By S.D. Plissken | January 8, 2020
A correspondent from the Milton Taxpayers Association (MTA) reports that the Tax Cap petition warrant article was filed yesterday with the Milton Town Clerk. The MTA obtained over triple the number of required signatures. This measure will be on the ballot.
The MTA invites those who signed to regard themselves – if they so choose – as valued members of the association. Note: some thirteen of you may not be as registered as you think you are. Fortunately, you have time still before the election to resolve that.
Refusals were exceedingly rare. Had the MTA set out earlier, it might have obtained even more multiples of the necessary signatures above what they did collect. I might point out what such numbers imply. In the unlikely event that they encounter any shenanigans between here and the ballot, say at the deliberative session, they should have no trouble in calling their own special town election, or even a succession of them, to put things right again.
I am told that volunteer canvassers had some interesting conversations along the way. They found that a long line of excessive tax increases has engendered scant “appreciation.” Many signers expressed even a bit of disappointment. Capping future tax increases at these proposed levels seemed to them a rather minimal starter option. They would have preferred something much more comprehensive.
They may rest assured that this option – minimal though it may be – will appear on the ballot each and every year until it passes. (Most NH cities have had it for years already, including Dover, Franklin, Manchester, Laconia, Nashua, Rochester, Portsmouth, etc.).
Milton’s various boards and committees, including its Board of Selectmen (BOS), will henceforth be working diligently for the MTA. Every time they raise taxes above the proposed tax cap, they will be encouraging yet more signatures and more votes, until the tax cap is passed.
But why suffer through all that? Get it done this time around.
Milton Observer 