Steve MacDonald was kind enough to share “RINO-Russ Barry” (a/k/a State Rep Ross Berry) Is Gaslighting You About “Local Control” And Property Taxes on his Granite Grok blog. Thank you, Steve! We noticed that State Rep Dan McGuire didn’t like our posting. We’ll share his criticism below, and then respond.
Note that the focus of “RINO-Russ Barry” (a/k/a State Rep Ross Berry) Is Gaslighting You About “Local Control” And Property Taxes was that special education and SAUs are two main drivers of education spending. The reason we focused on special education and SAUs is that local taxpayers have little to no control over this spending.
McGuire, however, neither mentions special education nor SAUs in his comment. Instead, he implies that our position was simply “the state doesn’t pay enough.” In other words, McGuire’s comment is directed at the proverbial “straw man,” a position we never took.
With respect to special education, we don’t agree with McGuire that it’s a “good thing” to stick local taxpayers with a bill they are required to pay because of federal and State law, but have no control over. Rather, we believe that that McGuire and State Reps who agree with him harbor a callous disregard for local taxpayers. “Let them eat cake!”
We are skeptical that State spending could not be reprioritized so that the State makes a much higher contribution to the cost of special education than it pays now, which is less than 11% of the cost of special education. Indeed we believe that the State should pick up 100% of the cost.
And if this requires increasing the business profits tax and/or the business enterprise tax, so be it. Businesses have not been flocking to the Granite State as business tax rates were cut over the past ten years, and there will be no exodus if business tax rates have to be modestly raised to remove the unfair burden of special education from local taxpayers. As a percentage of the national economy, New Hampshire’s GDP has remained level from 2015 through 2024.
McGuire ignores our suggestion that the State’s SAU laws, which have resulted in a proliferation of redundant, unnecessary SAUs that are unaccountable to voters be repealed:
The State law requiring every school district to have a SAU or belong to an SAU should be repealed. Local school boards can and should decide how to provide administrative support for public schools. The only State mandates should be full transparency so local voters can know exactly how much is being spent on administration, and exactly how that money is being spent, and the ability to make specific cuts to administrative expenses.
It appears, therefore, that McGuire believes the present SAU scheme, a State mandate that local taxpayers are forced to pay for is a “good thing.” Let them eat cake!
McGuire also repeats the pablum that sky-high property taxes reflect local taxpayers getting what they deserve for being lethargic and indifferent:
Hardly anyone bothers to vote in March, so what we get are insider Democrats voting themselves more spending.
For as long as we can remember, however, the State GOP has ignored local elections except for high-profile races such as for Mayor of Manchester. Little to no effort is made by the State GOP to recruit viable candidates. Little to no support is provided to individuals who do step up and run for local office. And little to no effort is made to turn out GOP voters. In contrast, the Democrat apparatus invests heavily in local races.
Finally, we believe that RINO-Russ is a fair characterization of McGuire’s colleague, Ross Berry, because we find RINO-Russ’ political positions to be more libertarian than Republican.
Authors’ opinions are their own and may not represent those of Grok Media, LLC, GraniteGrok.com, its sponsors, readers, authors, or advertisers.
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