The Seacoast town of Newington may be poised to stage its own revolution to protest the statewide property tax. As Correspondent Roger Wood reports, residents are looking to the State's Constitution for their right to revolt.
The town of Newington has been especially hard hit by the statewide property tax, with a current assessment of $1.9 million dollars, and a projected bill of $2.1 million dollars in the next fiscal year. While the State Supreme Court has declared the unpopular tax constitutional, a number of town citizens are calling for their right to invoke Article Ten of the state
constitutiont. That article, entitled "Right of Revolution," states in part;
"Whenever the ends of government are perverted and public liberty manifestly endangered, and all other means of redress are ineffectual, the people may, and of right ought to reform the old or establish a new government."
To resident Guy Young, collection of the tax by the state justifies such a move.
(SOT Young) :09 OC: Part of the article we need to look at
Young, who collected 52 signatures in a petition drive around the town of 850 residents, suggested that even secession should be considered. It's stating the obvious that no municipality has ever taken a protest against the state that far. Professor Emeritus Richard_Hessee, an expert on constitutional law at Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord, says that even attempting that route could bankrupt the town with legal bills.
(SOT Hessee) :26 Will be visited upon the taxpayers of Newington
Still, Newington selectmen have given the petition drive some credibility, by scheduling a public hearing next Tuesday evening on the issue. Selectmen chairman Coz Iacavozzi says that the board wants to hear from citizens in Newington about the call for action.
(SOT Iacovozzi) :10 OC: We went as far as we could go
Which was all the way to the State Supreme Court with the other two dozen members of the anti-tax coalition of towns. Selectmen say that other communities, especially along the seacoast are watching them and any moves they might make under the state constitution. And the selectmen are also careful to point out that they will consult with the town's legal counsel before taking any further action after the Tuesday hearing. For NHPR News,
I'm Roger Wood in Newington.
