MORE LOCAL (central NH) NEWS- KEEP READING- IT’S PROBABLY HAPPENING WHERE YOU LIVE TOO…(*followup to this prior posting on the Laconia tax cap issue*) …Now that the Laconia “Broken Arrow” City Council is proceeding with preparations for a tax-cap breaking, new middle $chool building construction bond issuance, the options left for the already over-burdened taxpayers are few. Back in April and then in May, the Broken Arrows led by Mayor Matt Lahey started the ball rolling with the approval of “supplemental appropriations” to pay for engineering and associated costs of the multi- million dollar project. While those actions were apparently not in violation of November’s voter- approved tax cap by the letter of the law (according to the AG’s office, the tax cap applies only to NEXT year’s budget) requiring an actual vote to specifically “override,” they certainly went against the spirit. I’ll bet money that those voting for the cap expected a cap- now.
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Moving forward with the spending commitment on a new middle school pitching the premise that new construction is cheaper than renovation, the Broken Arrow Council seems to have paid little heed to the City Manager’s forecast of future necessary tax cap- busting budgets even with NO new school being built. What will the hapless Laconia taxpayers do? The voters passed a tax cap and then elected big spending candidates who actively campaigned on an anti-tax cap platform with a promise of business as usual. With the manager’s dire predictions regarding upcoming budgets, the situation demands a radical alteration of how the city is conducting its operations.