To the Editor:

Most Goffstown politicians generally mean well as they go about their business trying to decide where to spend the taxpayer’s money. Normally this is easy because revenues from various sources always increase and most taxpayers are content. There are times, however, when revenues from various sources decrease dramatically. This happens, for example, in a serious national recession. 

Of course some local politicians (the “big spenders”) never “miss a stride” in finding projects on which to spend a lot of money and usually many voters agree with that approach.

This tendency to over spend is always made easier because there is the financial “back door” of raising the town property taxes whenever needed. There certainly isn’t the pressure of limited revenues that households and businesses have to adjust to, especially in times of a serious recession. 

Is it at all surprising that many local residents may start to change their perceptions of “big spending politicians” when some local politicians fail to sense what is happening to many Goffstown taxpayers?

The embedded graphic may suggest a growing sentiment among many Goffstown voters.

A suitable title for the timeless graphic might be “Trickle Down Economics” and that seems a “little over the top.” 

Of course many Goffstown voters understand “what rolls down hill” and what it looks and smells like.

The fact that some voters are standing “knee deep” in some of that financial stuff “that rolls down hill” may make the upcoming elections, deliberative sessions and town budget votes very interesting.

In the upcoming elections in Goffstown in November, voters will also get to elect politicians for state positions that may affect our future directly or indirectly.

It is no less important to vote at the state level because, although there may be somewhat less corporate and union influence than at the federal level, state politicians still have an enormous amount of power to affect Goffstown taxes.

These are unusual times for a number of reasons:

• The nation is in a very serious recession with all the typical consequences
• Goffstown taxes have doubled for decades and are currently at unsustainable levels
• Public sector employees are compensated at much higher levels than the private sector
• The local, state and federal employee pensions are at “nose-bleed” levels
• The local, state, federal, corporate, personal and other countries debt levels are enormous
• Most US multi-national manufacturing has moved to other countries
• Many more beyond the scope of this editorial

These are extraordinary times that will require extraordinary actions

It might be very prudent for all our politicians to sense this dynamic and “lead from the top.”

Most voters will appreciate those politicians that do lead and create very necessary changes.

The “big spending politicians” may find themselves in somewhat different circumstances.

I just thought that you had a “Right to Know (R2K).

Ivan Beliveau
Goffstown