In what is most likely the first public action involving the recently unveiled spending cap pledge promoted by the New Hampshire Advantage Coalition, members of the Gilford Municipal Budget Committee found themselves voting on a motion to adopt such a cap at its initial meeting of the 2009 FY budget season. As reported by the Citizen (Laconia) newspaper,
Budget committee member Doug Lambert has challenged the elected officials in Gilford with imposing a voluntary tax cap on governmental spending.
The idea for a voluntary tax cap came out of an initiative started by the New Hampshire Advantage Coalition. The reason the coalition began the challenge is two-fold: first to lower the burden on New Hampshire families and secondly to encourage government to maximize the value of every dollar.
Lambert took the pledge and modified it slightly, though the principle is the same.
The Gilford Pledge to Defend the New Hampshire Advantage reads, “I believe that low taxes are the result of low spending. I believe that a government can only be fair to its taxpayers when it is actively looking for ways to run more efficiently. I hereby pledge: Not to vote for — or lend my support to — any budget raising government spending that causes taxes to be raised more than the rate of inflation, as it is defined by the Consumer Price Index-Urban, plus new construction growth.”
“I printed it; I signed it; I will adhere to it. That will be my actions on the committee,” promised Lambert.
Skip Murphy, a budget committee member and chair of the Gilford Republican Town Committee, also signed and promised to follow the voluntary tax cap pledge.
Recognize those two guys? While it turned out we weren’t able to convince a majority of the Budcom to adopt the voluntary cap, besides myself and Skip, two other members agreed to conduct all of our actions in line with the “cap.” We will be working on a spreadsheet program in order to keep a running account of the budget process, identifying exactly how much the school, town, and (hopefully) county portions can increase under such a cap.
Please read the whole Citizen article, as reporter Cutter Mitchell does an excellent job in his reporting of what went down last night. It’s my belief that this is but the first salvo in what will be a rising movement here in the Granite State as we seek to preserve and protect our special “New Hampshire Advantage”.
Below is the pledge as I submitted, signed, to the chair of our committee. I shared a copy with every member, and will be presenting them to the school board and selectmen for them to sign as well.
Whereas, I believe that low taxes are the result of low spending;
Whereas, I believe that a government can only be fair to its taxpayers when it is actively looking for ways to run more efficiently;
I hereby pledge:
Not to vote for– or lend my support to– any budget raising government spending that causes taxes to be raised more than the rate of inflation, as it is defined by the Consumer Price Index- Urban plus new construction growth.
Name: _______________________________________________
Date: _______________________________________________
Position: ___________________________________________
Gilford Pledge to Defend the New Hampshire Advantage