E Michelle Holt-Shannon, Director of NH Listens at The Carsey School of Public Policy at UNH, and moderator of last night’s SAU16 DEI-J spectacle opened the meeting by threatening the attendees.
Articles tagged as
taxpayers
A Union Can Engage in Activity an Individual Cannot
A union can engage in activity an individual union official cannot, as a federal employee. Any federal employee with involvement in political activity will want to do some research. The suggestion is: do it before moving out and pursuing a political passion.
State Sovereignty National Union
State Sovereignty National Union is the state motto of Illinois. Didn’t know that did you. Neither did I. The statistics in this post come from OpenTheBooks.com and their article in RealClear Politics.
OpenTheBooks.com Matched the New York State Checkbook with Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Campaign Donor Disclosures
New York the Empire State has financial issues. So, to see what kind of emperor New York has OpenTheBooks.com did a comparison. They matched the New York state checkbook with Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s campaign donor disclosures. From 2014 to 2018, Cuomo solicited 377 state vendors.
Nashua School District Staff Should Not be a Protected Class
On Friday, March 13th the Nashua Board of Education voted to provide full compensation to all district personnel for five days from March 16th to 23rd while shutting down the schools. There was no discussion of the cost to taxpayers as these funds were already in this year’s budget.
Abortion Funding in State Budget: Reason Enough to Reject HB 2
The budget to be voted on by the New Hampshire House and Senate on Thursday, June 27, specifically HB 2, would coerce every New Hampshire taxpayer into paying for abortions directly. Any claim to the contrary comes from people who either haven’t read HB 2 or are deliberately lying about it. Two people have forwarded … Read more
Bernie’s Student Debt Forgiveness: it’s Not a “Freedom From” But a $1.6 Trillion Obligation for Others to pay
Sanders called the plan “truly a revolutionary proposal.” Really? How is it “revolutionary” for a politician to force others to pay for stuff, especially debt they didn’t incur? After all, Obama beat him to the punch when he floated the idea of paying for underwater mortgages (where people kept refinancing and spending the money on … Read more
Education Funding? You’re all concentrating on the wrong thing (Parts 1 & 2)
“Taxpayers should be funding public benefits and not private enrichment. At the Northwood Community Center, Ian Underwood gave a presentation on educational funding that basically told the audience that we were thinking about the wrong thing. Much of the debate in NH (and elsewhere) always has money at the forefront – instead, we ought to … Read more
Six Things Other Governments Provide for which Americans Still Have to Pay…
I was just minding my own business when this headline scrolled its way before my eyes. “6 things other governments provide that Americans still have to pay for.”
I think it should read “Six things other governments provide for which Americans still have to pay,” but I can write in cursive and also believe that there are thousands of buying decisions laundered through government that every-day Americans are more qualified to make, including the six things in this MSN article.
Sen. Avard Commends Senate Passage of Constitutional Amendment Restoring Taxpayer Standing
Press Release
For Immediate Release:
May 3, 2018
Media Contact:
Kate Spiner
(603) 271-3043
Kate.Spiner@leg.state.nh.us<mailto:Kate.Spiner@leg.state.nh.us>
Avard commends Senate passage of constitutional amendment restoring taxpayer standing
Concord- NH — Senator Kevin Avard (R-Nashua) issued a statement following passage of CACR 15 Wednesday which would give taxpayers standing to bring actions against the government.
Does Government Exist for the Politicians or for Citizens?
The Belknap County Convention demonstrated the clash of two different interests, both committed to fulfilling our County’s obligations. One group considered the burden on property owners, renters, and others who pay the County’s bills. The other group represents government employees, unions, and other special interests which benefit from the money taken from taxpayers.
This year, politicians at every level of government proposed tax increases. Yet, taxpayers suffer from high unemployment, under-employment, reduced take home pay, tax increases, and price increases in nearly everything that people actually need, e.g., food, gasoline, health insurance. The US median income has declined $4000 in just four years. President Obama’s policies continue to kill middle class jobs, cut working hours, and drive previously independent people onto unemployment and welfare, and, frequently, into despair (which is a personal and national tragedy).
Even while middle income Americans’ incomes have declined and people have been forced to tighten their belts, governments continued to tax more, spend more, regulate more driving up our cost of living, add new functions and employees, and, with rare exceptions, increase wages and benefits. Government programs, employees and special interests have mostly been spared the severe cuts endured by most private sector employees.
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.
Upcoming Obama Portsmouth Visit Angers Parents -Schools Will Have To Close [Updated]
Portsmouth has announced that it will cancel school on Friday to accommodate President Obama’s visit. The presence of dear leader will clog up traffic, block roads, and result in building closures so the district has thrown in the towel. They will have to make the day up In May.
This is not a decision in a vacuum. When kids stay home adults have to rearrange their lives. Work, appointments, the added cost for unplanned day care if they can’t change plans or skip work when Obama stops buy to campaign, it all adds up. Not that Obama gives a damn. His campaign isn’t going to pay for any of the other costs his campaign appearances force upon local tax-payers. Campaign appearances….paid for by taxpayers.
Has anyone estimated how much the campaign stop will cost the city of Portsmouth?
Another NH State Employee Wasting Your Time And Money?
Have you been following the tragic tale? It’s a dog bites man story. State agency appears to have an IT policy it can’t or wont enforce, the result of which is that people who blog for a hobby are the only ones with any hope of keeping public employees from wasting your time and tax … Read more
Gilford, NH Town Administrator Scott Dunn has a response to my email – and Selectman Kevin Hayes
Well, it seems that the saga of officials from the Town of Gilford slagging a private citizen simply because she is holding them account and she has done well financially due to hard work, good ideas, and good decisions. From this post, let me remind of this from Town Administrator Scott Dunn (writing in his official capacity):
Fact # 9 — There are no town employees who own two homes on Governor’s Island with a total assessed value in excess of $2.6-million.
where he is trying to make an example and a target of derision. My response was “I am demanding a public apology to Ms. Aichinger for your lowbrow and low class tactic“. Well, I got a reply – and frankly, it was short, sweet, to the point, and is ready to double down:
Gilford, NH Town Administrator Scott Dunn believes insulting town taxpayer is part of his job description – but so do the Selectmen!
In this past Saturday’s edition of the Laconia Daily Sun (pg. 4), the Gilford Town Administrator Scott Dunn decided that insulting a town taxpayer was well within his purview simply because she asks hard questions, demands answers, and is willing to go toe-to-toe on the discussions. The relevant part of his Letter to the Editor was to play the Class Card in an attempt to shut her up; to embarras her by belittling her success. This from a man whose compensation is $94,275 in wages and $134,731 in toto; not shabby at all. Anyways, the relevant part of the Letter is this (whole thing is after the jump):
Fact # 9 — There are no town employees who own two homes on Governor’s Island with a total assessed value in excess of $2.6-million.
And I laid into his absurd claim on “Fact” #8 that only the Public Sector has had to do more with less. As a blogger, a member of the Gilford Budget Committee, and a Gilford taxpayer, I could not let either go unchallenged (added emphasis now):
To Town Administrator Dunn and Selectmen Benevides, Hayes, and O’Brien,
To say that my ire was raised as I read your letter, Mr. Dunn, is an understatement. A citizen has the perfect right to address their concerns of their Town’s labor costs in a public forum as Ms. Aichinger has done. In fact, it is one that I share. Yes, factually, your Letter is correct, but it misses the mark in three very important areas.
None of your points address the relatively high unit labor cost that Gilford has overall compared to comparable towns (as my Salary Study showed a few years ago). Again, while your noting that several positions no longer exist on the Town payroll, they have done nothing to address this fundamental and structural problem. The cost of globalization has now reached the public sector – it is past time to recognize that simply cutting positions is the way to keep labor costs in line with what is happening with those that actually pay those high salaries – the taxpayers of Gilford. Continued on to its illogical end, we could end up with one very highly paid employee that would yield a still “lower labor cost than last year” but the necessary work would not be accomplished.
Which brings me to my second point. Your “Fact #8” is completely wrong (“Unlike the private sector”) – The private sector has dropped jobs far faster than the public sector, and because of the misdirected “Stimulus” monies that propped up Government spending, for a far longer period of time. I believe you have missed the chart outlining how much more productive the private sector has had to become – economic output has all but regained its previous recession levels but with millions of fewer workers. It has found a way to continue the same level of output, and more, with fewer hands to actually do the work because it HAD to – either they meet the constraints placed upon them by the Marketplace or they go went of business. You have a choice, Mr. Dunn – either more people at a lower cost to do the work or fewer number at higher costs – you have chosen the latter. Which, at some point, will become more and more untenable just as it became in the private sector.
The worst, however, is that you used your position to publicly humiliate a private citizen by using the property holdings of Ms. Aichinger as a club – how DARE you! Yes, assessments are public information but you have used that information to belittle someone that pays your salary (and, to keep in the same vein – BOTH of your retirement programs) and attempted to publicly discredit someone who is simply trying to advocate for taxpayers. Did the Selectmen approve a contract clause that permits that kind of activity? You already tried to do this with your comment of “no town employee owns two homes on Governor’s Island” in a lame attempt to play the Class Card – you have now done so again. That is NOT what I expect from Gilford’s Town Administrator – which is how you signed your Letter (and not as a private citizen).
I am demanding a public apology to Ms. Aichinger for your lowbrow and low class tactic. Failing that, I will not run for the School Board as originally planned but run for re-election for the Budget Committee instead and urge Ms. Aichinger to run for the Budget Committee as well. Then we can both “talk some facts” during the next budget cycle – I bet that would overjoy you.
Skip Murphy
Granite State Fair Tax Spins And Spins And Spins
Mark Fernald is pimping for the misleadingly named Granite State Fair Tax Coalition (GSFTC). This is a group of tax and spend liberals (their fellow travelers and useful idiots) who are trying get an income tax.
To sell you on this Utopian elixir of piss, GSFTC argues that New Hampshire’s property taxes favor the rich, and most recently have sent out a pile of nonsense with some misleading graphs, through Fernald’s email list to make the sale. But as usual it is spun upside down and backwards and ignores one very unassailable fact. New Hampshire has one of the lowest overall tax burdens in the nation because it relies on property taxes. And the rich are not paying less for their share of State government.
Government is a necessary (preferably limited) evil, laid out like a salad bar. There are all kinds of services your tax dollars pay for. Some of them are for “just in case kinds of things” like public safety. Then there are roads and schools and clerks and so on. And then there are unemployment, welfare, heating aid, and a host of social support services, and the cost of the bureaucracy itself.
By law these services are made available to everyone equally based on need so the folks most likely to consume government services are lower income residents. Statistically, the less you earn, the more of the salad bar you are likely to need or eat from and the more trips you are likley to make in a given year. But no matter what you earn, or where you live, or how well you live, you still only get one plate–and you pay for that plate in the form of taxes.
The GSFTC would like you to believe that the rich are paying less for that plate. To perpetrate this deception they use "taxes paid as a percentage of income" to make their case. Their argument is that the rich only pay about 2% of their income as taxes while the poorer folks pay over 8% (Roughly), and that this is unfair. But is that really the case? Are the rich paying less money for a trip to the New and Improved State Government Salad Bar or is GSFTC just playing class warfare games?
Wisconsin Protesters
To the Editor:
Many of the people protesting on Saturday don’t even understand what they are doing. They talk about “Worker’s Rights” (which I support). But they have been duped into protesting for public sector “Union rights”, the right of unions to conspire with politicians against the interests of the American people.
President Franklin Roosevelt said it was wrong to unionize government workers because they are supposed to serve the public. He was right. The public sector was unionized about 50 years ago. Unionization has led to union leaders and politicians creating an increasing number of safe, easy and often low value, well paid unionized employees whose union dues are funneled back to the politicians. It is a vicious cycle. Politicians are supposed to represent the people, but they ignore the good of the people to reward their union supporters. This is corruption pure and simple.