October 25, 2009
A Hop, Skip, And A Dump In Hopkinton
You may have seen the news about the Town of Hopkinton and their teacher contract which was voted down by a two-to-one margin this past March at the traditional Hopkinton School District Annual Meeting.
They say 2009 was the first time in anyone’s memory a labor contract for teachers was voted down in education-friendly Hopkinton.
Now you can say it happened twice – a sign of the times and a sign of past years of unlimited spending in this wealthy bedroom community.
Last Wednesday at the Special “second bite at the apple” Special Meeting, the high school gym was full to capacity (another reason for Hopkinton to adopt SB#2).
What drove the unexpected turnout? Special meetings usually garner less than 10% of voters and are popular with school administrators trying to grow their budgets after the traditional March meeting. This special meeting had 12% of Hopkinton’s registered voters show up.
Could it be the saturation mailing The Coalition of New Hampshire Taxpayers dropped on Hopkinton the day before the vote? It’s nice to think so.
Kudos to the Hopkinton Budget Committee members and Selectmen who spoke up at the special meeting.
Next will be another special meeting in December at which Hopkinton voters will be asked to appropriate almost one half a million dollars to buy a some conservation land for a non-profit environmental group.
I hope Hopkinton voters are as sensible at the next special meeting as they were at this one. Special meetings are supposed to be for emergencies. They have morphed into gifts for labor contract negotiators and “conservation” land grabbers.
Voters should always be suspicious of special meetings.
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Ed Naile is the Chairman of the Coalition of NH Taxpayers and can be heard on air each Thursday night from 6-8:00 PM on WLMW 90.7 FM or through direct streaming from the web.