expect.

Thank you.

Heath Partington

(508)735-9487
www.heathpartington.me

24/02/2025

Thanks Mike! I really appreciate the support. Thank you for running for the Windham Zoning Board of Adjustment again. Your years of experience will be crucial for that board this upcoming year.