“We are a for-profit entity that has a donation line item in our budget and we donate to different things to promote Gunstock and promote the area and promote skiing in general,” he said. “We generate our own revenue and this donation does not affect Belknap County residents because we don’t take Belknap County money.”
That was Tom Day’s explanation for the $500 check that Gunstock sent, with him signing it, to the Friends for Sununu campaign fund. Yep, an NH Government agency spending taxpayer money for this highest race in the State of New Hampshire. Is this what we want – Government using taxpayers funds to supply money to candidates? I don’t think so
Well that “for profit” dodge got debunked when I put in my Right To Know demand concerning the amounts paid by Gunstock Mountain Resort to the State of New Hampshire for Business Profits Tax and Business Enterprise Tax. And the expected answer came back “zilch”. No taxes paid in those categories (it did pay Meals & Rooms taxes) which meant that Tom Day, General Manager of GMR, outright lied. He’s far from being stupid but with his quote above, he thought that everyone outside of GMR is. Even Commissioner Doug Lambert had to correct Day’s statement (emphasis mine):
—— Original Message ——
From: “Douglas Lambert” <dlambert@gunstockcommissioners.org>
To: “Cathy White” <CWhite@gunstock.com>; “Skip” <Skip@granitegrok.com>
Cc: “Tom Day” <TDay@gunstock.com>; “Jade L. Wood” <JWood@gunstockcommissioners.org>
Sent: 8/11/2022 8:56:52 PM
Subject: Re: 91:A Request for Taxes 08-05-22Good evening Mr. Murphy.
Please be advised that the date was initially misread as 2020, not the 2000 as written.
The “N/A” reference does not mean “not available,” it means “not applicable,” as the Gunstock Mountain resort, as a publicly owned institution is not obligated to pay those taxes. This means that this particular answer on the columns listed as such will remain the same going back within your requested period of time.
You are correct in your assumption that there are no shareholders “involved with Gunstock” and that “none” does in fact mean what it says.
But not much has been said about the rumors of that subsequent (rumored?) $1,000 check that Kevin Landrigan tweeted about:
Exclusive. The plot thickens. Remember last week's furor over $500 from Gunstock Area Commission to Gov. Chris Sununu's 2020 campaign? Most recent report confirms GAC gave gov's 2022 campaign $1,000. Sununu says all legal and Gunstock past mgt. insist it wasn't taxpayer money.
— Kevin Landrigan (@KlandriganUL) August 1, 2022
So, having it drop into a black hole by all the media here in NH (and IF I missed someone posting it somewhere, I apologize), I put in ANOTHER RSA 91A demand. You all have seen the boilerplate parts from my previous RTKs so let me just show the most significant bit:
This request is for the following governmental records: all General Ledger (“GL”) accounts having any activity within the following filters:
- For the time period of May through July, 2022 inclusive, and
- The transaction amount exactly matches $1,000
For the resulting Responsive Records that match the above filters to include the following information:
- GL account ID(s)
- GL account description
- Transaction type (i.e., revenue in, expense out, transfer, other)
- Transaction Date
Transaction Amount- Name of the person requesting the transactions
- Name of the person authorizing the transaction
- If available, the vote of the Gunstock Area Commissioners concerning the transaction
- Name of the person/entity receiving such monies
So, let’s see if Commissioners Jade Wood, Doug Lambert, and Denise Conroy (who I emailed the complete RTK) are going to the right thing. We make fun of Landrigan from time to time but on something like this, I know he isn’t going to blurt out something as a repeat donation check of $1,000. So will I get the expected Responsive Record(s) I am demanding/expecting?
And if it is Tom Day, AGAIN, what are they going to do about Tom Day? Will there be a third, fourth, fifth, ad infinitum instance? And are OTHER parts of NH going to start doing the same thing that Gunstock is doing?
And we lose our Republic to a government that is supposed to serve us to a government that is now self-sustaining by out-spending us during election cycles?
Oh wait – something is missing! BTW, Commissioner Lambert – where’s the rest of the Responsive Records owed me that you promised concerning those Meals & Rooms Tax payments? We’re now passed the two weeks you said:
For the NH Meals and Rooms tax, it is different, however, and Gunstock DOES pay those when directly operating the food service operation, which has not always been the case during times when that was provided by a privately contracted outside entity.
We are continuing to look back on this data, as some of it is contained on an older computer system that will require some time to retrieve. As you are aware, we cannot create or provide records that do not exist on a particular format. Once we complete our research and analysis, we will finish our response to this request.
We cannot give an exact estimate as to the time of completion until the exact location and disposition of these records is known, other than that it may a week or two rather than a day or so.
So when, Commissioner Doug Lambert, when? You have failed to be responsive to the requirements of your position based on RSA 91A’s plain language.
