December 2009 Archives
Tom Thomson of Orford, making light of what is about to become the reality of a 5% income tax on LLCs and Partnerships in NH.
Tom encourages all taxpayers to attend the only remaining official public hearings which, for some unexplainable reason, are all being held in the North Country. They are as follows:
January 5, 2010 - 1:00 pm at White Mtn. Comm. College in Berlin
January 7, 2010 - 6:00 pm at Hyde Hall, Plymouth State Univ, Plymouth
January 9, 2010 - 10:00 am at Kennett High School Auditorium, Conway
For those in the southern part of the state, where the majority of LLCs and Partnerships are located Tom suggests contacting the Governor’s office to demand additional official “public hearings”, which should not be confused with “informational sessions” at which the public may not testify. Let the Governor know how you feel about this tax!
Governor Lynch’s office phone number is:
603-271-2121
The Governor’s email address is: governorlynch@nh.gov
Lake Winnipesaukee Water Quality Workshop
A partnership of local organizations, communities and state agencies will meet on January 5, 1:00 pm to discuss water quality analyses for Meredith, Paugus and Sanders bays in
Please join us on January 5 at the
The Town will be holding a "sense of the meeting" vote at the March town meeting to determine the view of the voters as to whether a May town meeting would be desirable. It’s a non-binding vote, but why conduct it at the March town meeting? The people that would prefer a May town meeting won't be present in March. That’s the basic problem that moving to May would potentially solve. Here is a better idea: have a “non-binding" ballot question on ballot day so that many more votes can be counted (including absentees) that are traditionally disenfranchised at town meeting. Afterall, more than 1700 voted on ballot day last year vs. less than 300 at town meeting 4 days later. That would be a true “sense” of the town.
This little snippet is from the draft minutes of the Carroll County Delegation held December 14th, 2009. Interesting to hear all the self back pats going on here, especially from Betsey Patten. The “process works when open.” Funny though that she was the Selectmen instrumental in limiting public input at their meetings and worked diligently behind the scenes in the Police Chief hiring fiasco.
Rep. Patten: Nice to know it was not done behind closed doors. Process works when open.
Rep. Knox: Because process was so open it did get the attention of “others” and widened the examination of plans.
Rep. Patten: Our constituents know that we listen
We're listening also Betsey, and we will remember come election day
.
Directions to Campus | Map of Campus | Map of Designated Parking for This Meeting
The Department of Revenue Administration will host a public hearing at the
The order of speaking will be determined by the order of advanced registration and then based upon those that register at the public hearing. If you would like to speak at tomorrows hearing please call 271 2318 and ask to speak to John Hayes, Revenue Counsel and leave your name and contact number.
If you prefer to submit your testimony in writing before December 28, 2009, you may e-mail to FormsCmte@rev.state.nh.us. or mail it to:
NH DRA
Attn: John Hayes, Revenue Counsel
Mark your calendar for December 16, 2009 and promise yourself that you and others will take the time to testify at the only public hearing for the 5% Tax on LLC’s and Partnerships which the Department of Revenue
Administration (DRA) plans to hold at 10:00am at their
This past June, when the NH Legislature was voting on HB 2, the state budget, some powerful Democrats decided to slip into the bill a 5 % interest and dividends tax on individuals for any distributions they receive from a Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) and Partnerships, this is an Income Tax!
Because this was slipped into HB 2 at the eleventh hour, there was no ability for our taxpayers to testify on this issue. Now, the DRA has written the rules for this 5% tax on all LLC’s and Partnerships throughout
There are well over 10,000 LLC’s and Partnerships in New Hampshire made up of small business men and women who are about to get a wakeup call from big brother; “You owe us more money!” In full disclosure, I own an LLC. However, this is shocking to me for two reasons:
1. We are in a national recession with over 10% unemployment. No one can deny that our small business men and women are the backbone of our economy, they are ones that provide the jobs, yet this 5% tax will only help to kill jobs in
2. I have looked into what the DRA calls “more transparency” on this issue and I am appalled at what I have learned.
The DRA comment period for the LLC & Partnership 5% tax ends December 28th, 2009, three days after Christmas. Only after calling DRA and asking about public hearings did I learn that they will only have one public hearing on the rules on this important tax. When implemented, this tax will cost LLC's and Partnerships $15 million dollars both in fiscal years 2010 and 2011. The only public hearing is scheduled for December 16th, 2009 at 10am at DRA office located
I have contacted both the Commissioner of DRA and Governor Lynch’s office and asked that these rules be pushed forward into January 2010. I also requested that after the first of the year, a total of 5 public hearings be scheduled across the state starting at 6pm so that our hard working men and women can attend. Ask yourself why DRA scheduled only one public hearing on December 16th with the comment period ending December 28th. To me the answer is simple; with family, Christmas and a recession going on no one will take the day off to come to
This is a game that different state agencies play with public hearings on rule making; if you wrap the hearing around holidays no one will show up and the proposed rules will slide under the radar screen and be approved, which will carry the same impact as law. The state is not serving our taxpayers by allowing mischief like this to happen, it is wrong and must stop.
The taxpayers did not have the opportunity to testify on this issue last June. Governor Lynch, please give the 10,000 plus New Hampshire LLC small business men and women and Partnerships no less than 5 public hearings across
Sincerely yours,
Thomas Thomson
The Conway Daily Sun December 10, 2009
By Nate Giarnese
Reporter
nate@conwaydailysun.com
JACKSON — A group of Jackson citizens is calling for the ouster of selectman Gino Funicella, after new details recently surfaced of his past troubles with employees.
After a year of mounting unrest and grumblings among loosely organized residents, the newly energized group is hitting the town with a petition urging Funicella to step down.
Funicella, according to a state employment review panel report, helped drive a former town administrator, Tracy Scranton, to resign by calling her “boo boo,” “honey” and “sweetie” after he was elected in 2003. The woman, the report said, once called police to say she was scared to be alone with him years later after he turned angry, The Conway Daily Sun reported recently.
“No one knew this gal called the police and had been scared,” said Larry Siebert, one the of group's leaders.
The state awarded Scranton unemployment benefits, concluding that she "left her employment for good cause attributable to her employer."
Siebert said four petitions are circulating, and he is urging citizens to call him (383-7021) or stop by his art shop next door to town hall. He said he has 18 names on his petition and that the others may have more.
“We are shooting for 200,” he said. “People have been showing up with pens.”
Funicella declined comment Tuesday. His wife, county Democratic party chair Beth Funicella, said, “We're sick of all this.”
While Funicella has at times seemed the face of the board, taking the brunt of criticism and blurting out the most controversial statements, the citizens' group says the board's other two members failed to curb the behaviors.
Only recently, Funicella and selectman Dave Mason had it out at a public meeting, with Funicella barking that he was tired of doing Mason's dirty work, Siebert said.
Mason, who has also been at odds with Seibert over building permits, declined comment.
Selectman Bea Davis has said next to nothing publicly and has gone quietly along with the others, critics said.
Some see it otherwise. Planning board chair Betsy Harding in a letter the editor Wednesday, noting public service can be "thankless work," stated her "support" and "gratitude" to the three selectmen.
Siebert said while Funicella was accused of upsetting numerous employees, yelling and making threats against their jobs, the two others are complicit.
“They backed him 100 percent and covered this thing up for a year,” Seibert said.
According to a February police report, Scranton said Funicella once ripped up an interoffice memo she had written about employee safety, yelling and declaring angrily that the memo would foster public mistrust of selectmen.
Siebert said citizens are fed up with selectmen lashing out whenever they are criticized. When Scranton's assistant resigned last year, citing similar problems with selectmen, selectmen accused her of not being a “team player.”
“They vilified the victim.” Siebert said.
The group has made attempts to organize before, but until recently had yet to formalize its presence.
"As you may know a proposal had been made to possibly use the landfill cap for a practice field to backup other facilities. This proposal would only have been viable for times the facility was not open to the general public and would have required extensive supervision to ensure none of the users ventured off the playing field area into the materials area(s). After a review of the matter with the SAU Athletic Director, he advised me that the site does not meet his needs and he cannot endorse it. Given its limited usefulness, under even the best of circumstances, the staff cannot recommend any further exploration of this and will continue to concentrate on the current proposals."
Town Administrator weekly report dated 11/23/2009
Funny how Carter added this to his weekly report two weeks after it was created. It was a member of the MCA that brought this question to the BoS on December 3rd 2009. it was not on the agenda. Can you explain Carter how you managed to anwser this question two weeks before it was asked?
Clairvoyance perhaps or just plain deviousness?
