Spending Caps Archives - Granite Grok

Watch, Listen And Participate Nashua

December 13, 2024 Laurie Ortolano

A RECENT op-ed published in the Union Leader by Nashua Aldermen Tim Sennott, Tom Lopez and Melbourne Moran highlighted the need for aldermen and city leaders to rein in spending. Board members should view spending as a nonpartisan issue, recognizing the financial limitations that our citizens funding government face. While the op-ed raised important points, … Read more

The Nashua Spending Cap has its Day in Court

December 15, 2022 Laurie Ortolano

On December 7, 2022, Fred Teeboom, a former alderman and self-represented, took the City of Nashua to NH Superior Court for violating Nashua’s spending cap. I had the pleasure of attending part of the hearing.

Fred Teeboom is taking the City of Nashua back to the Superior Court

July 15, 2022 Laura Colquhoun

Enough is enough! Mr. Fred Teeboom is taking the City of Nashua back to the Superior Court to enforce the Spending Cap correctly. It seems that this year the City of Nashua was creative in adding in grant fund expenses over which the Nashua taxpayers have no control.

Nashua Democrats Are Attacking the Spending Cap Again!

January 30, 2022 Beth Scaer

On Monday, January 31, the House Municipal and County Government Committee is holding a public hearing on HB1342 which is another attempt to remove the Nashua spending cap.

I Welcome the Ballot Question But Oppose Passage and Believe It Will Backfire on Big Spender Craig.

July 10, 2021 Steve MacDonald

Two years ago, Democrats, led by Mayor Joyce Craig, blocked Alderman Tim Baines’ motion to ask voters whether or not Manchester should continue with its Tax Cap.

Nashua Mayor Donchess: Spending Caps Are for Losers

May 23, 2021 Beth Scaer

Last week, there was a public hearing in the NH House Municipal and County Government Committee on Senate Bill 52, to restore the spending cap for Nashua, which was struck down by a judge, as well as to protect caps for other towns and cities.

Urgent: Take Action Today to Save the Nashua Spending Cap

May 16, 2021May 16, 2021 Beth Scaer

Former Nashua Alderman-at-Large Dan Moriarty has been fighting to protect the Nashua spending cap. He needs our help to save it.

PSA – Spending Caps and The Rooms and Meals Tax

April 25, 2021 Steve MacDonald

New Hampshire’s Republican Majority has done some decent work on lowering taxes in this year’s session. Two of the measures they are promoting including returning more rooms and meals (sales) tax revenue to cities and towns. Another is a spending cap bill.

Notable Quote – James Buchanan and Roger Congleton

January 9, 2020January 9, 2020 Skip

It is evident that a constraint or limit on the taxing power or authority of government means little unless this constraint is also accompanied by constraints on the spending power. If a government can implement direct transfers in a discriminatory manner, then members of any ruling coalition can capture for themselves any desired share of … Read more

Mayor Gatsas Goes after The “Benfit Plan One-Percenters” in Manchester

September 26, 2018April 11, 2013 Steve MacDonald

oil rig - theres another 'resource' we have to tap — There’s A Public Sector “Resource” That We Need to Tap…

Manchester Mayor Ted Gatsas is singing a tune we like to hear and one that I have advocated for myself. What is it? Hidden in the Cadillac plans of public sector employees is a revenue resource that must be tapped.

Gatsas is standing up for taxpayers, and defending the spending cap, in his negotiations with the Teachers union with regard to Manchester’s School budget.

He said teachers still enjoy plans with zero deductibles, $5 co-pays and $50 charges for emergency room visits, while the police union, among others, recently made concessions to avoid layoffs, shifting to a plan with higher co-pays, deductibles and $150 per emergency room visit.

“With the $3 million in savings, we hired more police officers,” Gatsas said.

So why can’t the teachers do the same thing? It’s a great question.

To Spend And Protect

September 26, 2018November 11, 2010 Steve MacDonald

Image Courtesy of The Tizona Group The State Supreme court announced that is sees a conflict between current state law and spending cap initiatives approved by voters (Manchester in particular). This is not unexpected but it is fortuitous, and to some degree ironic. In their quest to defend any liberal-leaning municipalities desire to spend beyond the ability of their residents to pay for it, groups like Keep Manchester Moving have just financed the blueprint by which the now Republican super-majority state government can adroitly engineer a fix.

Low Hanging Fruit

September 26, 2018March 8, 2010 Steve MacDonald

Last week the New Hampshire House voted against a bill to let taxpayers adopt charter provisions establishing limitations on the growth of budgets and taxes. The actual short text reads as follows:

This bill authorizes cities and towns to adopt charter provisions establishing limitations on the growth of budgets and taxes.

For those not familiar with New Hampshire, residents can already adopt provisions to limit growth and taxes, but the teacher’s unions and the pro-government folks don’t like it. So they do everything in their power to make it as difficult as they can. They gum up the petition process. They try to intimidate people, mess with them about the procedure or the number of good signatures, or anything else they can think of. All this just to keep the thing from getting (what does Obama call it?) and up or down vote, in this case from the people (see also-taxpayers) who live in that particular town.

They can’t even trust the people to let them vote on it.

If that doesn’t work, the town selectman, councilors, alderman, will try to keep it off the ballot or schedule it when it has the best possible chance of failing. If that doesn’t work a well funded national union pr some faux-local non-profit NGO pretending to be a taxpayer advocacy group (as in they advocate taxpayers paying more taxes but won’t admit as much), files a lawsuit that no average bunch of citizens could hope to fight. It’s all very burdensome.

So much so that at the end of the day the mere weight of the process scares most people from even trying which is exactly the message the tax and spenders want to send. So its a form of intimidation to keep people from trying to limit the size and scope of government at its lowest level.

Such is the nature of man versus the machine. Town politics are not any different from national.