by Ed Naile
This is a letter from a Keene taxpayer that was published in February of 2004. It is but one example of how the Right to Know laws can be circumvented or ignored.
The Finance Committee in Keene got caught meeting on the side to decide what budgets will be and how they will deal with questions from the public. (They apparently were not prepared for the taxpayer group) In doing this the Keene Finance Committee is cheating the Right to Know Law by setting up an organized series of meetings with less than a quorum. Then these same sneaks will complain that no one comes to the public meetings they do have and the local papers will dutifully print that garbage.
This citizen’s letter to the editor is a wakeup call to the taxpayers in Keene and NH as a whole beyond what it reveals for another important reason. The largest news source in Keene is The Keene Sentinel, a liberal to left-wing mouthpiece for the education lobby. Not that long ago they won a State Supreme Court Case in which they unsealed the divorce records of former US Congressman Chuck Douglass for the news value I assume.
Lets see if they have the integrity to publicly admonish the Finance Committee for their cheesy, cowardly, activity in defying the public’s right to know.
To the editor:
In case you didn’t go to the Keene School Budget Public Hearing let me be the first to tell you about the way budgets and policy are conducted between SAU 29 and the Keene Board of Education. John Tonkinson, Chairman of the Finance Committee, told us there are months of discussions over lunches, over coffee and they come to agreements before they go to the public so there will be no appearance of adversarial relationships.
You understand what that means don’t you? It means there is really no reason for public hearings because whether we have an opinion or not, the decisions are already made and we just speak to hear ourselves talk and nothing changes. That explains, when the new members of the Keene Board of Education attempted to make valid budget cuts at the session on January 10, 2004, why they were all voted down.
We were given a view of the budget via slide presentation and among the slides was one of the budget trends over the last 7 years. It was explained to us that, as we could see, the rise was pretty steady on its upwards climb without a deviation for changes in economic conditions. When Len Chaloux, a citizen who voiced his opinion, highlighted a 41 month national economic free fall during that same time period there were many blank faces on the Board and among SAU 29 Administrators. Somehow it seemed to be irrelevant to them if there is a huge downward trend in the economy and they still ratchet up budgets far in excess of the cost of living, you get economic strife among those paying the bill.
Likewise, when John Harper, Business Manager for SAU 29 and then John Tonkinson both used the projected 6% tax base increase there was no mention that any increase in the tax base is not connected to increases in earnings by those who pay the bill. The fact that the tax base increased by 12.1% in 2003 and by 9.6% in 2002 likewise were tied to increases in income and yet the Keene School Budgets have worked to strip our last dollars from our pockets without so much as a blink of an eye.
There was no mention of restructuring the school programs as we must restructure what we do so we can foot those bills. Even a student ratio situation that is far under New Hampshire regulations is passed over as a good thing. There apparently was never a word such as compromise explained to Board members and administrators.
What would I like to see? I’d like see well-educated children with new initiatives introduced to further challenge them. I’d like to know teachers and administrators are well paid, but I’d also like to see there are limits on the length of contracts to prevent raises from being more than double the inflation rate. I’d like to know there are limits on total compensation packages so the 70% who receive totally paid for insurance at some point have to pay part of it like the rest of us. I’d like to know our budgets are actual budgets and not this bogus default system the New Hampshire law has strapped on our backs.
During that 41 month period of time we saw the values of our homes rise and our property taxes escalate at unprecedented rates. This was while, if we were lucky enough to have health insurance, our rates also went up dramatically, but we paid for it. If our luck held and we had jobs, we got a 1-2% increase in our earnings. The net result of that was financial disaster for many and for others it meant huge cutbacks in general living conditions. In Keene those filing for property tax relief also went up substantially.
All of that said, let me again remind you that according to John Tonkinson, the deals are made, the decisions reached and the budget is what the budget is.
Last year the Sentinel chided me to do my homework before I engaged in debate about the budget. I did and basically know what it’s all about, but it does no good. The Sentinel also said it was time for public debate. I bet even they didn’t know that was impossible in Keene because citizens are deemed unnecessary when reaching monetary decisions even though we pay the bills.