Death by Taxes

[Argie's Wife]

Originally Posted by fatlazyless

In the last ten years, Wolfeboro, Alton and Gilford all have approved the SB-2 style of voting on warrants, as well as for candidates. Laconia is a city and had a tax cap until last week. Don't know about Tuftonboro?

Meredith, Moultonborough, and Center Harbor all continue to have the old fashioned style, show-of-hands, town meeting.

In Meredith, the actual voting on warrants gets done at about 11-pm on the first tuesday in March so only people who are really interested show up to vote. Most potential Meredith voters are no-shows at the town meeting.

Last March at the Meredith-Center Harbor-Sandwich- SAU#3-annual school meeting, the Town of Meredith got "hosed by the Town of Sandwich" according to former Selectman Bob Flanders. Basically, Meredith voters got hoist by its' own petard when Sandwich voters showed up in strength to successfully vote the continued teaching of Sandwich Elementary's 6th grade through the show-of-hands process.

The SAU#3 school board's response; was to change the annual school board meeting from a Wednesday evening to a Saturday morning in a close vote. This had been proposed in the past and failed, so why did it get passed this time? Because Meredith got hosed!

Meredith's scheduling their annual NH town meeting for a time period at 7-pm Tuesday, in March with an aproximate 11-pm show of hands vote, when THEY KNOW that most residents will not show up, is a process that gets results that is very similar to gerrymandering, and it works!

...didn't you start a thread about this issue already?

By the way, there's always a public input session of any public meeting - you should air your concerns to the board having the town meeting at the odd date/time you've been posting about here - they're more likely to address your concerns at their meeting than they are on this forum...

[fatlazyless]

Originally Posted by Argie's Wife

.. you should air your concerns to the board having the town meeting at the odd date/time you've been posting about here

Look, there's no way I can explain personally the reason why each voter voted the way that they did in Gilford and Meredith when it came to voting yes or no for a new police station but I can look at the overall results which are what counts.

History:

In the last four years, Gilford, which is an SB-2 town, has voted NO, three different times to replace their old police station with a new one.

Meredith, which is a town meeting town, voted YES on the first vote, about eight years ago, to replace their old police station with a new one.

What made the difference between Gilford and Meredith? Just my opinion here, but I believe it was most likely all about the difference in the voting process: Gilford's SB-2 private paper ballot available to voters from 7am-7pm as opposed to Meredith's traditional NH tuesday night, town meeting and its' 11-pm show-of-hands style vote.

What made the difference between Gilford not building a new police station, and Meredith building its' taj mahal style police station was the voting process difference between SB-2 and town meeting. ...

[Argie's Wife]

It doesn't have to happen at 11pm - you can move the question ANYTIME.

[Ropetow]

Originally Posted by Argie's Wife

It doesn't have to happen at 11pm - you can move the question ANYTIME.

Sounds like you are good friends with Roberts (and his Rules....)

[Argie's Wife]

Yes, I am.

[kunamola]

I know what this long time (1947) Tuftonboro summer family will do to try to pay the property tax this year. We will not replace our motorboat which died this summer; so Melvin Marina will not have a new sale, we will not store this boat so Lane's End will not have storage income, we will not need to buy gas for a boat so marina's around the lake will not benefit from our sales and the government will not benefit from the tax on this unsold gasoline. We will not be boating on the lake to eat out so restaurants will not get our business and we won't be buying new life jackets, ski vests or other boating accessories so local stores will not get a sale. Maybe, just maybe that will allow us to hold on to our family camp for another year.

[fatlazyless]

Do you have any Tuftonboro town employees that you know of, who maybe live near you somewhere? It well could be that while you will not be replacing your old boat for property tax reasons, the town employee will be doing some water-sports related business with the local Tuftonboro marina.


What would be a good name for a town employee's super-duper luxury liner boat? How about "On the Clock" ....or....."Tuftonboro Overtime" ....or..."On Town Business" ....hmmmm.....what's a good name ?

[gtagrip]

I was thinking about the 11:00pm vote Meridith likes to do. My wife and I have 2 boys 7 & 6 years old. How would both my wife and I be able to attend the 11:00pm vote?
And please don't suggest getting a babysitter, that would be ridiculous!

[RailroadJoe]

GETAGRIP Please read Argie's wife quote Move the question.

[gtagrip]

Originally Posted by RailroadJoe

GETAGRIP Please read Argie's wife quote Move the question.

I did read it. And it's a great idea, but why is it not done and why does meredith continue to have a vote at 11:00pm.
From what FLL is saying, the 11:00pm vote is a common practice.

[RailroadJoe]

Because most people have never read Roberts Rules of Order. They would then understand what a moderator does.

[Heaven]

I'd like to know, are there any other places (in the country) where property owning non-residents are allowed to vote?

[nightrider]

Originally Posted by kunamola

I know what this long time (1947) Tuftonboro summer family will do to try to pay the property tax this year. We will not replace our motorboat which died this summer; so Melvin Marina will not have a new sale, we will not store this boat so Lane's End will not have storage income, we will not need to buy gas for a boat so marina's around the lake will not benefit from our sales and the government will not benefit from the tax on this unsold gasoline. We will not be boating on the lake to eat out so restaurants will not get our business and we won't be buying new life jackets, ski vests or other boating accessories so local stores will not get a sale. Maybe, just maybe that will allow us to hold on to our family camp for another year.

Kunamola....You and I are in the same boat! I could not have explained it any better myself. Looks like the 24 year old boat will have to last yet another year.

[Argie's Wife]

And not to belabor the point of taxes and how tough times are, but I make some tough decisions at times so I can keep my house, utilities on, and maybe afford cable.

Point: We're all facing tough times. And tax increases are hard to swallow right now; no matter if it's your summer home or your only home.

[CGI3]

Originally Posted by fatlazyless

Look, there's no way I can explain personally the reason why each voter voted the way that they did in Gilford and Meredith when it came to voting yes or no for a new police station but I can look at the overall results which are what counts.

History:

In the last four years, Gilford, which is an SB-2 town, has voted NO, three different times to replace their old police station with a new one.

Meredith, which is a town meeting town, voted YES on the first vote, about eight years ago, to replace their old police station with a new one.

What made the difference between Gilford and Meredith? Just my opinion here, but I believe it was most likely all about the difference in the voting process: Gilford's SB-2 private paper ballot available to voters from 7am-7pm as opposed to Meredith's traditional NH tuesday night, town meeting and its' 11-pm show-of-hands style vote.

What made the difference between Gilford not building a new police station, and Meredith building its' taj mahal style police station was the voting process difference between SB-2 and town meeting. ...

What they SHOULD do is mail every Meredith resident a ballot a week prior, that way you avoid 3-5% of the people making all the major decisions for the whole town. These silly town hall meetings were fine 50-100 years ago, but times have absolutley changed. As for the new Meredith police station (the Taj) The only thing missing there is a bathroom attendent. It's a police station for crying out loud!