Thought You Had a Tax Cap? Think Again... - Granite Grok

Thought You Had a Tax Cap? Think Again…

MORE LOCAL (central NH) NEWS- KEEP READING- IT’S PROBABLY HAPPENING WHERE YOU LIVE TOO…(*followup to this prior posting on the Laconia tax cap issue*) …Now that the Laconia “Broken Arrow” City Council is proceeding with preparations for a tax-cap breaking, new middle $chool building construction bond issuance, the options left for the already over-burdened taxpayers are few. Back in April and then in May, the Broken Arrows led by Mayor Matt Lahey started the ball rolling with the approval of “supplemental appropriations” to pay for engineering and associated costs of the multi- million dollar project. While those actions were apparently not in violation of November’s voter- approved tax cap by the letter of the law (according to the AG’s office, the tax cap applies only to NEXT year’s budget) requiring an actual vote to specifically “override,” they certainly went against the spirit. I’ll bet money that those voting for the cap expected a cap- now.
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Moving forward with the spending commitment on a new middle school pitching the premise that new construction is cheaper than renovation, the Broken Arrow Council seems to have paid little heed to the City Manager’s forecast of future necessary tax cap- busting budgets even with NO new school being built. What will the hapless Laconia taxpayers do? The voters passed a tax cap and then elected big spending candidates who actively campaigned on an anti-tax cap platform with a promise of business as usual. With the manager’s dire predictions regarding upcoming budgets, the situation demands a radical alteration of how the city is conducting its operations.

Does anyone expect any such change led by Lahey and the Broken Arrows? I don’t. Regular readers of my weekly Daily Sun newspaper column might recall that I reported, prior to the November elections, about a now current Broken Arrow council member who wrote on the subject of building a new school in an email last March while still just a citizen: “I understand this comes with a large price tag…This is a NEED not a want. I have no sympathy for these taxpayers with these large houses on the water or in these upscale developments who complain about their taxes. If these people want to retire to this wonderful city then this is the price they pay.” I’d say that this lack of sympathy for those who pay for local government is typical of most Broken Arrow council members and the Mayor.
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My advice to those poor folks who can’t afford to pay Laconia’s property taxes at the current levels is to start the process of signing a sales agreement with some realtor. There really is no way to stop what has begun. It’s too bad, but not surprising given who the voters elected last November… Harvest time approaches- Laconia will soon reap what was sown.
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