December 22, 2008
EDITORIAL
Budget Committee caves in amid $chool tactics
$chool board chairman Allard warns committee to accept
compromise deal or face repercussions at deliberative session
At their meeting of
December 4th, the Goffstown Budget
Committee voted to reduce the $chool Board's budget
request by $1.2M, for a total budget of just under
$33M. Notably absent from this meeting was $chool
Board chairman Keith Allard and $chool sub-committee
chairman William Hart.
The following Tuesday, December 16th,
the Budget Committee reconvened again for a final review
of both the proposed Town and $chool budgets that will
be taken to public hearing in January. This time,
not only were Allard and Hart present, they brought along
virtually all members of the $chool Board, SAU 19
business administrator Ray Labore, and numerous other $chool
supporters in the audience.
As the Committee
completed it's review of the Town budget and turned its
attention to the $chool Board's budget, what ensued was
nothing short of a three-ring circus.
Here is just one
example. Allard began by making a motion to return
the entire $1.2M cut back to the $chool's original
budget. But before that could be voted on,
committee member Steve Fournier moved to amend Allard's
motion to change the amount to $800K. Allard then
quickly countered by moving to amend Fournier's
amendment to change the $800K to $950K. All this
before a single vote was taken on anything.
This was just the
beginning. During the meeting, $chool Board member
Phil Kendall sat in the audience in the front row next
to Allard and communicated back and forth with him,
passing notes and information while
the meeting was underway. Committee member
Hart, a well known pasty of the $chool Board, met with
Kendall in the hallway while the meeting was underway.
As motions flew from $chool
supporters, committee members held fast to an average
vote of 8-7-1 in rejecting attempts to increase the $chool
budget. In addition to motions to add $1.2M, $800K
and $950K, attempts to add $600K, $400K, $350K and even
$164K were made as well, again all rejected by the budget
committee.
CAPTURED ON
VIDEO: To see video excerpts from the ridiculous
series of motions and amendments used by $chool
supporters, click
here (video is 3 minutes, 30 seconds in
length).
Finally (and
unfortunately), Fournier made yet a third attempt to
increase the number by motioning to add $700K back to
the school budget.
Now seeing an opportunity
with that motion for $700K on the floor, this is where
the $chool Board began to put the squeeze on the Budget
Committee. Both
Allard and $chool patsy Hart began a series of
statements cleverly designed to "remind" committee members
of the 'power' of the $chool Board. Allard
strongly suggested that if the Budget Committee didn't
agree to this increase, they would "lose out in the
end at deliberative session," hinting that the $chool
Board not only might raise that increase, but could do
so successfully if they chose to. And Hart was
even stronger in his "reminder", telling the
committee outright that the $chool Board could even
raise it to $2M is that's what they decided to do.
Hart also predicted
during the meeting that if the committee didn't knuckle
under to the $chool Board's demands, the committee would
no longer see any cooperation from the $chool Board in
the future.
CAPTURED ON
VIDEO: For video excerpts of the above statements
made by Allard and Hart, click
here (video is 2 minutes, 45 seconds in
length).
Finally, a vote was taken
on adding $700K back to the $chool Board's budget and
this time, surprisingly, committee member Richard
Fletcher caved in. We were surprised due to
Fletcher's excellent arguments against adding any
money back at all earlier in the evening.
Perhaps Fletcher
succumbed to $chool Board pressure because he believed
the $chool Board would carry out its threats to add even
more than $700K to their budget at deliberative
session. Perhaps it was due to being faced with
unending tactic of constant motions, manipulation and
maneuvering.
Or perhaps it was simply
the late hour.
In any case, the $chool
Board is once again on its way to fleecing taxpayers for
a budget even Allard admitted contained
"fluff".
IMPORTANT: We urge all Goffstown taxpayers to watch
the replay of the meeting on GTV, rent the DVD from the
library, or contact
the Goffstown Residents Association to obtain
your own copy.
EVEN MORE IMPORTANT: BE SURE to attend the
Budget Committee's public hearing on JANUARY 13, 2009 at
7:00 PM at Hieber Auditorium at
GHS, and MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!
You owe it to yourselves
and to every taxpayer in Goffstown to put an end to the
$chool Board's history of doubling their budget every 10
years at our expense, and help us all regain control of
our wallets.
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