Donor Town: August 2010 Archives
The Following was submitted to the Meredith News for publication
Letter to the Editor –
Is Moultonboro a Donor TOWN or are we Donor INDIVIDUALS?? And WHY??
The Selectmen’s Meeting on Thursday August 19th touched on the issue of taxes that are “due” from Moultonboro to the State to satisfy the commitment that the State has levied on us as a “donor town”. This tax is due in December of 2011, but the Selectmen have proposed billing taxpayers early. They propose billing in two assessments, half of the burden in each bill, one in July and one in December, to avoid one large “pre-Christmas” payment. A few issues arise….
1. No one would willingly accept a bill 6 months early of when it was due. If Sears billed us early to avoid one large December bill we would be furious. And if we had to pay early, who would collect (and benefit from) the interest? So why does this seem like a good idea to the town?
2. No one would willingly accept a tax bill without expecting that the source of the bill had tried to figure out some alternative. If the bill is a “Town” bill, we should expect that Moultonboro would try to find all (or at least part) of the $3.4M “Donor Town” bill from it’s operating budget. The Selectmen said that they would not be able to find the 14% in the town budget. But by not covering it, they imply that we, the taxpayers can (and, in fact, have to do so.)
3. In response to a question about whether the tax was for the town or for the individuals IN the town, the Selectmen responded that they thought that the tax was an Individual tax (not a town tax) but would check with Concord to determine whether that is really the case, but they believed that individuals could not pay the State directly. If it is an “individual” bill, we each have to plan our payment and plan our individual budgets to cover the tax from our personal operating budget. And if it is, we should pay the State directly. When it is due (not before)! And our response -in terms of our reaction to the tax- should then be directed to our State government, not to our local representatives.
4. The Donor concept suggests that some towns (Moultonboro, apparently) can afford to help other, less able (Amherst??) towns with their school bills. If it is an individual tax, the implication is that the State (and town) believes that we as individuals can afford to pay 14% more ($3.2M over a 2009 Budget of 24.2M) in taxes. Oh really? This is a clear redistribution of income issue that doesn’t belong in New Hampshire! We have been here before….and know what we’re facing again. It is no better this time. In the current economy, it’s a lot worse.
Property taxes are going to be up significantly (an across-the-board 14%) as a result of this change. Combined with the reassessment, many are looking at HUGE tax increases this year. Thursday at 4pm is a chance to see the Selectmen on the Reassessment. Come join in for that first step.
Janet Cramer
Moultonboro.
