News – Politics – Opinion – Podcasts
Nashua taxpayers deserve full transparency, accuracy, and candor from their elected officials. Recent developments, however, raise serious concerns about how Mayor Jim Donchess and the Board of Aldermen are managing the City’s finances, and how residents are being informed about those decisions. The FY2026 budget initially presented to residents totaled $474,895,381. Yet the City now … Read more
After attending the online Zoom Grafton County Commissioners’ Meetings every Tuesday morning for the last year and a half, I have come to learn much about County goings-on. In turn, I feel I must alert Grafton County residents and taxpayers of important upcoming monetary decisions. And you thought Paul Revere died in Boston on May 10, 1818?! … Read more
New Hampshire public school enrollment continues to decline at a faster rate than teacher employment, a Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy analysis of state data shows. Over the last 15 years, public schools in New Hampshire lost students at nearly three times the rate at which they lost teachers. From the 2011-2012 school year … Read more
For the past two years, Vermont politicians have been telling Vermont property taxpayers that they heard us after 2024 and are working to reform our education system to provide property tax relief. It’s not happening. The debate today as we close out the 2026 legislative session is whether to pay for 4%-plus increase in spending … Read more
Hat tip to Compass Vermont for their recent article highlighting the state’s public input survey on the choices our legislature will have to make when they return to Montpelier in January, End of the Easy Money: Vermont Braces for Its Hardest Budget in 10 Years. The main point: Vermont is running out of money and … Read more
Board of Aldermen, Mayor Donchess, CFO Griffin, City Attorney Bolton: Last Tuesday, the aldermaniacs voted to Indefinitely Postpone the ill-conceived Tax Cap R-25-121 (disguised as a budget cap, but in reality, a tax cap). That is a very good thing. Hopefully, this Tax cap stays dead forever, for you have to be a financial ignoramus … Read more
Leah Cushman joins me for GrokTALK! on its new night to review her impressive fisking of HB2, the nH State Budget trailer bill, and the garbage hidden inside. You won’t believe a Republican majority put this crapstorm together. Central Planning, Workforce Housing, Digital State IDs, Babysitting funds?, Fake IDs, the pension system shenanigans, using kids … Read more
We have a “spending problem” at the Grafton County Complex, and transparency and open government have been non-existent since April 22, 2025, when Chairwoman Martha McLeod curtailed the viewing of Grafton County Commissioners’ meetings online. Is this why? A burdensome 9.41% tax increase of the Grafton County Budget (Fiscal Year…July 1, 2025 – June 30, 2026) is … Read more
I recently re-watched the brilliant film Interstate 60. If you haven’t seen it, put it on your to-watch list. One of the characters, Bob Cody (played by Chris Cooper), is a former advertising man who got sick of lying all the time, and decided to spend the rest of his life promoting truth. Or more … Read more
Right Side Up is back for another episode, covering news and politics in your neck of the woods. This week, some national issues including one featured here on GraniteGrok. Speakers’ opinions are their own and may not represent those of Grok Media, LLC, GraniteGrok.com, its sponsors, readers, authors, or advertisers. Agree? Disagree? Submit Op-Eds to … Read more
Last week, Moody’s Ratings lowered the United States credit rating. Fitch Ratings and S&P Global Ratings had already lowered the US rating. This new downgrade was driven by Congress’s failure to make any efforts to reduce the almost 37 trillion dollars national debt. When Moody’s made its announcement, the House Budget Committee was scrambling to … Read more
The proposed reduction in the biennial taxpayer bailout of the University System of New Hampshire (for our purposes, UNH) has the donkeys up in a snit. I can’t see why. UNH makes notoriously poor spending decisions, too numerous to mention again (there are a few here if you scroll down). Suffice to say, there’s plenty … Read more
Concord, NH — The New Hampshire House Freedom Caucus today expressed serious concerns over the revenue estimates included in the proposed state budget, warning that they are overly optimistic given current economic uncertainties. The Caucus urged lawmakers to adopt a more conservative approach to safeguard taxpayers from potential shortfalls. In 2009, Democrats crafted a budget … Read more
Let’s start by taking a look at this video of last night’s Finance committee meeting in Nashua, skipping to 1h18min where the mayor stokes discord and vitriol in the chamber against the federal government for cutting some of its funding to the PD and FD, particularly special equipment that also benefits communities outside Nashua. There … Read more
As COVID-related funds dry up, either by sunsetting or someone in Washington closing the valve, the amount of stupidity on full display is astounding. It’s mostly among the enemy camp, both in the ruling class and their supporters. Though gratefully relocated far from the most troubled city in the state, I still pay attention to … Read more
As UNH faces heavy budget cuts, here are some areas it could easily trim (or even get rid of) and not only save money for UNH but save New Hampshire taxpayers millions. An added bonus from such cuts would be a decrease in State cover-ups of abuse of federal funds in cases relating to DCYF … Read more
George Caldwell – The Daily Signal When members of Congress return from recess this week, they will face challenges in their efforts to effect legislative change. The GOP is attempting to codify President Donald Trump’s ambitious agenda with narrow majorities in the House and Senate, all while a growing faction of Democrats is pushing for leadership to resist … Read more
Once again, on March 11, in Kensington and many small towns like ours in NH, just 1/3 of the voting population showed up to vote on essential items like budgets, spending, and taxes. In my last 37 years here in Kensington, citizens, young and old, rich and poor, have made unequaled Investments in education, yet … Read more
Stories drift in from around the state; some are happy, and others are not. What about? Tuesday, most New Hampshire towns had local elections: town and school board elections, budgets, and many warrant articles. Turnout is king and when it comes to local election turnout typically sucks. But not always. If you missed it Tuesday … Read more
What do the impending, across-the-board Trump administration and Congressional cuts to federal education, energy, and human services mean to Vermont? Ask this question to legislators and advocates in the State House and the response is like a Greek chorus chanting, ‘We don’t know, we don’t know, we don’t know.’ (Whether the play is a comedy … Read more