by Ed Naile
It’s Town and school meeting time! And as usual CNHT will get stories of woe and grief of how the big spenders showed up in huge numbers and passed everything.
That doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Teachers, town employees, and liberal churches work with the elites in your town who “community organize” the local, blue collar, and fixed income voters into a deep, blue, funk. The “surprise success” of the tax and spenders is organized. It is designed not only to win – but to demoralize all opponents.
If voters just shot down a huge bond your municipality can not afford, it was probably a spontaneous action. Capitalize on it! Go get the checklist from that vote and see who showed up – and who normally doesn’t show up for annual meetings. It will not take a rocket scientist or brilliant mathematician to figure out where the votes to defeat or pass a controversial issue came from.
Those voters are yours to ignore or encourage. You can bet the municipal employees know exactly who will support them and who not to talk to. That is how they pad budgets every year, not all, but most municipal employees engage in politics. That is the new history of annual meetings. It isn’t just neighbors showing up one night a year. Those days are long gone.
The bigger the shellacking you took on an annual budget or bond, the better to know who is voting for more spending or special interests. You need a copy of the checklist from several years to find out. If you don’t read the checklist you are bound to lose.
Do yourself a favor and spend some time and a little money on defeating tax and spenders. This is the time of year to start.