March 5, 2010

School Board gave false tax rate information to The Goffstown News
$610,000 suddenly "missing" from Budget Committee's tax rate calculation; Chairman Cloutier demands explanation, names of individuals responsible

By GUY CARON

GOFFSTOWN - On March 4th, The Goffstown News published an article on the upcoming March 9th Town Vote (see "Town, school tax rates concern voters").  The article quotes tax impact figures related to the school district that were provided to writer Sarah LeBrun by SAU business administrator Ray Labore.

As a member of the Budget Committee, I immediately noticed a gross discrepancy between what The Goffstown News reported both in the article, and in a related editorial, and what I new to be factual information about the record tax increase that's about to hit us all.  

The article quoted the school district's claim that the difference between the proposed school budget and the default budgets was only $0.14 per $1,000 of assessed value.  The FACT is that the difference is actually $0.57 per $1,000.  Having scrutinized the school budgets for months while on the Budget Committee, I know this to be true.

SAU business administrator Ray Labore also told the Goffstown News that meant an increase of only $35.00 on a $250,000 home.  The FACT is, the increase is actually going to be $142.50, not a mere 35 bucks.

That evening, Budget Committee Chairman Dan Cloutier also noticed the inaccurate tax rates quoted in the article and initiated an email to Labore, copied to School Board Chairman Keith Allard and the rest of the Budget Committee.  In that email, and the series of emails that followed, Cloutier is asking some pointed questions, none of which have been answered by either Labore or Allard as of this posting.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE EMAIL EXCHANGES BETWEEN CLOUTIER AND ALLARD.


ANSWERS NOT FORTHCOMING 

Allard's only response so far on the school board's actions has been to provide two spreadsheets to defend the tax rates provided to The Goffstown News.  But when looking at these spreadsheets, $610,000 from the Budget Committee's tax impact calculation, presented at public hearing on January 6th, is MISSING.  The number has been deleted.

This convenient - and inaccurate - omission makes the school tax rate, and the difference between the proposed and default budgets, appear much smaller than they actually are.


INTENTIONAL OR ACCIDENTAL?  Decide for yourself.

So why did the school district provide the inaccurate and misleading figures to The Goffstown News?  

One explanation can be construed in Keith Allard's continued public attempts to sway voters into voting in the default school budget, which is $803,254 higher than the proposed budget.  He has made no secret of his attempts to do this.  By falsely claiming only a small difference between the two, he hopes the sway taxpayers into voting for the default budget by making them think the difference is minor.  It is not.  He even went so far in the same Goffstown News article as to say, “Maybe the community will vote in the default budget and we won’t have to make cuts (within the district)”.  

It is clear that the school district's submission of false information to The Goffstown News misleads taxpayers into voting "No" on school article 2. 

Cloutier seems to think the same as well.  In his emails to Allard and Company, he states directly: "...the provider of this information has just informed the taxpayers that if they do not vote for article 2, their tax rate will go up only $.14 per thousand when in fact it is estimated to increase by another $.43 or a total of $.57 per thousand.  The impact of supplying this false information for a $250,000 assessment is not $35.00 as printed in the paper but three times that for an additional $107.50 to come to an accurate projection of $142.50.  This is not the best we can do and is a disservice to the voters who are looking to their elected officials and the people they hire to provide accurate and unbiased information."


DEMAND FOR ANSWERS

As a member of the Goffstown Budget Committee, and as a taxpayer, I call upon Keith Allard and SAU 19 Superintendent Stacy Buckley to ANSWER the questions that were put forth to them today by our chairman Dan Cloutier.  

I also call upon all Goffstown residents to demand an explanation for this blatant attempt by Allard, Buckley and the rest of the school board to intentionally deceive the taxpayers by falsifying the Budget Committee's tax impact analysis for their own gain. 

Cloutier's unanswered questions, at the time of this posting, are:

1. Who is responsible for the calculation provided? 

2. Who approved its release? 

3. Why is the $610,000 of estimated use of unreserved fund balance missing from the calculation of the Budget Committee tax rate on the spreadsheet provided to us today and the information provided to the Goffstown News?

It's time Goffstown's taxpayers got answers to these questions, and more importantly, REMOVE every individual who may have been involved in this obvious, intentional attempt to deceive us all.  Allard and Buckley can be reached as follows:

And before you call either of them, feel free to contact Budget Committee Chairman Dan Cloutier at AlphaOmegaNH@comcast.net for more information. 

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