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Legal Battles over Tax Caps
By Laura Knoy on Tuesday, September 15, 2009.
Those for a cap say tying the town or city’s spending to the rate of inflation would protect citizens against large scale tax hikes, while opponents suggest it would only hurt community services. In Manchester, a local group is in court looking to take off a proposed tax cap from the November city ballot. In Concord, a similar bill was struck down because a judge said it interferes with the city managers duty to create a budget. Other fights in Somersworth and Claremont are just as contentious. We'll look at these cases and how the tax cap debate may play out this year.
Guests
- Zandra Rice Hawkins, executive director at Granite State Progress
- Matthew Murphy, executive director of the New Hampshire Advantage Coalition
We'll also hear from
- Josiette White, president of Keep Manchester Moving
- Phil Greazzo, candidate for alderman in Manchester's 10th ward; he's one of those suing to get the tax cap on the ballot
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All comments are moderated before appearing on the site. Comments must adhere to the NHPR.org comment guidelines and terms of use.
I have two concerns:
1) Tax caps will create an environment where high quality educators flee these towns (or are forced out before reaching tenure), class sizes will increase, and over-all education quality will diminish in order to cut costs.
2) Our communities have given large corporations such as Wal-Mart 25 year tax breaks (Somersworth for example) that create situations where the tax base is heavily burdened for local citizens.
Our priorities are misplaced and in this environment we will only worsen the situation. Lack of education leads to a future population that will make even more foolish decisions than the ones we are currently dealing with.
I think the show on the tax cap gimmick was an important topic. I am extremely disappointed at how unbalanced the show was - giving significantly more airtime to folks from the NH Advantage Coalition, permitting inflammatory and politically charged remarks that had little to do with the topic. I am disappointed to see this type of unbalanced, slanted programming on such a credible show.
Additionally, I would like to point out that the NH Advantage Coalition is an out-of state group with numerous charges of intimidation including at least one assault (http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080806/FRONTP...) of someone that didn't agree with them. It is unfortunate that they were given so much credibility as knowledgeable on fiscal policy.
Sincerely,
Nick, Manchester
NHPR member
Mr Gottlob:
You ought to be ashamed of yourself for publishing referenced Tax Cap study report, you tout to be objective, while paid for by anti-tax cap supporters.
You state (on page 1) that “…only one city, Franklin, has a long enough history with an expenditure limitation to adequately assess the full range of impacts.”
You are quoted in The Hippo “that Nashua has a cap for only 5 years, and data for only 3.” On this false premise, you compared Manchester with Franklin, not Nashua
What your report completely ignores is that Nashua successfully voted a Tax/Spending Cap in 1993 (4 years after Franklin) and has operated with that cap successfully for nearly 16 years.
Surely you cannot claim that our $150 million High School project is anti-education? Surely you cannot claim our $37.6 million inverstment in the Broad Street Parkway is damaging to our infrastructure and growth? Surely you know, or should have known had your study been objective, that the Tax/Spending Cap has been in effect as local charter law in Nashua for nearly 16 years?
Of course, you cannot possibly include Nashua data for that would invalidate your entire report and its deceptive and misleading conclusions.
You are an example of what gives “bought and paid for” studies a bad name. How could you possibly claim any integrity, any validity, any honesty by totally ignoring the most appropriate comparison of Nashua with Manchester, the two largest cities in NH.
I challenge you to debate me in public…but surely I expect you to decline for you could not withstand the disclosure for having published a fraudulent report.
Fred Teeboom
Alderman-at-Large
Nashua
Author and Lead petitioner, Nashua Spending Cap, 1992-1993.