Letting The Fox Guard The Monopoly
by Ed Naile, Chairman
For years The Coalition of New Hampshire Taxpayers has suggested to taxpayer activists that they should consider getting their town or school out of the NH Municipal Association, now operating under the name, The Local Government Center. No one was very successful, it stayed a state-created monopoly.
We suggested taxpayers get out of NHMA for various reasons, such as bad “legal advice” from its lawyers and a liberal slant which became more so in the last ten years after some of the unbiased attorneys they had left the organization.
But when the Manchester Firemen caught this crowd skimming much more than was needed to buy insurance for them the lid finally came off. NHMA had been caught. They had skimmed about $100 million and squirreled it away for their own empire building program, as any liberal group would.
Now that the NHMA has been ordered by the State to reimburse the communities who not so long ago worshiped NHMA, they show their stripes once again.
NHMA/LGC will not pay anyone back in cash, as they took it, they will only CREDIT municipalities in the future to offset the cost of new or re-issued policies.
And one more catch I like to call extortion; you have to stay with the crooks or you get nothing back.
Oh and the entity in charge of keeping an eye on this monopoly since it began – Bill Gardner’s Secretary of State Office.
Seems both the SoS Office and NHMA/LGC have been run by the same people WAY too long.
Relevant, ignored, statute below:
5-B:5 Standards of Organization and Operation. –
I. Each pooled risk management program shall meet the following standards of organization and operation. Each program shall:
(a) Exist as a legal entity organized under New Hampshire law.
(b) Be governed by a board the majority of which is composed of elected or appointed public officials, officers, or employees. Board members shall not receive compensation but may be reimbursed for mileage and other reasonable expenses.
(c) Return all earnings and surplus in excess of any amounts required for administration, claims, reserves, and purchase of excess insurance to the participating political subdivisions.