GRA: Trust, and the bigger tax picture in Goffstown

Trust, and the bigger tax picture in Goffstown
March 2, 2006

If Ms. Winrow and others who attended, or watched on television, the school deliberative session on Feb. 6, you will know that I asked the school board specifically whether the $306,510 appropriation in Article 2 was needed to cover construction delays due to litigation associated with the Tirrill Hill site or the Glen Lake site. In response, both Ellen Vermokowitz and Scott Gross answered that the additional construction delay costs referenced in this appropriation were due to litigation for the Glen Lake site and not the Tirrill Hill site. By simple examination of the records, we know this to be absolutely untrue.

This is not an issue of blame, as Ms. Winrow claims, but rather an issue of trust. When we enter the voting booth on March 14, we will be reading, and voting on, an article that contains false information in order to gain this appropriation. Information that the school board knows to be false. I will not support such an article and I don’t care about the source of the funding.

But the issue runs much deeper than that for me. If the school board is willing to tell a little white lie about Article 2 then how can I put any trust in the budget numbers found in Article 3? There are those who will say I should because the budget committee recommends the article. I have trust in the good work that the budget committee does; however, they are working with numbers and explanations supplied to them by the school board. My trust in those numbers and explanations has been shaken considerably by Article 2.

The school board is asking for $33.1 million in this year’s budget, a 10.3 percent increase over last year. That equates to a $1.47 increase in our tax rate. Last year’s tax rate increase due to the school budget was $1.52, about the same. If you think the increase in your last year’s tax bill hurt, get ready because it is coming again this year!

I do, however, support Article 4. This article would allow the budget committee to set the default budget. The school board has set their own default budget at $32.4 million, an increase over last year’s operating budget of $2.3 million, or 7.7 percent!

This default budget is only about $800,000 less than their requested budget, or only a 2.4 percent reduction! $2.3 million is an awful lot for health care coverage and fuel cost increases as the school board claims. Or are we being told the whole story? I don’t know for sure but I do know that I have lost a lot of trust. Article 4 would allow an independent party to more closely examine the default budget numbers and explanations, thus restoring some of that trust.

Of course the School Board does not support Article 4, who wouldn’t want to dictate their own default budget increases without budget committee oversight.

John Caprio puts it very nicely when he says that what we have here is the proverbial fox guarding the budgetary hen house. Time to change that unacceptable situation.

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