Sources, methodology, and caveats

Data sources

• City of Portsmouth Finance Department — adopted budget memos, mid-year amendments, and the FY27 Proposed Budget book.
• Annual Comprehensive Financial Reports (ACFR) and Popular Annual Financial Reports (PAFR) — FY07 through the most recent published year.
• US Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) — annual estimates for the City of Portsmouth, with FY25–FY27 extrapolated from the trend.

Methodology

Operating vs Non-Operating. Operating includes the School, General Government, Police, Fire departments, plus the General Fund transfers (Indoor Pool, Prescott Park, Community Campus) and the Collective Bargaining contingency. Non-Operating includes debt service, Rockingham County tax, capital outlay, rolling stock, IT equipment replacement, property and liability insurance, contingency, landfill closure, and overlay interest.

Fiscal-year mapping. Portsmouth FY runs July 1 to June 30. FY27 means July 2026 to June 2027.

Extraction. Figures were pulled from the City's published adopted-budget memos, ACFRs, PAFRs, and the FY27 Proposed Budget book. Where source PDFs were scanned (notably FY08), text and table data were recovered via OCR and cross-checked against the following year's adopted-vs-prior comparison tables.

Reconciliation. Every operating-department file sums exactly to its published department total. Revenues, operating, and non-operating each sum to the FY27 grand total to the dollar.

Inflation adjustment. The "Adjusted for inflation" section on the History page deflates each year's nominal total by the BLS CPI-U, U.S. City Average, All Items annual average (1982-84=100). Each fiscal year is mapped to the calendar year containing its end (FY27 → 2027 CY). FY26 and FY27 CPI are projected at 2.5%/yr from the latest reported annual average and are flagged on every chart.

Accuracy

Despite the reconciliation work above, errors are possible — both in extraction (numbers read from PDFs and tables) and in classification (which line belongs in which category). If any figure on this site disagrees with a City document, the City document is correct. The official source materials are linked from the Finance Department page above.

Numbers on this site are presented as is, with no warranty of accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any purpose. Use the City's published budget book for decisions, citations, and official inquiries.

Spot a discrepancy? Please report it to the City's Finance Department via the official channels so the source of record can be corrected. To flag an issue specific to this site — a misclassified line, a chart that won't load, a broken link — email info@portsmouthnhbudget.com .

Caveats

Several values on this site carry caveats that affect how they should be read:

FY27 is proposed, not adopted. The City Council typically adopts the budget in late June after multiple work sessions. Figures shown here for FY27 reflect the City Manager's recommended budget on its release date and will not automatically update when the Council amends or adopts the budget.

FY26 figures are amended. We use the $150,294,940 amended total (per the FY27 release) rather than the $149,894,940 originally adopted, for consistency with the City's published comparisons.

Population for FY25–FY27 is extrapolated from the Census Population Estimates Program (PEP) trend. Population-derived figures such as per-resident spending are estimates and are flagged everywhere they appear.

Implied assessed value in the tax-rate explainer is derived from levy ÷ rate × 1,000. The actual figure is set by the NH Department of Revenue Administration in the fall and may differ.

FY08 OCR. The FY08 source document was scanned. Some line-item figures were recovered via OCR and reconciled against the next year's adopted-vs-prior comparison table; a small residual margin of recognition error is possible.

Changes and updates

This site reflects published City of Portsmouth budget documents as of the snapshot date below. Between budget proposal and adoption, the Council holds work sessions and may amend the proposal. Figures shown here will not automatically update when the Council acts — content updates are manual and require a new release.

Specifically, this site does not automatically reflect:

• FY27 amendments made during Council work sessions (May–June 2026)
• The FY27 Adopted Budget (typically late June 2026)
• The final NH DRA-set tax rate (typically October–November 2026)
• Updated ACFRs or PAFRs published after the snapshot date
• Mid-year amendments to any fiscal year

For the most current numbers, always consult the City's Finance Department page directly.

Change log

• 2026-05-11 — Initial publication covering FY07 through FY27 Proposed.

Independent project

This site is an independent civic-transparency project. It is not operated by, affiliated with, or endorsed by the City of Portsmouth, NH. To contact the City directly, visit cityofportsmouth.com . For questions or feedback about this site, email info@portsmouthnhbudget.com .