New Hampshire: The Real Facts

Eaton will also be receiving an endorsement from former Keene mayor Michael E.J. Blastos, a Democrat, who didn't announce support for either candidate in 2006.

"At that particular time, while I appreciated all that (Eaton) had done, I was not going to endorse either one because Molly has been a dear friend for many, many years," Blastos said in an interview Thursday. "I didn't want to inhibit her campaign or Tom's. This year is a different question.

Folks, I need some advice. The County portion of the property tax is scheduled to increase by a whopping 38.77%.

County Example:
2007-08 - $3,731,326
2008-09 - $5,177,924
Increase: 38.77%

We all know that part of this is the result of the new Jail being placed in Keene. How could this increase have been avoided?

As it stands right now the total Keene property tax increase for fiscal 2008-09 stands at 7.68%. Here is how the rest of it breaks down.

City Example:
2007-08 - $19,756,948
2008-09 - $20,705,505
Increase: 4.8%

Local Education Example:
2007-08 - $22,470,428
2008-09 - $23,898,794
Increase: 6.35%

State education:
2007-08 - $3,852,359
2008-09 - $3,852,359
Increase: 0%

Weighted average:
2007- 08 - $49,811,061
2008- 09 - $53,634,582

Citizens have the right to know how their tax dollars are being spent each year. With Keene residents facing a combined city/county/school property tax increase of 8 % for 2008-2009 and continually spiraling local food, oil, and gasoline costs, this has become critically important.

For comparison, here is a list of 2007 earnings for top employees in Manchester, NH city departments, as well as the Manchester Transit Authority and Manchester Housing and Redevelopment Authority. It includes all earnings, including salary, overtime and extra detail pay.

David P. Greisman of the Keene Sentinel writes:

Former state senator Thomas R. Eaton is mulling a return to the campaign trail to challenge for the seat he lost to Democrat Molly M. Kelly two years ago.

Eaton, a Keene Republican, has also expressed interest in a vacant state liquor commission seat. He says he is still weighing his options and has not yet made his decision.

"How is this district being served by our current senator?" Eaton said Monday. "I look at what I did in just a couple years there versus what she has done. There's no comparison. I know what I can do and have done, and I enjoyed what I did."

Kelly declined to comment for this story.

Did you know that roll calls for every NH state legislator can be easily searched by the legislative body and session year?

Just click here and search.

For example, to see how Keene House legislator, Peter Espiefs, has voted in 2008 on each piece of legislation, just click here.

Feel free to bookmark this site.

State lawmaker proposes tax cap for Londonderry. Several other NH Communities considering similar requests.

LONDONDERRY — Londonderry residents could soon join Derry and a handful of other New Hampshire communities that set a limit on local tax increases.

Rep. Al Baldasaro, R-Londonderry, has sent a citizen's petition to Town Hall asking town officials to put the question on the November ballot. If his petition makes it to the ballot and voters pass it, the next town budget would be tied to the Consumer Price Index, long used as a measure of inflation.

The tax cap is not a new idea, according to Manchester's Mike Biundo, president of the New Hampshire Tax Advantage Coalition.

Will/can Keene be next?

Where is Senator Molly Kelly? Several times recently she has either avoided or delayed weighing in on important issues. Why isn’t she representing us?

She was criticized by the Sentinel March 25 for supporting a “crazy” education funding plan. Her answer was to state that “(t)his is a new beginning as we move toward solving this decades-old dilemma.” This is a beginning? Is the plan she now says she supports and voted for a good solid plan for education funding or not? Why would she say a “beginning” is enough at this point? Why is she supporting it if it is only a beginning and not the final answer? How can she call it a beginning when the issue has existed since 1996? The courts have issued many rulings over the past 12 years. This is not a beginning!

Alec O’Meara interviews Jennifer Horn:

Jennifer Horn, an award-winning radio talk show host and newspaper columnist, has announced a bid for the Republican nomination for the U.S. House of Representatives 2nd District seat. A longtime resident of Nashua, with her husband, Bill, and their five children, Horn has been an active volunteer in the community since she was 18. She received the Spirit of Hope Award for her work with the Chernobyl Children’s Project, and has served with a number of civic organizations. This is her first run for public office.

Q:Why did you decide to run?

Snow White saw that there had been a terrible cave in. Tearfully, and fearing the worst. Snow White began calling out, hoping against hope that some of the Dwarfs had survived.

"Hello, hello," she called. "Can anyone hear me? Hello" For quite a while there was no answer. Losing hope, Snow White called again, "Hello. Is anyone down there?"

Just as she was about to give up all hope, there came a faint voice from deep in the mine. The voice said, "Vote for Shea-Porter, Hodes, Shaheen, and Lynch!"

Snow White, somewhat relieved screamed out, "Oh, thank God. At least Dopey is still alive!”

The Cheshire Republican Women’s Club

invites you to meet

Jennifer Horn, Republican candidate for the 2nd Congressional District

at our next meeting,

Saturday, May 3rd at 11:30 a.m.

Cheshire Republican Committee HQ, 328 West St., Keene

Light refreshments will be served.

RSVP to Jane Keough at: jskeough@verizon.net or telephone 563-8352.

See you then!

Inflated School District income reports hiked retirement packages Unit 38 school employees reaped thousands in excess benefits as reported by Anika Clark in the Keene Sentinel:

A slew of current and former employees of the Monadnock Regional School District and N.H. School Administrative Unit 38 landed in hot water with the N.H. Retirement System when state officials discovered their reported income had been illegally inflated.

This allowed the employees to collectively reap thousands of dollars in excess benefits.

We hope that you have been receiving a copy of the NH House Republican Report each week. Previous issues are also available on our website (WWW.NHHOUSEGOP.COM) With the filing period for the fall elections getting closer, we continue to search for good Republican candidates for the House of Representatives. If you are interested or know of someone who would make a good candidate and might be interested in running for office, we would like to talk with them. Please contact our office with their name, address and telephone number.

Thank-you

Gene

Rep. Gene Chandler
Republican Policy Leader
House Republican Office
State House-Room 307
107 North Main St.
Concord, NH 03301
603-271-3665

Friends,

Its time we end business-as-usual in Congress! Out-of-control spending, partisan bickering and gridlock on some of the most critical issues facing our country continue to reign as the status quo in Washington. Americans have very little faith in our elected officials, and the politicians just don’t seem to care.

NPR listeners rankled by segments on right.

Jennifer Harper, Washington Times reporter, gives us a revealing look at how far left our taxpayer funded National Public Radio network has gotten itself these days. Even when they try to go a little toward the conservative side of the debate, they get lambasted by their audience, angered that they had the temerity to air conservative views. Of course, the only reason they would get such a rude reception from their own audience is because they have garnered only a far left listenership as a result of their far left programming. After all, if they had a balanced listenership they wouldn't get deluged by angry emails when they aired conservative content.

Union Leader Editorial: Hodes Fails Iraq: And America
February 26, 2008

REP. PAUL HODES has been so wrong on Iraq that any change in his position could be nothing but an improvement. Alas, we are still waiting for that change.

From the start, he opposed Gen. David Petraeus' troop surge, saying it wouldn't work. "There is no reason to believe this will accomplish anything productive," he said in January of 2007.

Last summer he predicted the surge would create a "horrible" summer of escalating violence.

After the surge accomplished something "productive" -- a dramatic reduction in violence and the return of some semblance of normalcy to large chunks of Iraq -- Hodes found Baghdad safe enough for a visit last week.