Tax cap time: You can control local spending
The Union Leader
April 30, 2008
THE PRESSURE to raise taxes is such that even Manchester Mayor Frank Guinta, elected on a tax-cutting platform, could not avoid a small tax hike last year. Public employee unions, particularly the teachers union, are brilliant at scaring the public into supporting needlessly large increases in municipal spending, as they have done for the past decade in Manchester. That's one reason why a tax and spending cap is such a great idea.
The New Hampshire Advantage Coalition is asking voters in Manchester and 10 other New Hampshire communities to sign a petition requesting that a tax and spending cap be put on local ballots this fall. The measure would hold municipal spending and tax increases to no more than the rate of inflation. An escape clause would allow two-thirds of local elected officials to vote to exceed the cap.
Opponents cry that such caps will destroy municipal services, particularly education. But they cannot explain Massachusetts. In 1980, Bay State voters capped property tax growth at 2.5 percent plus any new property added to the tax rolls. Massachusetts today spends an average of $11,500 per pupil on its public schools, and no one would argue that local government in Massachusetts has been destroyed.
A 2003 study by Ronald J. Shadbegian at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth found that local tax and spending caps "have a small positive impact on student-teacher ratios and have no significant effect on teacher salaries."
New Hampshire's own experience with local tax and spending caps has been extremely positive. Derry, Dover, Franklin and Laconia already have caps, and they have not collapsed. To the contrary, Laconia City Manager Eileen Cabanel has said, "We've been forced to become better at long-range planning, and that's a good thing."
Franklin has had its cap in place for 20 years, and the voters have upheld it four times -- the last time by a 4 to 1 margin.
Tax and spending caps keep government from growing beyond the taxpayers' ability to fund it. Had a cap controlled spending in Manchester for the past decade, we would not be facing the budget mess we now face.
With the economy slumping, now is the time to slow the growth of government throughout New Hampshire. Tax and spending caps offer the best mechanism for doing that.
The Union Leader
April 30, 2008
THE PRESSURE to raise taxes is such that even Manchester Mayor Frank Guinta, elected on a tax-cutting platform, could not avoid a small tax hike last year. Public employee unions, particularly the teachers union, are brilliant at scaring the public into supporting needlessly large increases in municipal spending, as they have done for the past decade in Manchester. That's one reason why a tax and spending cap is such a great idea.
The New Hampshire Advantage Coalition is asking voters in Manchester and 10 other New Hampshire communities to sign a petition requesting that a tax and spending cap be put on local ballots this fall. The measure would hold municipal spending and tax increases to no more than the rate of inflation. An escape clause would allow two-thirds of local elected officials to vote to exceed the cap.
Opponents cry that such caps will destroy municipal services, particularly education. But they cannot explain Massachusetts. In 1980, Bay State voters capped property tax growth at 2.5 percent plus any new property added to the tax rolls. Massachusetts today spends an average of $11,500 per pupil on its public schools, and no one would argue that local government in Massachusetts has been destroyed.
A 2003 study by Ronald J. Shadbegian at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth found that local tax and spending caps "have a small positive impact on student-teacher ratios and have no significant effect on teacher salaries."
New Hampshire's own experience with local tax and spending caps has been extremely positive. Derry, Dover, Franklin and Laconia already have caps, and they have not collapsed. To the contrary, Laconia City Manager Eileen Cabanel has said, "We've been forced to become better at long-range planning, and that's a good thing."
Franklin has had its cap in place for 20 years, and the voters have upheld it four times -- the last time by a 4 to 1 margin.
Tax and spending caps keep government from growing beyond the taxpayers' ability to fund it. Had a cap controlled spending in Manchester for the past decade, we would not be facing the budget mess we now face.
With the economy slumping, now is the time to slow the growth of government throughout New Hampshire. Tax and spending caps offer the best mechanism for doing that.