by Ed Naile
You hear whispers of them at budget meetings, find references about them in testimony about Senate Bill 2, town managers talk about them in hushed tones, this time of year all the tax and spenders are worrying about… the “NO” voters.
How can we get this school bond past the “NO” voters? That is what every school superintendent says when trying to pass a precedent setting, super expensive, resume enhancing, construction project before leaving the district for greener pastures. The dreaded “NO” voters are the unpredictable part of that formula.
Schools were given a fat bonus eight years ago when Senate Bill 2 (SB2) was unconstitutionally altered by the legislature to force 60% super-majority bond votes for bonds as opposed to the 66% that was in effect when SB2 was adopted. School construction instantly began costing millions more. And now those bond payments are a permanent part of your annual tax bill.
Nowadays most of the annual budgets you get to vote on contain “bottom line” budgets where the boards in charge can move money around to any line item they want no matter what voters approve. The right to vote against one line item you find objectionable is history. Thank you NH Municipal Association. No choice is why so few people show up at annual meetings any more. Voters know a rigged game when they see one.
And that is not enough.
Many of our school boards and selectmen love to send ‘compelled speech’ political messages out to voters at the taxpayer’s expense, telling people how to vote. Sure its illegal, but officials just let the complainers find an attorney and duke it out before a judge who is more often than not sympathetic to school spending. The officials don’t pay a dime out of their pocket for an attorney so why shouldn’t they do it. Juries don’t get these cases or they would think twice about it.
Right to know statutes are regularly ignored by school boards and selectmen. The trend is growing.
What is a taxpayer to do? Well, the answer is simple:
Become a “NO!” voter – an “Informed NO!” voter.
Believe it or not, you still have an option to vote no, just as tax and spenders and municipal employees have the right to vote YES on every spending article. Liberals don’t feel guilty about exercising their rights and you shouldn’t either. Especially if you use your “Informed NO!” vote properly.
Lets say you live in Epping and you are sick and tired of selectmen committing compelled speech violations. Call the a school board member, the police chief, road agent etc. and let them now you support them but find it impossible to vote for any more budgets until this activity stops. Now you have some support from formerly uninterested parties.
If you do not like annual budgets prepared in an all or nothing – bottom line fashion, let the elected officials know you will not vote in favor of zoning or planning articles either. That will get their attention.
You need to pay attention to what is on ballots to become and “Informed NO! Voter.” Sometimes there is spending that deserves a yes vote no matter how bad spending is on the rest of the budget. Let your elected officials know why you will vote yes in that instance.
Several years ago CNHT was adding up all the names of state legislators who kept their Taxpayer Protection Pledge. The results that year were dismal, just a handful kept their promise. So we added up the number of legislators who voted FOR taxes every time. What did we find but over 60 State Reps. who voted FOR every tax presented to them!
Your annual school and town meetings don’t have recorded votes like the legislature but you can be sure there is a sizable “Uninformed YES!” vote in your municipality.
As Governor Mel Thomson used to say: “Low taxes are the result of low spending.”
Exercise your right to control spending in your town. Don’t put up with a heads we – win tails you lose municipal budget.
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Note: There are special meetings coming up in the Monadnock Regional School District, the Town of Windham and the Town of Atkinson.