by Ed Naile
Be still my heart. I have a scribbling by none other than the esteemed leader of the New Hampshire Municipal Association, His Highness – John B. (big government) Anderson!
And the thought provoking, extremely enlightening, information-laden, pontificating piece of propaganda is entitled:
See: “The Conundrum That Is Created By A Tax Cap”
Boo Hoo. John Biggovernment has a problem with the spending and tax cap proposed by the Rochester Concerned Taxpayers and in his flimsy editorial he falls back on the old scare tactics of statistics.
And what, dear students, do we know about the statistics of municipal mismanagement? That’s right – NEVER TRUST THEM! Trust this: HUMAN NATURE.
When the head of an organization, The Local Government Center, which was originally chartered as The NH Municipal Association whose goal was to support municipalities, suddenly “evolves” to include the competing for tax dollars public school industry, its time to question authority.
Here is a sample of John Biggovernment logic.
John Biggovernment writes in part of his case against spending caps that:
“Counties are charged with providing two expensive social services: nursing home care and jails. The cost of these services has historically grown exponentially as our society has evolved and aged . The demographics of our aging population mean that nursing home populations — and costs— are projected to skyrocket in the next 20 years.”
But wait John Biggovernment, when demographics in 1999 showed that student populations were dropping like a stone were you and yours speaking out about $20, $40, and $60 million dollar new school construction bonds? No you were not. CNHT was and now we are proven right.
More John B. logic:
“A tax and/or spending cap that doesn’t provide for discounting the impact of county and independent school district property tax demands will result in traditional municipal services being cut to pay for 100 percent of the service costs imposed by other units of government. A city shouldn’t have to reduce library hours, raise fees for recreational programs, close a fire station or reduce snowplowing simply because there are more people in the county nursing home or jail or the federal government is reducing its share of Medicaid funding or there are new education mandates to be met.”
News flash John Biggovernment! Towns and cities have been doing this for years to cover endless, unmanageable, and ineffective increases in school industry spending. So it stands to reason it may be the school industry that may have to adjust to less revenue as we shift to a more seasoned population. The older and wiser among us may soon have the votes to but a clamp on education spending and mandates – not that the Local School and Government Center will be any help.
And what article about the NH Municipal Association and over taxation would be complete without a history lesson. Enter Paul Beecher your predecessor at NHMA.
Talk about “fixed costs” a spending cap would have to deal with. Didn’t Paul Beecher come to NH from Kansas City where he signed a $900,000.00 street light contract behind the backs of the city council? And didn’t he sign all kinds of sweetheart multi-million dollar employee benefits packages in Dover, NH behind the backs of the Dover City Council when he was City Manager there?
While we are at it, didn’t your NHMA predecessor Paul Beecher get fired by the Kingman Arizona City council on August 10 2007 for the same type of behavior? (Trick question, I know he did because CNHT was in touch with the people there.)
I think it stands to reason, John Biggovernment, with a SPENDING CAP local elected officials would have to actually LOOK at budgets before they sign them. And as a bonus, all the State Representatives who are SPENDING outrageously at the county level right now will have to take into consideration what will happen when the cap kicks in and they get publicity.
And for John Biggovernment’s quote by Oliver Wendell Holmes about taxes being the price we pay for civilized society, here is another Holmes quote you should take to heart:
“ Between two groups of people who want to make inconsistent kinds of worlds, I see no remedy but force.”
— Oliver Wendell Holmes
Sounds like a spending cap to me!