Quote:
Originally Posted by Yankee
You do not live here, you do not vote here. Period. What makes you think that you have the same rights as NH citizens? People like you from south of the border come here and are the ones raising the tax bases of all the towns here in the lakes region. You would not be in the least interested in voting if your vacation property taxes were far less than they are now.
You do not live here, you do not have family here, you do not raise your children here, you do not earn a living here, you have no stake in the community other than your vacation property. Yet you have the temerity to think that you deserve the same right of franchise to vote as those who call the lakes region home?
Please explain how you came to this conclusion?...
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Yankee, please explain to us how people who cannot vote and have no say at Town Meeting can be responsible for raising the tax bases? Last time I looked, it takes a Town Meeting vote to approve a budget or new article. Perhaps those voting are responsible?
As for the comments about many not having a stake in the community, I suggest it would help if you didn't make such broad-sweeping generalizations. Speaking only for myself, I care more deeply and passionately about NH and the Lakes Region than I do about any other town I've been voter in. I've been coming here my whole life, my parents live here and are buried here, and my stake in the community could not be higher. I'm not a unique exception.
While we might agree that the line needs to be drawn somewhere on who can vote where, the reason this topic keeps coming up is, ironically, in your note. My taxes on my home at the lake exceed those of my home where I vote. It is very frustrating to not have a say in those increasing taxes and how they are spent. Taxation without representation has been an issue before.
In anticipation of your next point, yes I do plan on moving soon so I can vote.