There are income taxes, sales taxes, gas taxes, estates taxes, Social Security tax, capital gains taxes, business taxes and meal taxes, to name a few. A regular cornucopia of contributions for the common good, or so we are told.
But yet, it's the property tax that the public chooses to hate the most. Unlike other taxes that you pay just once, there is no withholding like payroll taxes or added in to the grand total, like when you purchase gas or an item at the store or go out for a meal. It is billed in two large chunks, twice per year, so everyone can actually see the sum total of their obligation. It effects a lot of people directly, every property owner.
Perhaps the most annoying thing about property taxes, the secret thing we won't even admit to ourselves, is that we know, deep down, that it is really our own fault. The property tax is the most local tax. It is directly related to our actions and our votes. With other taxes, you can blame Washington and Concord with their over spending ways; but the property tax is our own doing. We have met the enemy and he is us. It is the sum of the price tag on all of those grand ideas and needed extras that we deem worthy of local funding each year.
There is no shortage of good ideas and people willing to fund them each year, new cruisers, new firetrucks and ambulances, more police, recreational parks, infrastructure repair, etc. sound familiar? Despite hard times these things are debated and time and time again, despite common sense, they receive the blessings of the majority.
What happens in March that makes voters vote for everything under the sun and that these same people experience the pains of their decisions when the tax bills come due ?
The property tax forces us to look at ourselves in the mirror. On some level it is very discomforting. We see the contradictions of our words, " the damn property taxes are too high ", and our deeds, "All in favor say aye" . It is the hangover to our annual get together and like a hangover, there are remorse, regrets and promises to never, ever, go overboard again ... until next time.
Wake up people ! If you don't attend the Deliberative meeting and don't get out to vote to put a stop to all of this spending and help those of us fighting to lower our taxes .. well, you'll have no one to blame for your tears the next time you tear open your tax bills and start looking up the phone numbers of local realtors. It's up to you, you control what happens in Winchester, there's no one else to point the finger at or blame if you don't get involved and go to the polls.
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22 comments:
Very well put, I hope everyone pays attention to your words and gets the message. It is up to all of us if we want change.
Wouldn't Douglas & Roberta Fraser fall into the same boat as the "Browns" - for not paying their State property taxes?
[$24,000 unpaid as of today...includes 2009]
Or was the Brown's non payment of Federal money only?
I guess the reason I hate to pay my property taxes is, 90% of them go to fund education which is corrupted by Cultural Marxists.
Besides being highly unfair, ruled illegal by our Supreme Court and padded to pay for high salaries and perks for unqualified, unmotivated, lazy people working supposedly for us tax payers. And those very same unqualified, unmotivated lazy people just have to have all of the newest toys while everyone else in town goes without. I don't know of anyone who enjoys opening up their wallets to pay them. As long as the State refuses to come up with the money to pay for schools and education and town governments continue to squander our hard earned dollars, we are doomed to pay through our collective noses until we bleed. That's why I hate paying my property taxes year after year.
There is nothing so foul as the bill for your property taxes. It is a payment that reflects the true state of freedom. Your property in reality is not yours and never will be. We are now being subjects a higher power. The collective might of the bureaucrat that is the proxy arm of the elected politicians that no longer serve the people. Vote!!!!!! It is the only tool we have. The deliberative sessions will make or break many a household that is just getting by.
Sounds like a lot of Free State ranting on here lately.
Special Education needs to be held accountable.
We need to be able to tell the Special Ed schools that we can't afford their bills - instead of saying, "Here's their bill, now how little can we spend on the kids that are going to be productive members of society?...AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE!!"
While the kids with mental or physical problems are out snowboarding once a week, with their door-to-door taxi service - the kids who are learning are lucky to get ONE field trip per school year.
We also see those same taxis running their errands throughout the day. We see them at the grocery store in Keene.
We should be able to have a say how much is spent on Special Education. We should also have documentation on how the money is being spent and what we are getting in return for those tax dollars.
Are these children learning anything? What are their grades? As far as we know they are just an expensive day care. We want to know! How is our money being spent?
to anonymous commenting on Free State ranting;
There is nothing free here in New Hampshire, we pay through the nose for even the most basic services we get. What you have here are people fed up with arrogant self serving public servants in our town government who forget they work for the people of the town and do whatever they want and can to promote a better lifestyle for themselves. We the people are fed up and our voicing our disgust and outrage and are joining together to make the necessary changes to better life for all.
Maybe we can forgive Roberta and chalk it up to an "honest mistake". Where has that been phrase heard before? Hmm...let me guess...oh yeah...the OBAMA Administration. Think we are headed down the right path? Think again folks.1/22/2009,Fox News The Glen Beck Show will have a very interisting documentary you all may want to watch.
How come the Free Stater jab is coming up? A person that isn't a free stater, but a native can't complain about big government and a fair shake on his tax bill without invoking liberal wrath? Some of us just don't like our tax bills. Overtaxation threatens our economic well being as a community.
There's only one way to get our tax rate down and that is to remove by vote all of the free spending, give them everything they want town selectmen. Once they are ALL gone, then we can start reigning in all the unnecessary over budgeted departments and and the people who run them, or get rid of them too.
Don't forget the morons on the school board too. Where's the cuts there? time to trim the fat from that group like other towns are doing. We have too many unqualified teachers that can't educate our children, too much is being spent on special education and too many relatives and family on the dole.
Was reading in the Brattleboro Reformer this morning, that the Town of Rockingham is keeping their tax rate stable next year by cutting municipal employees from the budget. Including the Public Works Director. Every day seems to bring news that other local towns are cutting budgets to protect the taxpayers. Get to that deliberative session and make your vote count if you want tax relief, as our Selectmen won't voluntarily do it for us as others do.
Concerning the School Board I understand that they presented the Budget Committee with a Budget that was almost 300,000 less than last year and they have responsibly turned back money to the town for at least the past five years. Maybe instead of calling people morons you should know what you are talking about first. Attend a meeting; meet with the new principal there are some wonderful things going on at the school.
According to the Budget Committee, the School does not return any money left over in their budget to the town's General Fund as they should; instead holding onto it in their own general fund just in case they go over budget or need it for some other reason during the school year. Ask a Budget Committee member yourself if you want to know the truth. The school may be doing great things; but the school budget is way out of line and is driving many of us into the poor house, while certain people are benefiting more than our kids.
As a witness to the Budget Hearing meeting at the school - I can tell you that the money they "return" is simply the cushion they add on every year. I also witnessed Dr. C say that Winchester is labeled as an "adequate" education. "Not excellent or poor, simply adequate".
I am sure you have heard it said that the reason our town's taxes are so high is due to Special Education. We have a serious problem - in that we do not regulate how much money we give to the Special Ed. schools. We receive the bill and then figure out how much we can cut out of the "normal" school budget.
What we need to do is inform our school board, budget committee members, SAU 38 board members, State Representatives, & State Senators that there needs to be regulations on the schools that specialize in Special Education. They need to take their blinders off and realize that this is where our crisis lies.
Do you realize that these kids go skiing/snowboarding once a week? They are on ski teams, baseball leagues and such and we are transporting them to these events. Do you know how many field trips the kids at WES/WMS go on? MAYBE one a year.
We do not require any progress reports, financial responsibilities to us as a community and they are not held accountable for their outrageous spending. As a community, we need to let them know that we can't afford their frivolous spending.
Ref; Anonymous poster Jan 15 7:31. To clarify the reason the school has a surplus this year, one is because we have 36 less students. I assume it is because people have lost their home and moved away.
Enough of the name calling. The school budget committee are not morons by any standards, but instead are very smart and cleaver the way the money is moved around. The school budget committee has one of the brightest accountant on their staff. Yes, the money does not return to the Winchester general budget but is kept in the school's coffers. The town budget committee tries to do their best against the odds. The school budget committee tries to build a surplus every year in to their budget, the town budget committee knows this, we try our best to pick away and save all the tax dollars we can. We can not fault the school it is hard to guess how many and what special needs child move into town.
It is just as important showing up at school deliberative session were money can be cut there.
Re-read this old blog,
The Big Picture
This article was published a few years back; but hits the nail right on
the head in regards to the problems we all face today. We all agree
that the education of all of New Hampshire's children is paramount to
their future and to the future of New Hampshire; however the system
is broken and has been for some time.
Education Funding Editorial
An enormous transfer of wealth has taken place in New Hampshire over the past 5 years, coming from the pockets of home owners into the coffers of the Education Establishment.
Five years ago the New Hampshire Education Monopoly spent in total $1.3 billion. In the year ending June 2003 they spent over $2.0 billion, an increase of 43% in 5 years. During the same time enrollment has gone up 5%.
This increase of public school spending comes largely from those who pay local real estate taxes. This unprecedented transfer of wealth has impoverished our senior citizens and has drained the earnings of all working families who are homeowners. If this spending spiral continues at the same rate for the next five years a large majority of New Hampshire citizens are going to have great difficulty paying their real estate taxes. We do have a school funding problem but that problem is dwarfed by the spending problem of our government schools.
It is the relentless spending increases that have created the funding problem.
What we have is a serious management problem and unless the management problem is addressed the funding problem will never go away. Could it be that some school superintendents are unqualified to run a multimillion dollar organization? In what other organization would the board of directors not dismiss the manager who runs up his cost of product as rapidly as many of our school superintendents have run up their spending per pupil over the past five years.
When one asks how is it that the non public schools can do a better job for less than half the price? We get whining and excuses rather than solutions. The excuses won’t halt the rise in my real estate taxes. One would almost have to conclude that a clever superintendent has purposely cried wolf, or “we have a funding problem”, in order to divert the attention of his local school board and taxpayers from his management weaknesses and spending extravagances. Even if the exaggerated spending of our government schools had produced good academic results people could not afford the continued drain on their on their savings and earnings from ever higher real estate taxes.
As the season of town meetings and warrant articles approach, homeowners feeling the heavy burden of their real estate taxes must stand up and tell their school superintendents that unless this spending spiral is halted they will be replaced.
by State Representative David Scott of Durham; published March 14th, 2004
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submitted by email
Take the number of employees on 10 hour days, the number of holidays we pay the extra 2 hrs, doesn't sound like any savings to me.I can't believe the amount of 3 day work weeks, no one i know has ever had this good of a deal.
Its a 3 day work week and i would be willing to bet that there will be people late to work all 3 days. Bob as you are walking into the town hall turn around and watch the late arrivals, then take care of the problem. I would hope you don't condone this daily practice.
If the "honor" system isn't working here, perhaps it is time for time clocks..
Fuel prices are lower now, and the towns people have put up with the inconvenience of so many limited hours ie: days for long enough. Time to go back to the traditional 5 day week.
Honor is not a word you can use around most of our Dept Heads, but it can be. Get out the voters on the 30th.
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