From the Concord Monitor…
The group pushing for a municipal tax cap in Concord expects this morning to officially pass an important threshold needed to put the measure before voters in November.
The New Hampshire Advantage Coalition plans on submitting a final list of signatures in support of the tax cap to the city clerk’s office today. The group needs the signatures of 1,102 registered Concord voters to get the measure on the city ballot. The group submitted close to 1,200 signatures in support of the tax cap last month. Yesterday, the city clerk determined that 226 of those signatures were invalid.
But Michael Biundo, chairman of the New Hampshire Advantage Coalition, said he already collected enough signatures to make up for the invalid signatures, and he plans to submit those to the clerk this morning.
“We have what we need now, and there should be more than enough time to get it on the November ballot,” Biundo said.
The proposal would limit tax increases in Concord to the rate of inflation. Its language allows the city council to override the cap with a two-thirds vote. The New Hampshire Advantage Coalition is pushing similar measures in Manchester, Somersworth, Rochester, Merrimack, Portsmouth, Bedford and Londonderry.
Biundo said he was told by the Manchester city clerk that his group had submitted enough signatures to move the measure to a public hearing, the next step to getting the measure before voters in November.
Earlier yesterday, Biundo accused the Concord city clerk’s office of “dragging its feet” in reviewing the submitted signatures. He said Manchester’s city clerk had reviewed his signatures within five days, whereas Concord’s clerk took nearly 20 days to review far fewer signatures.
“I believe (the Concord city clerk) doesn’t want to see it on the ballot,” he said.
Several Concord city councilors, including Mayor Jim Bouley, have expressed opposition to a tax cap, saying it would unnecessarily tie the hands of officials.
If the clerk determines that the additional signatures are valid, the city council will hold a public hearing on the measure. Also, lawyers would have to certify its language doesn’t conflict with other laws.
Meanwhile, the state attorney general’s office is reviewing a complaint against the New Hampshire Advantage Coalition filed by Kathy Sullivan, former chairwoman of the state Democratic Party.
In her complaint, Sullivan contends that the coalition broke state election laws by initially registering as a political action committee but never filing a list of its donors or expenditures.
The Advantage Coalition registered with the secretary of state’s office as a political committee at the end of 2006 but has since filed as a nonprofit group with the IRS.
Biundo said his group did not spend enough money while it was a registered PAC to require it to file financial reports with the state. He said the Advantage Coalition, in its newer incarnation, is not a partisan group.
“We have just as many Democrats and independents that have signed on to these spending cap initiatives,” Biundo said. “I feel it’s very much a nonpartisan issue; it’s a taxpayer issue.”