Next City Council Meeting -- August 3, 7 PM

The next City Council meeting will be on August 3 at 7 p.m. I plan on being there, because there may be a chance that the cap might not be broken.

Bob Desroschers is getting a petition together of Franklin residents who oppose the tax cap. So far, he reportedly has 200 signatures, and he plans on presenting this at the next city council meeting. If you would like to add your name to the petition, let me know and I will tell you how to get in touch with him. (I'm reluctant to give his phone number out on the website until I've talked with him myself)

Letter from Ward 1 Councilor Bob Sharon in The Citizen

Ward 1 councilor Bob Sharon was not present during the final vote on the budget a few weeks ago, so that's why he's not included on the list. Here's his letter in The Citizen explaining his situation.

Editor, The Citizen: My name is Bob Sharon and I am a Franklin Ward I city councilor.

I would like to set the record straight concerning the tax cap vote. On the night the proposed budget was set, June 24, 2009, I abstained on voting because there was another proposal made that wasn't presented for discussion, therefore, I didn't have all the facts.

At the July 6, 2009 public hearing and council meeting, I was in the ICU at Concord Hospital and so I didn't vote at all.

If any of my constituents would like to contact me on this matter, please call me at 393-5228 anytime.

Bob Sharon

Franklin

Mayor Ken Merrifield on 2 Joes Live!

This is from last week. They finally put the video up. Unfortunately there's no embedding, but check out the video at the 2 Joes Live site here.

Sununu and the Charge To The Congress

I had the good fortune to be able to go to a house party last night where former Governor and now chair of the NH Republican Party John H. Sununu was speaking. Hubby and Christopher came along with me (although not for long -- Christopher started getting fussy, so hubby left early to bring him home while I stayed behind). My son has now met more politicians by the age of 1 than I ever have in my lifetime. :-)

Anyway, there was a purpose to Sununu's appearance last night: to get the GOP energized. The goal for next year: to get the Democrats out of the governorship and the congress and give the state back to the people.

I'm just going to repeat the talking points that Sununu pointed out.

1) Since Sununu has been out of office int he mid 1990s, the Pew Charitable Trusts has been giving increasingly bad grades to New Hanpshire's Quality of state services, going frrom a C in 1999 to a D+ in 2008.

2) Spending has increased under the Democrats in charge. This year, despite Governor Lynch touting spending cuts, the budget actually includes 6 to 10% increases in addition to the 17.5% increase in last year's budget. Other states have managed to decrease their budgets by 5% over the last two budget cycles.

3) 38 new and increased taxes and fees are included in the budget, including taxes on small business (LLC Tax), campsite tax and gambling winnings as well as increased taxes on tobacco, vehicle registration fees, condo and land sales fees, boat registration fees, and business profit tax expansion.

4) In addition, more taxes may be coming down the pipline, including a new tax on mortgage refinancing, income tax on capital gains, estate tax, sales tax on entertainment, and increases of the gas tax and business enterprise tax.

5) The New Hampshire Retirement System for state employees (which includes teachers, firefighters, police, municipal and general state employees) has built up a huge unfunded liability leaving employee's retirement security in question. Since 1996, it has grown to a total unfunded liability of $7 billion. The towns are responsible for 30 to 35% of the burden and will have to pay the balance from local property taxes.

6) The local Democrats are counting on one time stimulus money to pay for this, but they are also trying to take money from the Joint Underwriters Association (JUA), a private malpractice fund owned by doctors, to the tune of $110 million to pay for this, too. The deficit not covered by revenues in this budget total $500 million.

We should expect responsibility at the local level, and we should expect it at the state level. Although this blog will be working on getting out the issues within Franklin, we shouldn't forget the fact that the state level is screwed up, as well, and we should work towards getting the word out that way.

Waiting for Video And Some Other Thoughts

I am waiting for video of Mayor Ken Merrifield's appearance on 2 Joes Live out of Manchester. Once that is up, I will be posting about it.

In the meantime, this site has now been mentioned by the generous guys at Granite Grok (whose show Meet The New Press I've been on twice, and headed for a third time at the next Blogapalooza once that's scheduled). They mention this blog as another group starting up. That wasn't the original intention, but it could work that way if we have enough people interested in the city to do so. And we are also on the blogroll of the NH Tea Party Coalition. Thanks, guys!

Here is my appearance last week on Meet The New Press where we talked about the Franklin city councilor's decision to override the mayor's veto: Part 1 and Part 2.

Guest Bloggers Wanted

Live in Franklin? Want to comment on the issues surrounding what the town government is doing to us? Let me know, and you can have a post in this space! Write to me at scooppc11@yahoo.com and we can arrange to have your post up in this space!

Mayor Merrifield Appearance

Franklin Mayor Ken Merrifield will be on Channel 23 in Manchester tomorrow. He will be on to defend the city charter as well as the tax cap. Be sure to watch for it!

Crossposted at ConChrist