RINDGE \u2014 Suanne P. Yglesias, one of the co-owners of Lily\u2019s on the Pond Restaurant in Rindge, was planning to be at her business from 9 a.m. to midnight on an unusually busy Saturday.<\/p>\n
In the midst of a national economic downturn Yglesias, who, at 60, says she\u2019s \u201cnot a spring chicken,\u201d is working six days a week. The co-owners have had to take a pay cut, watch every penny and make tough choices, she said.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, she said, her town, school district and county should do the same.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of us are cutting back. … We\u2019re working more,\u201d Yglesias said, adding that in the throes of economic upheaval, the 14.5 percent increase in Rindge property tax rates is \u201cunjustifiable.\u201d<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s hardly uncommon, as a sampling of the region shows a 20 percent rate increase in Gilsum; 24 percent in Swanzey; and a whopping 37 percent in Sullivan.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople cannot \u2014 literally can\u2019t \u2014 afford it,\u201d Yglesias said of the tax hike.<\/p>\n
James R. Critser, a 57-year-old electronic engineer, echoed her.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout a question, everybody within Rindge is unhappy with the increase,\u201d he said, standing near the stairwell of his Rindge home. \u201cThe general feeling is that paying taxes is a good thing for services rendered, but when the economy is in its current state, as the folks in Washington say, everybody needs to cut back.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Critser said he\u2019ll be able to pay the taxes this year on his 12-acre property, \u201ca lot of people won\u2019t be (able to) \u2014 right here in Rindge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Critser and Yglesias are just two residents in a town where roughly 30 people showed up at last week\u2019s board of selectmen meeting to discuss their property taxes \u2014 an outpouring of concern and a slice of what\u2019s being felt throughout the region and country.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey came in large part to, I think, vent their frustrations that the bills have gone up so much,\u201d said Patricia Lang Barry, chairman of the board of selectmen. \u201c… I explained to them, \u2018I\u2019m a taxpayer too … I totally understand.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
Still, she said, \u201cIt doesn\u2019t do anybody any good to talk about us versus them. … When the selectmen look at the budget, we\u2019re spending our own money.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barry said she pointed out to residents that the town portion of the taxes \u2014 which saw a rate increase of 25.9 percent \u2014only accounts for $3.84 of every $23.24 collected from taxes. A total of $14.12 goes to support the Jaffrey-Rindge Cooperative School District, while $2.49 goes to state school taxes and $2.79 goes to the Cheshire County government.<\/p>\n
This year, the town\u2019s had to contend with declining revenues, she said, along with the N.H. Supreme Court\u2019s upholding of a decision that exempts Franklin Pierce University from paying taxes on its wastewater treatment plant.<\/p>\n
At the same time, she added, \u201cWe have more people coming requiring … welfare than ever before.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, 70-year-old Richard D. Call \u2014 who chewed a toothpick while listening to Willie Nelson in his Rindge living room Saturday evening \u2014 summed up the tax situation as follows:<\/p>\n
\u201cIt sucks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Call\u2019s wife, Mary T. Call, similarly called this year\u2019s taxes \u201ctoo high,\u201d particularly with the holiday season approaching..<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this time of year it doesn\u2019t seem to be fair,\u201d she explained, adding that her family\u2019s property tax rose $500 from June. \u201cI think it would be bad timing anytime, but certainly before Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like the Calls, 65-year-old Joseph F. Doherty Jr, a former Rindge selectman, said he\u2019ll be able to pay the taxes on his roughly 3-acre property.<\/p>\n
But that doesn\u2019t make him happy about this year\u2019s rates.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people are talking about leaving town because they can\u2019t afford (the taxes),\u201d according to Doherty, who is retired.<\/p>\n
Given the sorry state of the economy, he said, \u201cEverything (in town) should be put on hold\u201d \u2014 including hiring, salary increases and building projects.<\/p>\n
Richard Call also lamented town government spending in Rindge.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe departments are getting bigger and bigger … and we\u2019re not getting more services,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Call said he doesn\u2019t need any more services, but said that in the town offices, \u201cYou got more people up there than you can shake a stick at.\u201d<\/p>\n
Selectmen Chairman Barry disputed this, calling the town department heads \u201cextremely frugal\u201d and saying town offices haven\u2019t expanded recently.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe real problem, in my opinion … is that everything is on property taxes,\u201d she said, urging people to direct their energy and frustrations toward this reality and their state representatives.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my opinion, the problem is at the state level,\u201d she explained, \u201cand until the towns can get some kind of tax relief from the state, this is just going to get significantly worse.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, although Rindge resident Robin M. Murphy \u2014 who spoke with The Sentinel at a Route 202 gas station Saturday \u2014 called tax hikes \u201ctough,\u201d she said., \u201cEverything\u2019s gone up. And you have to pay for public services.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Yglesias, of Lily\u2019s on the Pond, had this message for the various beneficiaries of her tax dollars:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are in an economic crisis, They have to do what everybody else is doing … find a way to control expenses.\u201d<\/p>\n
### RINDGE \u2014 Suanne P. Yglesias, one of the co-owners of Lily\u2019s on the Pond Restaurant in Rindge, was planning to be at her business from 9 a.m. to midnight on an unusually busy Saturday. In the midst of a national economic downturn Yglesias, who, at 60, says she\u2019s \u201cnot a spring chicken,\u201d is working six […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-assessing","category-taxes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7144,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423\/revisions\/7144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nNever before has it been so important to attend your town and school meetings<\/strong> where you can vote down spending that is not necessary. This is not the time to be buying conservation land, building schools and libraries or raising salaries of public officials.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"