All of the information below can be verified with a simple Right To Know request
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Of the
$3,555,051 allocated for the Town budget for the year 2010 - 2011 almost half,
$1,666,090 was spent on our town employees, who despite the economic situation continue to be rewarded with performance bonuses and cost of living raises. These totals will increase this year with more performance bonuses being handed out and an
11.8% increase in the costs for health insurance .
( Why didn't the Selectmen look elsewhere instead of voting to approved the extra costs? )
.. and I don't know about the rest of you but this really makes me wonder just how hard the Selectmen are working to keep costs down, or are they?
If you ask me, it's time we elected governing official that will act in the best interests of the town as a whole and not just the few employees they wish to keep happy to continue having their support.
49 comments:
My goodness if I have to pay 20% toward my medical insurance why the hell shouldn't the town employees. Oh, I know they only work 6 hours out of a 10 hour day and are entitled to this. My concern is that people will not wake up and find that Gus Ruth and company have lied. Oh, by the way I was at the dump today and John Gomarlo was not there. However, the contract workers were. Do not be mislead by Mr. Ruth and his lies. Check his nose it must have grown two feet by now! Have a nice day! Don't forget your taxes are due the 29th. Oh-by the way if you can't pay all of them pay what you can! The town has to carry you! Ask Roberta.
Hey, what's another $28 - $29,000. to those big spenders, they could care less how the rest of us feel. Talk about over compensated and pampered this is really way out of hand now. How do we turn this around cause we surely aren't getting our money's worth. How do they justify over a million for 17 full time employees who only work 4 days?
How many part time employees do you know that make over $600 a week? How many of us make over $600 a week full time? I'll bet not many if anyone does. Does anyone really think Austin and Sharra are worth that kind of money? This is really an eye opener.
Are you kidding me, they get all this while we struggle? No wonder the same people keep getting voted in as selectmen, I'd vote for them too if they were lining my pockets and taking care of me. None and I mean none of them are worth this kind of money!
Can you post the information on the school too please?
Don't forget, in Winchester 13cents a mile will get you a ride in the ambulance.
I was just thinking that we had a LAZY highway department, because they didn't show up after this last ice storm until midmorning. They never did Fall clean-up. And there are still trees all over from the last storm. Do any of them know how to use the equipment that they buy?
Then I read that they are on a four day a week schedule also. That explains a lot! Tell me WHY? And to top it off we are paying out $205,466 in salaries alone (there was a $6,000 listing on a different page...I will assume that was Gomarlo).
Does anyone out there feel that they do an excellent job and that we are getting our monies worth?
And whatever happened to the "Safe in the River" debacacle? Did that get "swept under the rug" because it involved an incompetant cop?
C'mon now folks, stop being so negative. After-all it's only money.
When information on the school becomes available we will put that here on the blog for comment as well.
To the 11:22 poster it's only money! What the hell if you can't pay your taxes and don't have friends on the select board that will protect you then you are sol. Frankly, I would love to know what planet you live on. The rest of us live on earth and have to pay taxes unless we have friends in high places.
Gee do you think all the town employees will chip in and pay my taxes and my mortgage, buy me some wood, take me grocery shopping....... No job, no Christmas and taxes up over a $1,000. But what good does it do to bitch? Nothing changes. Ooops wrong. it gets worse and worse. If only we could sell and get out but who would want to buy my house and move here?????
Maybe Margaret can get a Taco Bell or a McDonalds to buy your place and mine or get another race track put in in someone else's neighborhood. This town is ruined and yet these few who have ruined it for the rest of us remain in power year after year. I just don't get what's wrong with the majority of voters in this town who stay home and take it and then run around complaining all year long when all they have to do is show up and vote these people out.
This is for all you dumba$$es that voted for Teresa Sepe, how do you feel about your choice now? And Sherm, why don't you get a hold of Ken Smith and take your own ambulance ride the hell out of town?
You're all an arrogant bunch of self centered thieves that need to spend some time at the new jail.
Four day work week has got to go! Why should they get long weekends? And what does it matter to the highyway crew? They follow the example set by their leader, the lazy road agent. When was the last time he did anything but sit around at the townhall talking or riding around town or stopping at P-Squares? And who else gets hours long coffee breaks? It's all unbelievable! And a waste! Time to get rid of him! And many others! A town clerk who reads all day, a road agent who does nothing all day, a land use assistant who smokes all day, a water secretary who does who knows what all day besides talk to everyone, and I haven't figured out what all the others do for work all day. And we pay for them! Sickening.
Yes anony, It is time to show the selectmen if they do not want to have accountability run the town like a business and stop being self-serving . We will pass warrant articles that will force them to change. It is time to take our town back and run it our way for the citizens instead of their way for themselves. The town hall hours suit themselves 4 days a week. It’s time we have Saturday hours and evening hours and it can be accomplished by town warrants. It is time the town stops the 4 day week. It is time the arrogant, rude, self-serving people like Dale Gray and Margaret Sharra are removed and replaced with people that will work for us instead of for themselves.. Town warrant article will cure a lot of our problems. Warrant article to hire people that can pass a background review and have skill to justify what we pay them in wages.
Dear "Can Someone Tell me why?" -
Your wish is your command! Margaret is pushing for John P. He is going to put in a private titty bar with an open mic. Aren't you excited? Come show your support at the December 19th Planning Board meeting!
Reading on the school site I found this little tidbit of information that isn't available on the town website.
The deficit is primarily the result of overspending in the following areas:
Teacher Salaries $ 55,193.48
Health Benefits $ 77,122.17
Related Services $ 157,627.17
Keene HS SPED Tuitions $ 186,500.76
Sped Transportation $ 121,437.28
The deficit amount was $822,475.13 but was offset by the prior end of year fund balance of S495,668.36 resulting in the deficit number. This number will be applied against the fund balance ending in June 2012.
So they had nearly half a million taxpayer dollars left over and instead of staying inside the operating budget they went over by $822 thousand plus and applied what should have come back to the general fund to lower taxation to that deficit, costing nearly a $4 raise in our taxes and now they are telling us we can expect to get screwed even more come June tax time to make up for the difference. Do they think we'll stand for the crap again?
Just some questions about the "Warrent articles " you were talking about.If we open up Dales Job to be a elected Job someone who runs a good campaign or is popular could win even if they dont have a clue about the job and no experiance with our roads and town. Having the town hall open nights and weekends could mean overtime? for these employees.
Dales job wouldn't be a big deal to fill, unless the other employees turned on him. Heck you could get rid of the road agent and let the Foreman run things. If he needed a part time truck driver there are plenty of them around. As far as one or two nights a week and Saturday mornings a couple to weeks a months, that's why the town clerk said he needed a full time taxcollector.
Brattleboro Reformer--WSWMD--It's against district policy for a supervisor to oversee a close relative. We do things different in Winchester.
The school was to receive over 700,000 from the state but that never happened. You also cannot predict SPED costs. Kids move in from other towns already SPED and cost big bucks. Also the school has to provide SPED transportation by law as well as to families who become displaced/homeless. The school has no control over that. There are many families deemed homeless that choose to come to Winchester and the school has to pay to transport them, some even hours away. It is NH state law.
I think I heard Kevan state at deliberative that if the money didn't show up the school board would make cuts. Another lie from the people in power?
Dec 13 @ 8:35;
Don't know where you got your distorted info but it's obvious you can not read and that you either work for the school system or are related to someone who does. Your comments and assumptions are so far off it's apparent you have no clue and commented only to show your ignorance. The real and only reasons for this debacle is greed. Teachers voted to give themselves a lucrative raise despite knowing there was no money and then approved all of the spending warrants in support of the administration putting us even further in the hole and now they want even more. On top of this the administration created new, high paying positions knowing full well that doing this would put them way over budget, but they did not care and the result is a $4/thousand tax increase on us.
Brian Moser was the one that reminded them at deliberative that it was all over the news that the State would not be able to send the towns as much funding as they had in the past. The School Board then was allowed to address the issue. Gomarlo was the only one that was willing to state that they would have to consider cutting out the "specials" (PE, Art & Music).
Brian also requested that the vote be by secret ballot - to give the teachers who would normally feel pressured to vote in favor of the school budget an out.
What they didn't realize, is that by insisting on raises, they have cut out their additional help. They are going to lose their para professionals as a result. And God forbid, now teach art, music and physical education!
Despite all of the logic presented - the teachers went ahead and voted to increase the budget.
It was also suggested to the school board to have the school deliberative held on a Saturday, just like our Town deliberative meeting instead of having it on a school night, so early many parents could not get home from work, line up a sitter and attend; but no, they all were against having too many parents there; otherwise none of this may have happened. The board controlled the outcome of the meeting and dictated all of this extra spending. Shame on you Kevan for lieing to all of us, where are the cuts?
Not sure what raises teachers got? A beginning teacher barely makes $30K after 4 years of college. Pretty sad.
You also cannot vote unless you are a Winchester resident, thus they are paying the same tax increase as everyone else.
You should know what you are talking about before you post a comment, it makes you look foolish.
We were lied to buy the old SAU administration. It looks like the new administration is trying to be more open by posting info on the school website about the budget. Unfortunately for us that don't have SPED students are going to see our kids suffer because what they will be cutting is regular ed programs etc because they must by state/federal law provide for special ed students. $330,000 for 1 student is absurd but until the government begins paying the full portion of what they are supposed to pay we will just have to watch our future of bright, talented students get the bare bones if that for an education. This is no way to build a better future for us or our children, but what are we to do...
What's sadder about a beginning teachers making less than $30,000 is that the SAU secretaries make more than that!
Why would anyone pay for an education to become a teacher, if these figures are true, just get a job in the town hall. You would make more money, work half a week, and come and go as you please, and have no education loans to pay. Doesn't get any better that that.
The figures mentioned are not fact, nor true. First off, everyone has to start at the bottom and work your way up based on merit and performance. Unless of course you have a relative or friend in charge and they are going to use their influence to treat you much differently from everyone else. This is how things work in the real world. You go to school to learn, then apply what you learned to get ahead. No one forced anyone to become a teacher, why should they be treated any differently than anyone else?
In Winchester's world, the teachers and admins of our schools decided they would never get what they wanted sticking with the old SAU unit they were governed by and decided to form their own unit in order to lavish upon themselves more money and prestige. Besides it would take less votes and they knew they had their own voting block to accomplish their goal of getting raises. Something that was voted down in the old SAU by the people.So they broke away on the promise it would cost us less money.
Last year they voted to approve the following increases and this , not any unforeseen expenses held over from a mismanaged SAU38 shortfall is what caused the huge increases in our tax bills.
To refresh your memory, they voted to increase the school budget to:
$11,112,784 an increase of nearly a million dollars.
They voted to raise teacher's salaries
2011-2012 $37,306
2012-2013 $57,495
2013-2014 $71,722
That's a $34,416 dollar raise each in 3 yrs.!
They also stipulated it would go into effect immediately in the upcoming year (in 2011) creating a deficit in the teacher salary line.
They also voted to raise support staff salaries by $8,338, again creating a deficit in the budget line.
All of this info can be found in the Schools annual report and you'd have known this had you attended the February School deliberative session.
The teachers, admins and their supporters created the problem. No one else is to blame for the huge increases but themselves. As for the SPED student who cost us over $300,000. go ask Colleen Duquette what that story is, she was responsible for bringing him here.
To Ed Lake;
They = The teachers, admins and their supporters who created the problem.
As far as the new teachers making only $30K? I'm sure they don't turn down the benefits, like health insurance. That would add to the salary. With other costs like dental, fica, retirement contributions, they don't JUST make $30K. Let's get real when we talk about how much they are paid, as, it probably adds 25-30% more to the dollar figure.
Beginning teachers make about $33k without all the taxes/ dues/ and HC and retirement. Look at the WTA agreement. It is in black and white. It lists the pay scale and step changes. To make even $60k you would have to have a masters degree with over 30 additional credits and 16 years of teachers experience. Not sure where the other figures came from (37K, 51K 71K)
Those figures came directly from the school warrant article #2. If only people in this town would educate themselves as to what is really going on around them before giving their opinions. Maybe we should take some of the wasted tax dollars earmarked for the school and have some adult education courses, it's evident that we need a remedial reading class for some here in town.
Someone mentioned that there was a page on the schools site that had a FAQ and answers but I can not find it. Can someone post a link or has it been removed?
Before we turn this blog into a soap opera of sympathy for teachers let me say this, People CHOOSE to become teachers, they are not forced. Most do it for their love of children and wanting the best for them, others do it for reasons only they know. There's an old saying that goes, "doers do, those that can't do, teach" Some teachers are very good at what they do, others, well not so good. In any case these people choose where to work, they are not forced to join a district and they know full well what to expect as to salary and benefits. Having said that, this area is a poor area of NH, Winchester is a very small town with hardly any resources, the pay here isn't what you would get in a bigger market place. Our teachers know this, they also know that the benefits are the difference maker and they choose to work here. What has transpired the past year has shown me what kind of teachers we have here, that think of only themselves and not the citizens of town, parents of children or the children themselves. To vote to put such a heavy burden on everyone showed me where their loyalties lie, wasn't that a good example to set for the kids they teach? I think not.
The link to the FAQ about the school is at www.wnhsd.org and under the Superindendant on the left hand side.
I have heard from a few teachers that with their new contract that they supposedly voted for themselves...with higher amounts they pay for insurance they are taking home less this year than last.
Also remember that the teachers that teach, and live in Winchester, and vote also have to pay the same taxes as everybody else.
Please note a large amount of the teachers dont even live in town so I dont believe they are voting.
Only a few teachers live in Winchester. There aren't that many. So when you say THEY voted for themselves it is actually a very small percentage.
Also as stated previously, only Winchester residents can vote whether they are teachers or not, they are paying the same taxes as you!
Thank you for the link. And yes,teachers here in town pay property taxes just like the rest of us; but none of us got a huge raise, roughly $7k, to help us pay our taxes. In fact most of us got saddled with a $1000 - $2500 increase to pay for their raises and other perks.
My taxes rose over $1200 because of the school budget. I guess I wouldn't be so pissed if I had gotten a huge raise to offset this increase and was still able to put more money in my pocket like them. They have hurt many people where it hurts most and it won't be forgotten any time soon.
Stop complaining and get out and go to the deliberative sessions and vote. Crying behind your keyboard does nothing.
If there are only a few teachers who live in Winchester, then only they are paying the increases in taxation here. What you deniers are forgetting is that the Budget Committee cut $600,000 from the school's budget last year and at the school Deliberative the teachers, all of them, their families and their supporters led by Kevan Whippie voted to put that money back and increase spending. This was attached to our annual ballot by warrant article, go read.
The warrant included step raises as has already been posted here and a raise for all support personnel as well. Once again, go read and stop making air-headed unsupported claims. The proof, actual facts have been posted here before and are on the school's own web site under annual report. To all the people posting nonsense on this blog attempting to discredit the information readily available, get over it, facts are facts, we've been had by a group of people who were looking out for themselves.
WI, If you actually posted all the things people wrote, there would really be a conversation on this site. I have left several comments, none of which contain any personal attacks etc and they do not post. I have copies of them. Only allowing the controversial comments and ones without all the facts is not a true representation of all people in Winchester opionion. Why do you continually allow personal attacks on people on this site and make generalization about groups of people. Why is that?
If we allowed all of the comments people posted we would spend all of our time editing them for content and weeding out all of the nonsense crap. We have set up a filter that automatically, based on certain words deletes users comments so we don't have to babysit the blog all day long. Also, sometimes for reasons unknown that our hosts are looking into, some comments just don't get published, even though we do approve them. Lastly if you don't like how we run the blog and what we do and do not allow, I suggest you find another hobby or construct your own blog. There are certain people in town, who we won't name, that come on here every day to do nothing but disrupt and post absolute nonsense that we have grown quite tired of. It is our blog and we reserve the right to edit and remove, like it or not.
TO 'STOP CRYING AND GET OUT THERE..." I have voted, I have gone to deliberative. The ballots are perused thru by a selectman, and the deliberative is a public farce. We need new people period! The school budget is part of it, but the town budget is responsible too. By the way, if you go to Town Hall to question the tax hike, they immediately say it's because of the school budget! I don't know about town employees or school employees, but I have had to cut spending at home because of the economy. It's pretty basic, if you don't have it, you can't spend it.
Perhaps what we need to do is tuition our grade 6-12 students to Keene. It seems as though that is where we have educational issues and social issues. If we want our students to be competitive then we have to give them the educational tools to master the tasks. We apparently do a good job with our students in grades k-5. I think that even if you run the number with the bond payment you will find that the cost for this should be some where around 5.5 to 6 million dollars. That sure in hell is a far cry from 11 million.
This solution would ensure that all students get a great education not just the sped students. I do agree with the parent who is concerned that with sped costs so high her child's education will suffer. She is correct because the "team" in Winchester does not look at cost or consider that the least restrictive environment may just be the school.
Think about this solution it may be our only chance to guarantee an equitable education for all.
If you don't have it you cant spend it-- That's the rule we all live by and it should be the rule that our town lives by.
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