First meeting in January for the town council and we had a scheduled short meeting on the agenda. First I would like to extend a congratulations to Battalion Chief Mike Gagnon of the Derry Fire Dept for receiving his CFOD designation.
The CFOD Program was created to recognize fire officers who demonstrate a consistent level of excellence and achievement during their careers.
Great Job Mike!!
Also I would welcome two new members of our fire dept. These positions are not additional but replace retired members.
Welcome to our two new fire dept members.
Lets now jump into the main topic from last night- The elderly exemption proposal that the ADT and Coyle, Fairbanks and Carney had proposed and the one that I have written about in this blog and in editorial pages and newspaper reports. Most know where I stand on this issue and on their proposal.
After a report from our CFO Frank Childs and Tax Assessor David Gomez on the ramification of ADT & Coyle Fairbanks Carney proposal, we all learn that this plan would be a disaster for the town. In fact, Councilors received this report last Friday and interestedly enough, Councilor Coyle had a revised copy ready to go at our meeting last night. Scaling down the numbers in all three categories, income, assets and exemption value.
In the report we find that I was correct in that a tax shift and/or budget cuts would be needed to fund their exemption proposal and that neither ADT nor the three councilors were interested in showing us HOW they were going to pay for their new exemptions. Instead we get a watered down version and STILL NO word as to how they will get the budget to reflex these "benefits"
With the newest version of their proposal it still needs to be said "WHERES THE BEEF".
Lets look at the ADT's PowerPoint assumptions and then ask some questions.
ADT assumes that every senior 65+ or over own a 3 bedroom $300k home in Derry
Fact: Not every senior has a 300K 3 bedroom home in Derry! Many have 2 bedroom condos! or live in smaller/older homes. Older homes are generally 1000-1400 Sq ft. These house are not all suited for larger families.
ADT assumes that $500 million dollars in new commercial development is needed.
Where does this number come from? It simply tries to compare which large NH communities?
Are they trying to compare us with CITIES??? Manchester? Nashua? or border towns such as SALEM?
and what is their stated tax rate goal? Is it $20/1000, 18, 16, 12? Lets remember that the town side tax rate is $7.50/1000 so how much of this do they want to reduce? They don't say do they!
ADT assumes that seniors sell their homes to families with children and the children use the schools system and are a tax negative to the town.
While some of their statements may be true. Lets look at the facts: ADT says its a problem and that we need to keep seniors in their homes and ATTRACT other seniors to move into Derry.
Does the school enrollment figures show an influx of children coming into the schools system? NO in fact it is less children coming in. Does the census tell us Derry's population growth is growing? NO in fact it is shrinking, we lost population since 2000. SO where is the problem the ADT says we have?????
It was again interesting to know that Councilor Coyle, after seeing the true damage that could be done- quickly revised down the numbers proposed. And that the newspapers have not reported this fact but choose to say it is simply a revision.
Problem is that even with the revision that I see, they will still need to either tax shift to others or cut around 100-125K from this upcoming budget. The problem still remains only the numbers changed to protect this bad campaign.
Even Mr. Dimmock while trying to justify the campain and actually brought out a potential problem with it by saying that what if you get their proposed exemptions and then brought grandchildren to live in the house while collecting this exemption. Well there you go, not only are you tax shifting to others, you would be subsidizing the childerens education costs.
Double Whammy ! or how about this scenrio. Senior gets ADT exemptions with no assets in bank. Sells the 3 bedroom home for 300K- buys a condo and puts down 100K and finaces the rest/ banks the 200K profit and still gets the generous exemption BUT guess what that 3 bedroom house may sell to a family with three kids and then where is the savings under their plan.
Assuming certain scenerios to get certain results is dangerous planning and this is what is being proposed. There are many scenrios that don't work for the taxpayer here and who's to say they know different. Pleeeeaaasssee!
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11 comments:
It seems clear that Doug Newell and the ADT are still hoping to buy the elderly vote in an attempt to get Newell a seat on the council. What also seems clear is that they cannot decide, even amongst themselves, on how much they want US, the taxpayer, to pay for that seat.
Another point to be made. We’ve only seen one letter of support in the papers for this proposal, and that was from someone who thinks we should try to compete with southern states that have broad based taxes to fund these things. And NOT ONE elderly resident came to speak in favor of the ADT proposal. That is unless of course you want to count Al, who wants the taxpayers to foot the bill for his elderly exemption, and then threatens to bring his grandkids into the Derry school system just to spite the town.
i replayed their presentation...
a few hundred elderly folks equal 50 super walmarts in economic development. typical doug newell math...nuf' said.
brent carney said that the accounting of this takes a back seat to the social part. no brent, how you intend to pay for it is absolutely critical...no one should vote for it unless they know what taxes are being increased or what is being cut...no one...period...no one.
Question, Why all the concern over the increase in elderly exemption when the council spent approx $176thousand to continue to explore exit 4A. Do you really think 4A will come with State and Federal Funds. Why the scare tactics with lost services or tax increases.We built a Municipal palace and have a new town public works dept, where was the worry about lost services when you spent that money. Let's give the elderly a reason to stay in Derry. One never hears the cost increase to our schools when an eldery house is sold to a family new to town with 4 children.
Since Coyle brought it up, why not put the elderly exemption question on the ballot as a non-binding question? For the exact same reason - to gauge the pulse of the community. My view is that most people would vote against it.
I would expect and hope for some very contentious discussions re: the wording of each question.
Question for BC, is the Council allowed to pass an exemption that would create a budget deficit? (is the Council required by Charter or RSA to balance the budget?
Last year Doug Newell said “Let’s keep Derry one of 11 school districts in all of the U.S. not to have kindergarten because it will cost taxpayers more than a Harvard education”.
The voters gave him their opinion loud and clear. Then the State mandated kindergarten as a basic right of all children. Both show just how out of touch Doug Newell was/is. And thanks to the voters, Derry will have kindergarten this year at almost a third what Mr. Newell claimed.
Now, this year he comes up with “If we can use 1 elderly couple to keep 1 young family and their dreaded children out of town, it equals $870,000 in commercial development. Oh, and by the way we need to get this done quick, before the election”, and we’re supposed to believe his math skills this time around?
Is this guy for real?? Does he really think the voters in Derry are that stupid?? He insults people’s intelligence with this stuff.
Annon 9:43 writes:
Question, Why all the concern over the increase in elderly exemption...?
Because I am struggling to pay my bills and I don't want my taxes to go up and I may not want cuts made in services - depending what the cuts are....
Is that a clear enough answer?
hmmmm OK - lets see here comes the election. a non-binding referendum added to the ballot about the elderly exemption, that might not be a bad idea, except for the motivation...Heck lets put it on the ballot so people who might not otherwise come out to support Newell will come and vote for him because they are there anyway, and heck he supports the referendum... oh wait... mr. coyle...you are fading... I can barely see you.. hold on... where did you go???? You are... so... TRANSPARENT!
Both Derry and Londonderry have committed $5 million each to Exit 4A. Both towns did this in prior votes of their respective town councils. In the not too distant past, Londonderry tried to back out of their commitment and was sued for millions of dollars.
If Kevin Coyle wishes to have a non-binding referendum on this year ballot regarding Exit 4A and is willing to take input on its wording I would suggest the following – “Would the taxpayers of Derry like to open the town up to the possibility of multi-million dollar lawsuits and endless legal expenses and litigation resulting from the town reneging on monies it has already legally committed to”.
Why are we putting referendums on the ballot regarding issues that have already been decided by a vote of the council? And if this winds up on the ballot, will we soon be revisiting other issues that have also been decided?
When are we going to stop revisiting the same old issues time after time and dragging them out for years on end, and start actually (dare I say it) begin to make some progress that will actually move our town into the future??
When is someone going to stand up and say to Councilors who can’t take no for an answer, “You lost the vote. Get over it and let’s move on!”
Good point, a far far more relevent question --- a question related to an issue that is currently before us and has not yet been decided on ---so public input would be relevent:
Do you favor Derry having two libraries?
The press (Mike Kalil & Eric Parry)have botched this one --- they are afraid to ask follow up questions of Coyle. They are afraid of losing their close relationship with him.
Parry writes this morning that Coyle "stands to benefit from the project but has voted against it...".
There is no facts to prove that assertion/opinion - he just simply took what Coyle told him and transcribed it. There is at least an equal point of view that demonstrates Coyle would benefit from that project not going forward.
He also stated at the September Council meeting that he generally supported 4A but has since come out againstr it, recently writing in a political endorsement that he thought it was "a bad idea".
And they have neglected to disclose that Coyle recused himself, unrecused himself, de-unrecused himself and then re-de-unrecused himself on this matter.
Why don't they ask him about these glaring inconsistencies?
Derry Snews or Scary News?
You be the judge.
Time and time again we have horrible reporters working for the Derry News. Bring back Shelly!
you are too nice refering to the newspapers are "repoters" call them what they are "transcribers"
It takes a lot of work to be a journalist and dig to get facts not just take others peoples words for it.
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