CONCORD – Hard times are spurring tax revolts in New Hampshire.
Ed Naile of Deering chairs the Coalition of New Hampshire Taxpayers, advising local groups hoping to institute first-ever budget committees, kill construction bonds or run slates of candidates for selectmen or school board.
“We’re not a political party, but I can tell you a lot of people are asking us about running for office,” Naile said. “I think you’re going to see all but the best of the major spending proposals get shot down at March meetings.”
Taxpayers are working to impose spending caps in Manchester and Concord next year, modeled on one that gained a 70-30 majority at the polls this month in Rochester.
Fred Leonard of the Rochester Taxpayers Association said the movement was spawned last April, the day the city manager proposed a $3.99 hike in the city tax rate.
Volunteers needed 796 signatures for a petition to put a cap on the general election ballot. They obtained 1,775 names.
“People had had enough,” Leonard said. “They feel the pinch at the gas pump and when they pay for heating oil. But the city wanted to do business as usual. The public labor unions mounted a campaign in the last two weeks, but they were too late.”
Republican Mayor Frank Guinta of Manchester tried and failed to get the Democrat-controlled board of aldermen to put a cap before voters this fall.
“There were enough petition signatures, but they voted to do it next November,” Guinta said. “A cap would force the city to choose priorities and find cost efficiencies. In a recession, you can’t spend what you don’t have. A vote of 10 out of the 14 aldermen could still override the cap in case of emergencies.”
Naile said officials in Concord and Manchester will come to regret blocking a vote in 2008.
Concord officials filed suit recently to keep the matter from ever coming to a vote. He thinks they will lose.
“They’re rightly scared of this,” Naile said. “They made a mistake. When it finally goes to vote next November, the economy will be even worse. We’ll be whipping up our troops over it.”
Mike Biundo chairs the New Hampshire Advantage Coalition and said the taxpayer rights movement is huge and growing.
“In addition to Concord and Manchester, we’ve been in touch with folks in Londonderry and Merrimack about caps,” he said. “Some folks in Andover are interested. The one in Somersworth (this month) only failed by 8 percent. The recession is fueling it. People are looking for tax relief.”
Rep. Al Baldasaro, R-Londonderry, obtained more then 300 petition signatures for a spending cap as of September, but needed 520. He was too strapped for time in a presidential election year, and he’s not sure he’ll try again.
“We’re lucky to have an outstanding council and budget committee,” Baldasaro said. “They’re already looking to protect taxpayers. I just wish we could hold down all that bloated state spending in this economy. If we had a bill for a statewide tax cap, I’d be a co-sponsor.”
Some see the tax revolt as inevitable.
“There is a perfect storm brewing at school meetings next March,” warns Ted Comstock, director of the School Boards Association. “Voters have an expectation services will be maintained and expanded. They are going to want more out of fewer resources. The only branch they can get back at is local government.”
A deep recession almost two decades ago helped municipal cost-slashers rise to power in Manchester and Laconia.
Republican Executive Councilor Ray Wieczorek served as mayor of Manchester in the bust of the early 1990s, when the feds took over five of the city’s banks.
Only a couple of Republicans were serving as aldermen, he said, and the union contracts gave generous pay raises. More than 12 percent of property owners were also delinquent on their taxes.
“I told the voters to give me the horses to do the job,” Wieczorek said. “We won the first Republican majority in about 60 years for my second term and gave no raises for three, four and five years, depending on the union. I was picketed for three years, but it’s not about being popular.”
He plans to support the proposed Manchester tax cap, but wants to be sure it doesn’t hurt the city’s ability to take out bonds.
“The real key is to elect people who can hold the line on costs,” Wieczorek said.
Tom Tardiff became mayor of Laconia around the same time when his “Straight Arrow” slate of Libertarians and Republicans shocked the city at the polls.
He recalled the real estate market was tanking and shoreline property owners felt overtaxed by outdated assessments. The ensuing battles over school budgets polarized the city and made national news.
One year the school board axed kindergarten to protest the council’s bare-bones education budget.
“I got blamed for that,” Tardiff said. “My problem was I didn’t know how to compromise. But we kept our pledge to hold the line on the amount of money raised by taxes. Our small budget increases were funded by other revenues.”
Tardiff initially opposed the spending cap Laconia passed at the start of this decade. He was afraid state aid would be too shaky and create deficits.
“It’s worked better than I expected,” Tardiff said, “but the school board still gets whatever it wants. Now we’re so bonded and committed by contracts, we need to amend the cap to be more severe. I agree maybe a statewide tax cap would be a good idea.”