Well, he’s branching out! Normally, DCE does his work over at Weekend Pundit…but for doing more local things, he’s following our example (GilfordGrok) and has set up a blog for commenting on more local stuff as Chan at One Voice In Gilford. Since this is Town Meeting time here in NH, his topic is appropro: taxes!
It’s Not The Lack Of Taxes, But The Excess Of Spending
For the most part Town Meetings are finished for 2008. There are still a few that either haven’t been held yet or haven’t finished yet due to lengthy debates that will require reconvening at a later date.
It appears the taxpayers have sent a message to their towns, and by extension, to their legislators in Concord that we cannot afford to keep raising taxes at a rate above inflation. The 17.5% increase in the state budget may have looked great on paper, but the Democrats who pushed for that increase didn’t seem to care that the taxpayers in New Hampshire didn’t want to pay for it, seeing it as nothing more than a way to steal even more hard earned money from their wallets yet getting nothing in return.
Quite a few towns, including my home town, held the line on spending, keeping the size of their budgets stable, if not cutting them. The voters of one town, Allenstown, defeated every spending warrant article on the town warrant. Unlike the so-called Fair Tax Coalition, a group promoting some kind of alternative to property taxes, i.e. broadbased taxes, these folks understood the key to keeping taxes in check, and specifically property taxes, is to control the spending. No amount of ‘alternative’ taxes will fix the rising property taxes if spending isn’t held in check.
We’ll be putting him on the blogrolls at both spots just as soon as I get some time!)
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