taxing for the sake of taxing....

[lildog]

http://www.nhinsider.com/richard-barnes/2007/3/8/tax-for-the-sake-of-taxing.html

This is an important story showing the need to attend town and school deliberative sessions.  Merrimack this week had it's school DS meeting (the town's is next week).  The meeting had a total of 320 people attend out of 27,000+ who live in the town.  The vast majority were teachers or school employees.

In a move that appeared to be clearly well planned out there was first a motion to move discussion of the budget to the first topic of the night then followed by a motion to add over $700,000 back to the budget to restore 14 positions the school board had cut due to declining enrollment.  It was pointed out even by those who supported adding the positions back that not ALL the positions were justified yet they voted 2 to 1 to add them all back into the budget even though it meant having teachers teaching to empty rooms.

Last year the same thing happened in the opposite direction.  People feed up with the government not listening showed up in full force and voted to cut the town budget by 1.4 million (that passed by a single vote).

So make sure to show up even if you think there is nothing important going on because all it takes is a small group to swing things one way or another.

[Dreepa]

This totally sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[lildog]

This totally sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It more then sucks.  I mean I can understand it if a solid argument is laid out for an addition or a cut.  I may not always agree but I'd under stand that.

Last year when the town budget was cut those who did it argued correctly that they pleaded for cuts to be made by the town but their pleas were left unanswered.  This year as a member of the budget committee I can tell you a very small handful did ask for positions to be put back, a larger amount still asked to hold the line on spending and another group asked for more cuts.  Some of us even toured the school to see if adding the positions requested were justified.

But here we had people who even as they were standing up demanding $700,000 be added they openly admitted it wasn't totally justified to add it all back.

This is why you MUST make sure to show up at these meetings.

[lordmetroid]

But if you do that, they couldn't get the jobs as the salary would be forced to be higher due to taxes and regulations.

[Dreepa]

Well some good news.

In Hopkinton School District meeting... they School Board tried to add $140K back in the $14.9M budget... it failed.
And one warrant was brought down from $272K to $160K....

[Pat McCotter]

Well some good news.

In Hopkinton School District meeting... they School Board tried to add $140K back in the $14.9M budget... it failed.
And one warrant was brought down from $272K to $160K....

Yeah, you folks in Hopkinton have been the talk of the C-M LTE's!

[Atlas]

Since teachers (bureaucrats in general) directly benefit from increased taxes, they should be dissallowed to vote on them as they can't be objective.

[Dreepa]

Well some good news.

In Hopkinton School District meeting... they School Board tried to add $140K back in the $14.9M budget... it failed.
And one warrant was brought down from $272K to $160K....

Yeah, you folks in Hopkinton have been the talk of the C-M LTE's!

Yup....

[Lloyd Danforth]

Since teachers (bureaucrats in general) directly benefit from increased taxes, they should be dissallowed to vote on them as they can't be objective.

Abso friggin lutely!