I tried to do an abridged version of my "Recountings of the County" posts here; I’m not sure that it worked as well as I had wanted in trying to summarize my ire of "Bathroom Bud" Martin raising my property taxes when, as a Budget Committee member, I had worked hard (along with pretty much most of the other members [with a couple of notable exceptions]) to keep the Town’s spending down, resulting in keeping the rise in taxes down.
That said, we at the local level have much less (non-existent?) control at the County spending. Thus, Mr. Martin made it personal when he helped to add almost an additional $1 million back into the budget – he made it personal.
I think this, which just got published in Fosters (last Letter), does a better job:
To the editor: You’ll soon have a choice to vote for someone, Jeb Bradley, who will be frugal with your money, or someone who will have no problem in spending your money "for the common good." How do I know? Bud Martin, who doesn’t even live in my county (Belknap) made it his business to make sure he raised my property taxes. Just think of what he’ll do when he joins the other Democrats in Concord who raised spending 17.5 percent last time and are on track for another 11 percent increase this year — or more!
How? The commissioners started the budget season by asking the right question: "What is the proper role of government?" They proceeded, in this time of economic difficulty, to scrutinize those items made mandatory by state statute to fund. They rightfully concentrated on county needs vs. wants. Outside agencies (like social services agencies that had other funding sources) were deemed to be "wants."
Enter, Stage Left, Bud Martin. Orchestrating a political theater worthy of an Tony, he ran a media campaign that bullied the commissioners to a debate. At that meeting, he again bullied the commissioners into silence by packing the room with his outside agency supporters (many personally invited by his e-mails, not allowing happenchance for them to miss the public notifications), and becoming the ringleader by calling most by first names to plead their cases: always with both hands reaching for taxpayer money.
Being a Gilford Budget Committee member, I quickly realized that the five or six of us trying to plead the case for our now outgunned taxpayers (given all those 150 to 200 Bud Martin "friends"acting as financial vacuum cleaners with Mr. Martin at the switch), were severely outnumbered. Long story short — the Commissioners were forced to cave in to Mr. Martin’s theatrics — my wallet is lighter due to his county organizing. Imagine what he can do once he gets to Concord surrounded by like minded liberal spending Democrats and rent-seeking supplicants all laying claim to your earnings?
No, I have no pretensions that Bud Martin will spend your money his way — his own campaign literature from November says so! Your individual needs? Your family needs? He will put "the community needs" ahead of yours; vote for him and he will ensure that you are charitable with your money for his projects.
Trust me, I’ll be remembering his name when I look at my county’s part of my property taxes!
