Author: S.D. Plissken

By S.D. Plissken | November 30, 2018

The Milton Board of Selectmen (BOS) will hold Public Hearings, on the Proposed Public Ordinance in regards to ‘No Through-Trucking’ signage at the Emma Ramsey Center on Monday, December 3rd, and Monday, December 17th, at 7:00 PM.

The signs are to be placed on Governors Road, Hare Road, and Nute Road. They are intended to prevent tandem logging trucks from traveling on those roads on their way “through” to Middleton Lumber.

Imagine those tandem logging trucks turning around on NH Routes 75, 125, and 153, in order to comply. Other heavy trucks, belonging to residents of those roads, will continue to pass there.

On the advice of Chief Krauss, the original $1,000 fine has been adapted to a graduated sequence of $250, $500, and then $1,000. The Chief did not believe a judge would impose a $1,000 penalty for a first offence. He has mentioned also that enforcement will be difficult.

Who, what, where, and when. And now, the why.

This is a pretty much a done deal. Chairman Thibeault has expressed misgivings, but Selectman Lucier is bound and determined and split BOS votes are exceedingly rare. The purpose of these hearings is merely to satisfy a State requirement that there Shall be Two Public Hearings prior to passage of any Ordinance.

Do not expect to be heard at the “hearing” in the word’s plain sense that the BOS will actually pay much attention to opposing arguments. One might speak against it, but whatever is said will fall on deaf ears.

References:

Town of Milton. (n.d.). Notice of Public Hearing. Retrieved from www.miltonnh-us.com/uploads/bos_public_hearing_11_1922881116.pdf

 

By S.D. Plissken | November 23, 2018

Yes, the Board of Selectmen (BOS) is still there. After the Budget they just imposed upon us, they should be gone. What was it that TV lawyer used to shout out by way of objection? Incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial! It is quite difficult to miss them when they won’t go away.

The Historical Society Discussion began with Chairman Thibeault’s disclaimer about being Vice-something-or-other at the Historical Society. It turned out to be a mutual willingness – a three-way deal, actually – for the Town to sell the historical Plummer’s Ridge (District Number 1) Schoolhouse back to the Historical Society for the sum of $1. It would then be moved across the street to one of the condemned sites whose building is scheduled for demolition. The Historical Society would retain their current Milton Mills building, but add this other old building and site to their holdings.  It would have a modicum of parking, as well as some ability to get septic and such, which is not practicable at their current site.

One would hope that our wise overlords would consider a lengthy lease arrangement – say, 99 years with an option for 99 more – instead of an outright sale. That worked well enough for Hong Kong and Guantanamo. If the Historical Society were to collapse – several BOS meetings have had agenda items devoted to how parlous their situation is – then the Town would retain ownership of its historical building.

At the very least, the BOS should include some sort of reversion or first-refusal clause in the deed. We would never be confronted with a successor Plummer’s Ridge Schoolhouse Tattoo Shop and Head Emporium or a Plummer’s Ridge Schoolhouse Massage Parlor.

The Three Ponds Protective Association (TPPA) gave a lengthy rundown of their efforts to eradicate Brittle Naiad from the Three Ponds. In point of fact, one of the things mentioned was that it would be impossible to ever entirely eradicate it. It is with us until the end of time. With TPPA’s own money, as well as with grants from the States of New Hampshire and Maine, and the Towns of Milton and Lebanon, they have eliminated much, but not all, of the invasive plant.

Some of these government entities were mentioned as already balking at future grants. But, our own wise overlords voted for another $10,000 go-around next year and put future go-arounds into the Tax Acceleration Program (CIP) plan, evidently in perpetuity. They did so unanimously, of course. It emerged at the end that none of these rounds have done anything much about infestations upstream, or done anything whatsoever about infestations downstream at Spaulding Pond, which has, if anything a greater degree of infestation. It is not a Salmon Falls or Milton Waterways Protective Association, just a Three Ponds Protective Association.

The Recycling Grant (Pat Smith) and Approve Transfer Funds from Highway Vehicle CRF (Capital Reserve Fund) to General Fund (Pat Smith) were both accepted unanimously. The grant would partially pay for a 30-yard container. The $1,420 grant from New Hampshire the Beautiful would pay partially (20%) for a $7,100 30-yard open-top solid waste container for the transfer station. Vice-chairwoman Hutchings wanted to make sure that taxpayers knew that the money would come from prior taxes, rather than future taxes. The other item was authorization a withdrawal of $38,631, for a previously approved new Ford F250 pickup truck.

The Town Administrator’s Warrant Article Discussion had to do with presenting drafts of the Town’s various Warrant Articles. Discussion on them is scheduled for December 3. Selectman Lucier asked if his various bucket list items were included.

This question engendered again some degree of friction amongst the BOS members. The disappearing Agenda items issue emerged again. Say, for example, Selectman Lucier, or one of the others, has some brainstorm. Chief Krauss, or the Town attorney, or one of the other Selectmen point out some possible difficulty with the brainstorm. Its Agenda item is then tabled for clarification or receipt of further information. And never mentioned again.

In that sense, their little apparatus has a procedural flaw. Some of those present were looking at the Town Administrator. Wouldn’t it be her task to follow behind the BOS, shovel up their little nuggets, and try to direct them where they need to go? You know, to sort of “administer” things? Or is it for the Chairman to follow through to a conclusion? You know, as their supposed leader. Or is it for the individual selectman with the brainstorm?

The Proposed Heavy Hauling Ordinance from Selectman Lucier’s bucket list progressed to its next phase, which involved scheduling two Public Hearings on the subject: December 3 and December 17, each at 7:00 PM.

Chairman Thibeault pondered the effect this Proposed Heavy Hauling Ordinance might have on Middleton’s economy. Some seemed astonished. He doesn’t care a fig about taxing Milton’s economy and taxpayers to the margins, but Middleton’s economy is now a concern? That would be a valid reason to allow heavy trucking to damage Milton’s roads and endanger its children? The BOS has failed to represent Milton taxpayers, but Middleton has found an advocate. How can we miss him, if he won’t go away?

There was some actual back and forth, friction even. Chairman Thibeault had taken the item in question, verbally, to the Planning Board, who may or may not do anything about it. Is that the procedure? (We need to see that Org chart again). The Chairman seemed peeved, but whether he was annoyed with Selectmen Lucier, or the Planning Board, or both, was difficult to say.

In the secondary Public Comments, Ms. McDougall suggested a consolidated historic area, such as Strawberry Banke, and pointed out that brittle naiad is “rampant” at Spaulding Pond. Selectman Lucier had never heard that before. Well, of course, you only listen to interest groups.

Mr. Williams reminded them of a prior suggestion: tabled items should go onto the Old Business list – and stay there – until they are fully resolved.

Mr. Brown had also a procedural suggestion. He then told a historical anecdote about Admiral Byng during the Seven Years War. The British Admiralty hanged him for “failing to do his utmost.” Voltaire satirized this event in his novel Candide: In this country, from time to time, we hang an admiral to encourage the others. Hmm.

The Town Administrator announced that the Senior Citizens’ dinner is postponed from Tuesday, November 20, to “next” Tuesday, which would be Tuesday, November 27; and that the Town Christmas Tree-lighting will be on December 2, at 4:00 PM, at Veterans’ Park. She also wished everyone a happy Thanksgiving holiday with their families friends, and that we should all remember to be thankful for our blessings.

Selectman Lucier wanted everyone to remember the Leo Lessard Memorial Blood Drive at the Assembly of God church on December 22.

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Due to a full schedule of community Christmas events, Ms. McDougall’s Milton Advocates meeting has been postponed one week from December 1 to December 8. Same time, same place, different day. (Same good manners).

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References:

Town of Milton. (2018, November 16). BOS Meeting Agenda, November 19, 2018. Retrieved from www.miltonnh-us.com/uploads/bos_agendas_847_3934517289.pdf

Town of Milton. (2018, November 19). BOS Meeting, November 19, 2018. Retrieved from www.youtube.com/watch?v=MD_oY1EhflY

Town of Milton. (2018, November 20). Public Hearings, December 3 and December 17, 2018, Retrieved from www.miltonnh-us.com/uploads/bos_agendas_849_1922881116.pdf

Wikipedia. (2018, October 24). John Byng. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Byng

 

 

By S.D. Plissken | November 6, 2018

One of the 91-A meeting codes posted on the agenda for last night’s Board of Selectmen’s (BOS) meeting was in error. The 91-A:3 II (g) item, which seemed to be related to the County jail or State prison, should have appeared on the meeting agenda as  a 91-A:3 II (i) item instead.

91-A:3 II (i) Consideration of matters relating to the preparation for and the carrying out of emergency functions, including training to carry out such functions, developed by local or state safety officials that are directly intended to thwart a deliberate act that is intended to result in widespread or severe damage to property or widespread injury or loss of life.

I guess they were talking about the vital need for a previously unneeded grant-funded All Purpose Hazard trailer. They must think that Milton is on somebody’s target list. Maybe not so prominently featured as Washington, D.C., major metropolitan centers, minor metropolitan centers, military facilities, important infrastructure, large towns, even larger small towns, etc. But we must be there somewhere, right? Those super villains would not omit Milton entirely from their target lists. And now we are covered.

Comedian Lucier even verified that it would come at “no cost to the taxpayers,” just before joining the other board members in voting unanimously for its first $180. Only moments old and it had already its very first expense, so cute. You just can not make this stuff up.

The next agenda item should have been Selectmen Lucier’s Updates to Past BOS Meetings, but this was interrupted for a very special announcement.

The BOS decided to apply $500,000 taken from the fund balance to setting the tax rate at $25.48, which Selectman Lucier noted was 41 cents per thousand lower than last year’s rate. No leveling funding, budget cuts, or other reforms were mentioned. The BOS approved it unanimously.

Yes, that is right. They did not touch the 4.19% increase in the budget – twice the rate of inflation. The spending spree of many years continues unabated. But they got themselves out of this particular frying pan by using most, if not all, of your fund balance to prevent taxes from rising as fast as their budget did. They kicked the can down the road to next year’s board.

Of course, that hoary old politicians’ trick does not solve our basic problem and it only works once. They used up the fund balance. The runaway budget train continues on its course unchecked. Last year’s budget amount increased by 4.19% to this year’s $4,707,008.48, an increase of $197,395.85, or 4.19%, over last year. (Inflation was “only” 2.1%). Should nothing change, next year’s budget will increase by at least that percentage – likely more, as inflation is picking up speed – to something over $4,904,232.14. That is next year’s over-under.

Yes, fundamental failure. To soothe his wounded amour propre, Selectman Lucier dug in his heels on several matters of less import that were outstanding from prior meetings. That is what he meant by Updates on Past BOS Meetings. Yes, deck chairs, he wants to rearrange deck chairs.

He insisted upon definite action on weight limit-signs for Governors Road, Hare Road, and Ford Farm Road; LED streetlights; parking signs in the downtown; and Town Reports with a new – well, new wine in old bottles – feature of valuations and tax delinquents. It seems that the Town agenda item protocol, like their budget and personnel change protocols, lacks rigor. Things tabled for additional information just keep disappearing into a fog.

Vice-chairwoman Hutchings said that Townhouse heating and cooling expenses need to go into the CIP plan. Yes, I know, the Tax Acceleration Program plan. It is still hungry.

If you are the last one leaving Town, will you turn out the LED streetlights please?

References:

State of New Hampshire. (2016, June 21). RSA Chapter 91-A. Access to Governmental Records and Meetings. Retrieved from www.gencourt.state.nh.us/rsa/html/VI/91-A/91-A-3.htm

Town of Milton. (2018, November 2). BOS Meeting Agenda, November 5, 2018. Retrieved from www.miltonnh-us.com/uploads/bos_agendas_836_1230989733.pdf

Town of Milton. (2018, November 5). BOS Meeting, November 5, 2018. Retrieved from www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUrFKYBXC4c

By S.D. Plissken | October 31, 2018

A commenter sent me this, which they photographed on some spooky Milton street. The lost revaluation treasure. According to this sign, it must still be out there, somewhere …

Happy Halloween!

By S.D. Plissken | October 30, 2018

Yes, they did it again. At last night’s Board of Selectmen (BOS) Meeting, the BOS voted unanimously to raise our taxes by 4.19%. For those that live in the real world, yes, that would be double the 2.1% rate of inflation.

The BOS meeting was recorded for Youtube, but the audio failed. Ms. Nancy Faith Wing made a partial recording with her cell phone, which may be found at her Our Milton Home Facebook group page.

The 4.19% increase failure was going to be much larger and – get this – the BOS was going to be okay with that. That is our basic problem.

Cost savings or cuts were not deployed. They even threw in the lesser pumper truck ($5,500), as a stop-gap, a new cemetery position, with rather vague back-of-the-envelope cost calculations, which will certainly rise, and a round of eleven new Glock pistols for the police force, as a sort of cherry on top.

I mean, really, are police pistols, like police cars, on some sort of automatic renewal plan? I suppose pistols must wear out, eventually, but did that really happen so soon?

As expected, insurance was the elephant in the room. There were four possible options on the table, ranging from worse to bad and then worst of all. That was what scared them last time. Even the BOS was having trouble swallowing the bitter pill.

Chief Krauss stepped up and performed some in-his-head calculations at the lectern, through which he was able to merge two awful insurance options to make a merely bad one. Deus ex machina! One wonders why that had not been done before. Chief Marique was projecting the budget spreadsheet onto a screen, but his PC had no power cord and turned itself off. A bit of comic relief.

Then the BOS looked glum. Vice-chairwoman Hutchings and Selectman Lucier, at least, finally grasped the nature of their utter failure to manage the Town government:

Lucier: It would have been nice to have all this information prior to doing the budgets. You know, we get this at the last meeting. [Long pause]. I wouldn’t have done this budget the way we did the budget. I personally would not have supported any new positions, and I probably would have looked at cutting some positions. ‘Cause this is just …

Hutchings: They’ve also … next year in the budget, I mean, the whole process, I really think that employees need to be put into like … Pat’s people need to be in his budget, Rich’s need to be in his, Nick’s need to be in … 

Thibodeau: You mean the health benefits …

Hutchings: Yeah, all the benefits. When we’re looking at the budgets, we’re really not looking at a true budget for a department when we don’t have all the information. I think we need to go back to putting those people into those individual budgets, so we can truly look at it and see … what each budget is …

Hutchings: I agree with Chief Krauss, I think … 

Lucier: I don’t think we have much choice.

Hutchings: No. … and Chief Marique.

In the end, they took up at Chief Krauss’ miraculous bad option and approved it unanimously. Actually, they all voted first for an incorrect amount, unanimously, which totaled to 4.18% increase. Then they discovered something had been left out of the shopping cart. When that was added, it came to 4.19%. The new bottom line will be $4,707,008.48, an increase of. $197,395.85, or 4.19%, over last year. Those that chose “over” in the pool can collect their winnings.

The Scots have a formulation for all this in their Lallans or Lowlands dialect. They would ask if our Selectmen are feckless or gormless? Gormless may be defined as lacking understanding. (We would say clueless). Feckless may be defined as lacking any “feck,” or effect. Under that interpretation, the BOS knows what should be done, but are unable to carry it through. Their actions lack effect, they are useless.

Some might say that this is a false question: the BOS has been both feckless and gormless, in turn. They began as being gormless and, in so being, did not address these issues in a timely manner. They frittered away the year; they wasted our time. By-laws indeed. Now, at the end, with looming statutory deadlines, they realize the full extent of their folly. But there is nothing to be done. They are now feckless.

How many will suffer under their new 4.19% increase? That is, 4.19% if you are gormless enough to think it will not rise yet further. How many neighbors will we lose this year? How dare the BOS, and you, speak of “community” while voting to destroy its financially weaker members? Shame, shame is what we should feel. Unless, we are all as gormless as Selectmen.

Next come the default budgets. You know, the ones that are carefully crafted, as specified by the RSAs, to make the greater amounts on the ballot seem like they are in fact the lesser amounts and vice versa.

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P.S. A commenter corrects us to say that the Budget Committee is not responsible for the amounts in the default budgets. The paragraph above has been corrected to reflect that information.

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References:

Wikipedia. (2018, October 29). Deus Ex Machina. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_ex_machina

Wiktionary. (2018, June 18). Feckless. Retrieved from en.wiktionary.org/wiki/feckless

Wiktionary. (2017, May 24). Gormless. Retrieved from en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gormless

Wing, Nancy Faith. (2018, October 29). Partial Cell Phone Video of BOS Meeting, October 29, 2018. Retrieved from www.facebook.com/gniwgniw22/videos/10155515676606260/

 

By S.D. Plissken | October 18, 2018

At last Monday’s Board of Selectmen’s (BOS) Meeting, a silent alarm was triggered. Did you see the flashing red lights behind the dais? During that meeting, the proposed budget totals departed from the actual 2.1% rate of inflation to their usual unsustainable doubling of that, at 3.8%. That is not news. But then, they proceeded from there to an insane near-quadrupling of inflation, at 7.5%. Warning! Collision Alert!

In so doing, the proposed budget increases changed upwards from an Arithmetic Progression into the beginning steps of a Geometric Progression.

Arithmetic Progression

Arithmetic Progression occurs when a number, such as taxes, increases over time at a constant rate. Milton’s tax rate has been following such an arithmetic progression for a very long time. A problem has emerged recently by which the slope of that increase line has been increased. Since that happened, the tax rate has increased by about 5% per year, which has been approximately double the rate of inflation. The function of this would be y = nx, where n = 5 and x = the sequence number of the year. It would chart to the right as a steadily increasing straight line.

A problem arises when wages, i.e., the ability to pay, do not rise either at or above the same rate. A chart of the two lines together would show a gap emerging between them. That gap increases in size as the chart extends out rightwards over time. Each year, the increase amount comes more and more out of the taxpayer’s disposable income, i.e., their “capital.” At each step, the tax burden becomes less sustainable, but in a steady way.

This is bad. This increasing gap will drive you out of your home at sometime in the future. Exactly when will depend upon the rate of increase (the slope) of your particular pay envelope. But, unless your pay rate line is running above the tax increase line, you may run your finger out along the chart from left to right and find the date when you will be driven out.

Geometric Progression

Geometric Progression occurs when a number, such as taxes, increases over time not at a steady rate, but at an increasing rate.

Milton progressed to this type of increase last Monday night. Inflation ran at 2.1% last year. That is where our increase should be, below would be even better. Milton’s Town government budget increases at the end of the prior meeting, by which time they had added up the first two tranches of proposed departmental budgets, were projected to be a 3.8% increase. That is to say, they were on their usual straight line of arithmetic progression, at an unsustainable double the rate of inflation.

But, the addition of those final departmental budgets, as well as receipt of the increases in insurance and retirement rates changed the rate of increase radically. The new rate being discussed was suddenly a 7.5% increase. This begins to be a Geometric Progression, specifically y = 2^x, or 2 raised to the power of x, and the resulting y is successively = 2, 4, 8, etc., times the rate of inflation. (Sorry, this software doesn’t do superscripts). It would chart as a curved line, rather than straight, and curving upward.

The difference between an Arithmetic Progression and a Geometric Progression has to do with the rate of increase. An Arithmetic Progression increases constantly, but at a steady rate, while a Geometric Progression also increases constantly, but at a constantly increasing rate. You are getting into trouble faster.

Will Robinson’s robot should have been shouting “Danger! Danger!” in the background. If you run your finger out along the gap on this new chart, you will find that the gap is getting wider much, much faster. Your home exodus happens much further to the left, i.e., much, much sooner.

This is very bad and getting worse. It is the difference between you driving towards a collision with another car and you driving towards another car that is also driving towards you.

Exponential Progression

Exponential Progression is where the exponent, or power, in the equation is the variable. It would be ever so much worse than Geometric Progression. We probably need not dwell on its mechanics. Essentially, this is where both you and the car driving towards you are both stomping on the gas. And have nitrous turbo boosters or something. Think Venezuela or Zimbabwe, but with snow and no zoo animals to eat. We are on track to be New Detroit, but not yet on the track to be Nueva Venezuela. Not yet.

Is the End Near?

That depends. The breaking point is certainly approaching much more quickly now. Usually, when you arrive at this point, the more rational politicians have long since been blathering about “bending the cost curve.” That is to say, bending it back down to where it should have been all along – back below the rate of inflation.

If you wish to change the course of an ocean liner, or a Town government, the best way is to begin turning very far in advance. (Trucks often have signs that warn the vehicles behind them of their Wide Turns). Town governments have very large turning radii. To turn closer to an obstacle requires a much more exaggerated, even alarming, degree of turn and the application of much greater motive power. Delayed too long, it becomes impossible to turn enough. You hit the iceberg.

To bend the cost curve, the BOS would have to reduce their costs, by a lot. There is no other way. We are far past wide, gentle turns back to reality.

Yes, the various BOS administrations of the past decade or more – all those that approved increases that were double inflation rates – have completely failed us. They should have turned back on the right course long ago – and certainly turned back hard when the recession took hold. But the taxpayers are to blame also for not overriding the Town government. Adult supervision is required.

The last administration might have endorsed the Deliberative Session motion for a 10% cut instead of fighting it. Had they done so, what we face now might be less painful. Instead, they staged a sort of dog-and-pony-show to keep the game going, just a bit longer. It is now apparent that we needed that 10% cut, desperately, in order to turn the ship more smoothly.

Even this current administration wasted the first half of their tenure voting unanimously for every shiny thing. By-Laws, CIP Plans, GIS systems with ongoing annual fees, memberships, lawyers, websites with ongoing annual fees, hiring, more hiring, even COLA.

COLA? Wake up: few in the private sector have experienced COLA for a generation, maybe two. Social Security recipients maybe, but for that they use a special “Chained” CPI that intentionally understates inflation. Their COLA increases, if any, are largely paid over for their Medicare increases, which do not use “Chained” CPI.

This late in the game, the necessary course change will be a jarring lurch. But this runs completely counter to what politicians deeply desire and believe, which is that handing out stuff is beneficial. And organizing the world around them. The French economist Frederic Bastiat famously explained that

The State is the great fiction through which everyone endeavors to live at the expense of everyone else.

Margaret Thatcher put her finger on the problem of this great fiction: eventually you run out of other people’s money.

Will the BOS grit their teeth and turn the wheel hard over? There is reason to doubt it. They might instead use the $1.4 million taken last year – the taxation without representation – to kick the can down the road just a little further. That particular trick might buy as much as two years, longer perhaps if they made changes. But then we would be right back here again when the stolen money ran out, still on the wrong course.

We shall see.

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As I write this, I am informed that Ms. Lynette McDougall has called for a brainstorming session at Dunkin’ Donuts, Saturday, at 9:00 AM. She is seeking constructive suggestions, rather than generalized whining. (Not her words).

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References:

Wikipedia. (2018, September 5). Arithmetic Progression. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arithmetic_progression

Wikipedia. (2018, October 14). Geometric Progression. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geometric_progression

Wikipedia. (2018, October 13). Exponential Growth. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exponential_growth

By S.D. Plissken | October 17, 2018

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

Oh, excuse me, I was just rereading something. What were we talking about? Oh, yes, last Monday’s Board of Selectmen’s (BOS) Meeting.

The BOS tidied up a bit first. They retracted a prior invalid parking ordinance, authorized crossing guards for Halloween events, added (on a trial basis) an additional concluding Public Comment time, authorized acceptance of Highway Grant money (with its attendant strings), and unsealed minutes from Non-Public Meetings held on July 10, 2018, and September 24, 2018. Well, they unsealed them for Chief Krauss alone.

Therein hangs a tale apparently, but not one about which we will know much more, at least not for now. The July 10 meeting was not posted. It must have been a secret Non-Public Meeting, sort of like a double Non-Public Meeting. The September 24 meeting began as a Public meeting, but adjourned to consider a 91A:3 II (c) matter. That would be something that concerns “Matters which, if discussed in public, would likely affect adversely the reputation of any person.” The BOS surfaced again in order to adjourn again to consider a 91A:3 II (j) matter: “91-A:3 II (j). Consideration of confidential, commercial, or financial information that is exempt from public disclosure.” Finally, they went again into a third Non-Public session under 91A:3 II (c), the one that might adversely affect reputations.

Previously, Ms. Bristol supposed that all this folderol had something to do with abatements. But now, due to this unsealing of the minutes, but for Chief Krauss alone, we know it had to do with the Police. Chairman Thibeault said that

These are being unsealed to be released to the Police Chief because of Police personnel file matters and its not for public release. This is to be compliant with State statutes.

So, something happened, back in the July time-frame, that “would likely affect adversely” reputations, and something that involves also confidential, commercial, or financial information. Did something happen that we need to know about?

From there, they proceeded to the main event, the conclusion of the second round of departmental budget presentations and moving on to the third and final round of budget presentations.

When last seen, the BOS had accepted departmental budget presentations that would move us already above the Federal inflation rate of 2.1% to a CIP plan recommendation of “no more that 3%.” That 3% would itself exact 43% above inflation. But, as they say, “hold my beer.” That was just the recommendation, the actual Cloud-Cuckoo-Land amount “as it stands” was 3.8%, which would exact 81% above inflation (where 100% would be a doubling).

According to the Federal government, your household costs went up 2.1%. Few will have had their incomes rise so much. The Town budget was projected by the Planning board to rise 3.8%. The difference between 3.8% and 2.1% is 1.7%. Assuming you actually got a 2.1% raise, which most did not, it would go entirely to the Town government. They also want an additional 1.7% from whatever you had before the 2.1% raise that you did not get.

Queue up Selectman Lucier:

Selectman Lucier: One thing, I just … can I make a comment before? – you know, we just got, as we sat down here tonight, just got handed insurance adjustments, for health insurance for next year.

Administrator Thibodeau: That’s one of the presentations that we do tonight.

Lucier: Yeah, well. In that … but that ties into everything in the budgets. We’re looking at 236 in $600,000 increase over this year, just in health insurance. You know, that changes a whole bunch of things going on in Andy’s head as far as everything else that we’ve already done. You know, how much, how much can people swallow? I mean this is – we’re already looking at almost a 7.5% increase in, you know, this year’s budget, so …

Vice-chairwoman Hutchings: And the rate of inflation is 3%. We told them that a 3.8%, I think is what was discussed. Is that correct, or am I?

Well no, Vice-chairwoman Hutchings, 2.1% was the actual inflation rate, and the 3% was the Planning Board’s ruinous recommendation to continue spending way above inflation. The 3.8% figure was the completely absurd place, the Cloud-Cuckoo-Land if you will, in which we found ourselves when actual departmental budgets proposals are totaled.

Thibodeau: 3.7. 

Hutchings: 3.7%. So … I mean, that’s …

Thibodeau: We just don’t have any control over insurance. All that insurance, and retirement. That’s something … those are the costs we don’t control.

Lucier: I know we don’t have any control over it, but it’s just ….

Hutchings: Out of control.

Lucier: I mean, … I can’t … I don’t know. I’m almost, I leaning almost to say … cap … level fund it and then …. I don’t know …

Thibeault: If you level fund it, I think your insurance is still going to … that’s not really going to solve our issue.

Lucier: Oh, I understand that. But we have some serious issues here. You know, I personally have no problem with the welfare. I mean … I … I’m kind of backtracking, I don’t think we should do any new employees. In the light of things that … I don’t know.

Thibeault: So do we want to table Item 6 discussion and move on to the departments that haven’t presented yet?

The light begins to dawn on Selectman Lucier. Perhaps Vice-chairwoman Hutchings, but she had to go home sick. [Get well soon]. They lack control over insurance rates and retirement expenses. It will come to them when they have time to think about it. Hint: Personnel expenses are your largest cost. The only thing that you do control is the number of employees and their status as either part or full-time employees. That is the only variable with which you can work.

When you are in a hole, you should stop digging. So, hiring is completely out of the question. And capping was due back during the “Great Recession.” When everyone else was seeking new employment, pulling in their belts, and having trouble making ends meet, the Town government just kept right on spending. Do you remember all the foreclosure signs? The Town government barely missed a beat. They took a bit of a check step, just one year with a slower rate of increase, but that was all. Then it was right back to business as usual.

Selectman Lucier, we are way past capping. That was so 2009. And you can forget about hiring. The BOS needs to be cutting, and not little shavings or a little final sanding, but great big whacks. You have said that we are not Wakefield with its ten lakes. Right. It follows that we cannot afford what they can. We should have a tax rate like they do, if not lower. Keep cutting until you get there.

A concerned citizen, Ms. Lynette McDougall, rose to offer some advice during the new secondary Public Comment.

Lynette McDougall. As a taxpayer, I’m kind of appalled at these numbers I’m seeing, you guys. It seems like to me we’re in a management overload or something. We need to do some cutting, somewhere – training people, cross-training people, things of that sort. [Editor’s note: so that you have some coverage after cuts, presumably]. Maybe get somebody professional to show us how to do this, because this is taxpayer’s money going out. I agree with you, if you present this to the taxpayers. I’m surprised they’re aren’t people out there screaming. I’m kind of sad they aren’t. I know you guys are doing the best you can, but we’ve got to have better than this. We’re a small town, this is small, and these expenditures are not small. And I know that’s not your fault, but you should maybe think about having somebody professional, that knows how to do these things, come in and cut some things, because we need to save the people that are here. I’m sorry, that’s all.

Good for you, Ms. McDougall. Brava!

References:

Independence Hall Association. (2018). Declaration of Independence. Retrieved from www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/

Town of Milton. (2018, October 15). BOS Meeting, October 15, 2018. Retrieved from www.youtube.com/watch?v=1C1AS4syCJU&feature=youtu.be&t=1071

By S.D. Plissken | October 13, 2018

Milton has “enjoyed” an unprecedented increase in the size and cost of its Town government for over a decade now. That cost increase has been greater than the official rates of inflation over the same period. It has certainly been increasing faster than the disposable incomes of those who are being taxed to cover it.

Some have characterized this increase trend as an unprecedented “engorgement” of Town government. Now, when a snake swallows a goat or a lion eats a gazelle, they seek some safe spot to lay quietly while they digest their meal. We have the same impulse after Thanksgiving dinner. (Sherlock Holmes never eats while he is on a case). Is it not time for the Town government to take a nap? A good, long nap, long enough for everyone else to wash the dishes.

If Town budgets increase at rates greater than taxpayer incomes do, that necessarily represents a redistribution – a net decrease in taxpayer incomes and a corresponding net increase in the proportion taken by Town government.

Obviously, that can not continue for long – it is the very definition of unsustainable. The trendline of what the Town wants and that of what the taxpayer can afford have long since diverged. Its logical end point is the bankruptcy of the taxpayer.

Anybody following local social media will have seen comments, quite a few of them, from people who have left Milton, who are in the process of leaving Milton, or who feel that they will have to leave Milton soon. That is only anecdotal evidence but, logically, it would have to happen at some point. You might consider these poor souls as our canaries in the coal mine. They serve as a warning that the air is getting bad here.

The supposed point of a Capital Improvement Program (CIP) plan is to prevent individual Town budget “spikes,” of larger-than-usual expenses, by spreading them out over a number of years. That is what we have been told, over and over again.

But, in order to be sustainable, Town budgets should not rise at rates that are greater than the rate of inflation. If the CIP plan consistently recommends an unsustainable spending trendline, one that is consistently rising above the rate of inflation – then the plan is itself just one giant combined “spike.”

Chairman Thibeault read some “highlights” from the CIP at the last Board of Selectman’s (BOS) meeting. Near the end of his recitation:

Chairman Thibeault: The [Planning] Board continues to recommend the potential increase of no more than 3% for year-over-year total capital expenses. This current … for 2018-19 stands at approximately 3.8%.

The Federal government’s year-over-year inflation rate for 2017 (the year upon which this year’s Town budget should be based) was 2.1%. The Planning Board recommended an increase of “no more than 3%.” Obviously, that would be far too much. The additional 3.8% figure, where 2018-29 “stands,” would be nearly double the rate of inflation. Cloud-Cuckoo-Land really.

We are now entering the BOS budget season. Let us establish some performance metrics for them. If their overall budget number comes in larger than last year, then the BOS will have failed. A tax increase will follow.

If their overall budget number decreases, then the BOS will have succeeded. They might accomplish that by cutting expenses. They might also accomplish that by extending their timelines: saving for purchases over a greater number of years. (I see, it would be almost as if you devised some sort of plan that took some account of our ability to pay).

(Have you heard of the experiment in which the ability of children to defer gratification is tested? They are told they can have one candy now but, if they can wait for a period of time, they can have two candies later? Most chose the one candy now. Of course they do).

If their overall budget number remains the same, the BOS will at least have held the line. Taxes will not rise further than their current unsustainable level. If they were to hold the line for a number of years, our incomes might begin to catch up to where we might take a breath.

(Watch for the $1.4 million taken in error last year to re-emerge in some fashion from wherever it has been hiding. It was represented then as a calculation error. That is to say, its taking was never authorized by your vote. The then BOS directed you to the abatement process. A tiny fraction of a fraction of those affected found some relief there. For the rest of you, I have bad news: you got snookered. The current BOS still has the money and has given no indication of returning it).

The BOS might either succeed, succeed partially (by holding the line), or fail utterly. Maybe we should start a town pool. Or, maybe it should be some sort of over-under kind of thing. (I am not much of a gambler). Let’s see, that would be $4,508,365 x 1.038 = $4,679,683. Who wants to bet “over”?

References:

Town of Milton. (2018, October 1). BOS Meeting, October 1, 2018. Retrieved from youtu.be/jLkGCxJjXeg?t=640

Town of Milton. (2018). Tax Comparison Chart for 2017. Retrieved from www.miltonnh-us.com/uploads/index_714_406409677.pdf

Wikipedia. (2018, October 3). Stanford Marshmallow Experiment. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_marshmallow_experiment

 

 

By S.D. Plissken | October 3, 2018

At last Monday’s meeting of the Board of Selectmen (BOS), Chairman Thibeault made a slip of the tongue regarding the legal force of the Capital Improvement Program (CIP) plan.

Chairman Thibeault: Alright. Next on the Agenda, 2019-2024 CIP Discussion. I put this on here. So, the Planning Board has been working on this, along with the department heads, for basically all year and it was approved at the public hearing on September 18. We’ve all received copies of that. Hopefully, we all have had a chance to review it. So, I guess I’ll open it up to any discussion or comments from the board.

Vice-chairwoman Hutchings: Are we voting on it now?

Thibeault: I would recommend that we accept it, but I wasn’t sure if we want to discuss it first. If you want me to go through and highlight some things, I will. Yes, no?

Selectman Lucier: Yep.

Thibeault: Alright. So, the Capital Improvement Program is an annual recommendation report for the Board of Selectmen and the Budget Committee. It is mandated under New Hampshire RSA 674:5 [through 674:]8.

Screech. Stop right there. That is … less than accurate. The BOS is not so mandated. RSA 674:5 states clearly that the BOS may authorize the creation of such a CIP recommendation, which may encompass this or that content. RSAs 674:6 through 674:8 state clearly that, when requested, the Planning Board or CIP committee shall create one in a certain manner and that, having prepared such a recommendation, they shall submit it to those that requested it.

The difference between “may” – things the BOS might do, but only if they like – and “shall” – things the BOS must do, even if they would rather not – is a mile wide.

The BOS may choose to request such a CIP plan or they may choose not to request such a plan. The Planning Board shall submit one to the BOS upon their request. The Planning Board has no choice. At which point, the BOS may choose to use it, in whole or in part. They may equally choose to throw it away, draw pretty pictures on it, or wear its pages as dunce caps. They are not mandated to do any particular thing with it.

Chairman Thibeault likely wants to amend his characterization of a CIP mandate, for accuracy’s sake. The BOS faces no such mandate to either create or implement one – no irresistible force, no unmovable object. The RSAs will not “make” the BOS do whatever it is that he contemplates, they do not escape responsibility for their actions.

Quite the contrary. If that CIP plan proposes yet more tax increases, the BOS has a positive obligation to those it represents to disregard those aspects of it. That would go double if, say, it included things already rejected at the ballot. Otherwise, why have such things on the ballot at all? That would be just silly. (Vice-chairwoman Hutchings sensed this in some inchoate way).

Unless the BOS does not represent the interests of the voters, but some other interest instead. But what could that be?

Aah, the Town government. The interests of the voters and the Town government have diverged. Well, that can happen. One group wants to reverse the trend of many years of increasing taxes and the other wants those increases to continue. It is insatiable, really.

(Chairman Thibeault goes on to say that CIP plan recommends continuing the usual above-inflation-rate tax increase of 3.0% while, elsewhere, in the very same document, the plan recommends also an even-greater-than-usual tax increase of 3.8%).

So, our paths diverge in a wood and the voter’s interests took the one less traveled. And that will make all the difference. (Apologies to Robert Frost).

One hopes we take that less-traveled path. We need a break, a very long break, from above-inflation-rate tax increases. You can not tax your way to prosperity. And the BOS represents us, as opposed to the Town apparatus. Surely, they would never work against our interests? That is why the BOS exists, after all – to represent our interests.

Well, that is the nub of it, isn’t it? I guess, we shall have to wait and see. We have no other choice.

References:

Collins Dictionary. (2018). Nub. Retrieved from www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/nub

Frost, Robert. (1916). The Road Not Taken. Retrieved from www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44272/the-road-not-taken

Town of Milton. (2018, October 1). BOS Meeting, October 1, 2018. Retrieved from youtu.be/jLkGCxJjXeg?t=332

State of New Hampshire. (1983-2017). RSA Chapter 674: Local Land Use Planning and Regulatory Powers. Retrieved from www.gencourt.state.nh.us/rsa/html/lxiv/674/674-mrg.htm