New Hampshire: The Real Facts

Associated Press stories indicate that Iraq has reached several new agreements seen as critical to easing sectarian tensions. Jennifer Horn, Republican candidate for Congress, issued the following statement:

"Recent reports indicating the Iraqi government has achieved "satisfactory" progress on 15 of 18 political benchmarks bring us one step closer to the time when a stable and self-governing Iraq is in charge of its own security. While the progress is slow and not perfect, this shows that we are in fact making progress in Iraq and that we are on the right course.

City Budget

My hat is off the City Finance Committee for actually listening to the public and acting upon the public’s request to lower the city’s portion of the property tax from 4.8% to 3.9984%. In a real sense, watching both school and city government activities is rather new to me. I am one of those guilty citizens who rarely got involved until I retired early last year. I am learning a lot of lessons along the way.

From The Coalition of New Hampshire Taxpayers comes: Keene’s 34 West: When Government Doesn’t Listen...

Voters in Keene have clearly instructed the city to sell property at 34 West Street. However, this property is still in the hands of the school district AND they are “giving away” the rent for $1 a year because they think they “hurt the feelings” of the surrounding towns…

They also went ahead and bought a house next to the high school with surplus funds, because they could.

Where are residents to turn when their government turns rogue and does not follow through on what it’s been told to do by the people it serves?

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.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Contact: Tom Eaton, 352-8887

Eaton Announces for State Senate

Thomas R. Eaton announced today that he is running for the State Senate in

District 10 which includes the City of Keene plus Chesterfield, Dublin, Fitzwilliam, Hinsdale, Marlborough, Richmond, Surry, Swanzey, Troy, and Winchester.

"I want to give the voters a clear choice for the future of our state. Two years ago Molly Kelly ran on the promise of fiscal responsibility. But when she got to Concord she voted for a 17% budget increase and more than a dozen tax and fee increases. In contrast when I oversaw the previous budget in the senate we had just a 3 1/2 % increase that the Governor signed and praised as responsible.”

We have spent many man-hours reviewing the situation at the Keene Middle School; its condition, and events that led us to our current state of affairs. I requested all documents pertaining to the Keene Middle School using NH’s Right to Know Law and used them as the basis for this report. This law gives citizen’s access to all public documents upon request from a governing body.

I made the RTK request to the Keene School District, The City of Keene, & the State of NH Fire Marshall in Concord.

There are a number of issues to bring forward and I will provide just a summary of those tonight. Due to the depth of information & lengthy chain of events, a more detailed presentation will occur at a later date directly to the public.

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.

Sununu voted the right way on the farm bill

From Fosters.com:

Let's hear no more from Democrats that they're on the side of the poor and opposed to big business. The farm bill passed by Congress loaded $40 billion onto nutrition programs for the poor to the benefit of America's wealthy farmers.

The country's corporate farmers won the backing of Senate Republicans from the farm states as well as the Democratic majority this week. Meanwhile, the majority party, working to widen its margin in the upper chamber is trying to paint President Bush and GOP members of Congress as being insensitive to the needs of America's underclass.

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.

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!

To: Keene Citizens Government Review (KCGR) Subscribers

It's easy to try to pick out problems in Keene, but rarely do we get an opportunity to directly share in its betterment. Dale Pregent, our new mayor, along with the Planning Department, is giving us an opportunity to have a say in what happens here.

The mere fact that you are a subscriber to this newsletter indicates that you have a concern with Keene’s future.

Peggy Shapiro writes in the American Thinker:

The going theory in the world of media psychology is that people need to confront their demons and talk over problems in order to repair relationships. The next logical step is to conclude that what works on the personal level can be applied to the political and that by dialogue, international relations can be brought to a peaceful resolution. So everyone is talking about talking.

Subject: Ad Hoc Middle School Committee Report
Importance: High

Folks,
Tonight (Wednesday, April 2, 2008) I went to the Middle School Ad Hoc committee meeting. Basically the entire meeting was taken up with still going forward with interviewing architects and developing a plan to use the $1,000,000 revenue surplus for complete architectural drawings. Below are my thoughts:

Committee members:

Dotty Frazier – Principle MS
Don Parker – Board member
Neil Donegan – Board Chair
Liz Coppola – Chair of Finance – Board
Carol Burns – Chair of Ad Hoc Committee
John Harper – SAU 29 Business Manager
Carmelina Tonkinson – PTA President
Richard Beard – Engineer (Citizen)
Tom Remillard – School Maintenance Director
Bill Gurney – School Superintendent

Andrew Cline writes in the National Review what the new Democratic Party majority in Concord has done to the state of New Hampshire:

In the 2006 election, New Hampshire voters did what they had not done since 1874, the year Republicans were routed nationally because of scandal and an immensely unpopular Reconstruction agenda: They handed Democrats control of every elected branch of state government. Now they are paying the price — literally. The orgy of taxing, spending, and regulating in which Democrats have indulged is threatening New Hampshire's status as the New England state most hospitable to business and individual liberty.