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While I fret about the fact that so few people care enough to vote when election day rolls around, I don’t get as worked up about voter turnout, in general, as others tend to do. My bigger concern is that the people that are voting are well-informed, not propagandized. Today is Election Day– the "midterm of the midterm", if you will, as it is mostly city elections that will be occuring.
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If I lived in Manchester, I would definitely be voting for Mayor Giunta’s re-election. Tax stability goes hand in hand with good service and a quality education. Taking action against criminal activities is important too. While it must be akin to herding cats, Giunta has managed all of these areas rather well. Why would Manchester want to change course?
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In Laconia, Mr. Greg Knytych is running for the Ward 1 seat on the City Council. Skip and I had the opportunity to meet and listen to Mr. Knytych a while back at the American Solutions Day event held here in our neck of the woods. He contributed a great deal of input during that day’s activities and was, in fact, encouraged to become involved in local affairs, which he obviously is doing. We had him in studio this past Saturday on MTNP radio. Promising to abide by the tax cap, stressing its success and importance, he offers the Lake City an opportunity to elect a well-informed, "regular-guy". In his closing words as our guest, Mr. Knytych reminded the listeners that, yes, he is a Republican, and not afraid to say so, but beyond that, and more importantly, he wanted the folks to know that he is a conservative. And not afraid to say so. Go here to watch him in studio on the SchlubCam.
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In Dover, the big question is the tax cap. I can’t imagine why the voters wouldn’t want this. We discussed and debated the subject on GraniteGrok here and here. In an op-ed following his recent election as Franklin’s Mayor, Mr. Ken Merrifield wrote, of that city’s tax cap:
I would be remiss if I did not mention Franklin’s voter-approved property tax cap—the first such initiative in New Hampshire. It is a source of great pride to me that this sensible and moderate tax control measure has now been copied in Nashua, Derry, and Laconia. I anticipate its adoption by the people of Dover this fall. Manchester will almost certainly follow. While some good citizens would happily cheer its repeal, I’ll stand with my friends and neighbors who have supported it at the polls on four occasions since 1989, most recently by a 4-1 margin citywide..
With nearly twenty years of modest tax restraint under the cap, Franklin is finally approaching the state average for equalized tax rates. Why would we reverse direction now? We tried high taxes as the solution to our problems in the mid 1980’s, and that approach simply impoverished the community. Growth and improvement have finally arrived, and we shouldn’t drive them away with punitive tax increases and short-term gains. We can best realize revenue enhancement by driving up the value of under-performing property in the city.
Dover needs a tax cap too.
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