For far too long the Belknap County Board of Commissioners have been usurping budgetary authority from the County Convention.
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Belknap County Convention
Belknap County – final Budget Meeting
As with many towns, the Counties around New Hampshire are also constructing their budgets for the upcoming fiscal year. Here in Belknap, two Republicans (John Thomas and Steve Nedeau) and a Democrat (Ed Philpot) crafted a budget that would raise the County’s portion of the property tax by approximately 9% – this in a time still beset economically with rising taxes at the State level (certainly, the Democrats are already hard at work doing that in Concord), rising taxes at the Federal Level (again, thank you Democrats), and the people looking at their thinning wallets every time they fill up their cars and see how few bags of groceries are bought for $25, $50, or $100 (inflation – the hidden government tax on us all). However, the County Convention (the 18 elected NH House Representatives from all of the districts in Belknap County) has the final authority over that budget – and new Conservative leadership elected to head that Convention (led by the Chair Collete Worseman) reduced that percentage to 0.3%. What did it take?
Simple – Leadership, a “say what you mean, do what you say” attitude. A political courage to go against the grain of those that have no problem in spending other peoples’ money, the rent-seekers called social services that live at the teat of Government and have transformed themselves from being charities to mere outgrowths of that Government (or many as many levels and parts of Government they can latch onto), and the biggest Special Interest of all – Government itself. Sticking to ones guns and Conservative values. A willingness to put themselves between the hard working taxpayers and those that would spend their money by ensuring that essential services would be present – but not extraneous expenditures or “pet ideas”.
Government above people. The Bigger the Government, the smaller the citizen.
Here is the final vote:
The full meeting (chopped into approximately 15 minute chunks each) after the jump. And yes, there were heated words said, for not only has this been about Dollars but also about Power and Political Turf.
Belknap County Convention / Tardiff-Gammon lawsuit – Where Commissioners put the County Attorney in a really bad spot
As I alluded to here, there is not a whole lot of love lost between the Old Guard style County Commissioners and the County Convention. Most of it currently stems from the fact that the Convention has set the budget and has brought out a very little used RSA to lock in the line-item accounts, thereby limiting the power of the Commissioners to transfer Dollars on their own (they will have to get permission from the Convention’s Executive Board). Thus, with this lawsuit (brought by Tom Tardiff and Dave Gammons as the election of Collete Worseman as Chair in a secret ballot vs a call of the roll), there is a need for an attorney to represent Convention. The logical choice would be to have the County Attorney, Melissa Countway Guldbrandsen, represent the Convention.
But, as you watch the videos, it is clear that the most logical solution is lost in politics – and it gets even better when the County Commissioners decide to pull a page out of the Michigan Wisconsin (yes, WI….thanks to Grokster Steve for pointing out my mistake) Democrat Representatives playbook (as when the latter group ran away to Illinois to deny the Michigan Legislature a quorum when the Right To Work law came up for debate) and scampered for the door (see Part 3) when the Convention started to ask about using the County Attorney in earnest. And, yes, they were leering from the doorway until a question came up and a voice was heard “They’re in the hallway”.
Part 1:
Only Taxpayers are supposed to Tighten their Belts
The Republican majority in the Belknap County Convention is fighting County tax increases. These Republicans seem to be the only people in any level of government showing concern for the bill-payers (taxpayers) most of whom are already struggling in today’s poor economy.
In January, President Obama raised working people’s taxes and everyone’s cost of living. Obamacare increased health insurance premiums and includes new taxes. And now we know that Obamacare costs three times what President Obama promised.
Since President Obama was inaugurated, the value of middle class incomes has declined by about $4000 annually. The percentage of people in the workforce is at a 30 year low, jobs are lost every month, and Obama’s regulations and tax policies are so anti-employer that few people are willing to take the risk of hiring more employees. Most middle income people struggle even before new government driven cost of living and tax increases.