Category: Politics

By S.D. Plissken | September 29, 2018

A commenter sent me a newspaper article from the Laconia Daily Sun of September 28. It takes place in Alton, but makes several points that are pertinent here as well.

It concerns a multi-millionaire who is trying to sell his 19-acre waterfront estate. He put the property on the market for $49 million dollars four years ago (2014). He halved the price two years ago (2016) to $25 million. It is currently assessed for tax purposes at $23,109,500. (As if you can actually rate it to the nearest $500, when dealing with these numbers). It is currently offered at $17.8 million.

Note that the estate is not “moving.” In economic terms, the market did not “clear” at the $49 million, $25 million, $23 million, nor yet at the $17.8 million prices. Multi-millionaires and tax assessors can have their fantasies but the market determines the price and they do not. Of course, sufficient sales data must be somewhat difficult to obtain for 19-acre multi-million dollar waterfront estates.

Bahre paid $309,280.17 in property taxes! I know, this guy is a selectman’s dream. This summer, Alton reduced his valuation by $936,400 and refunded $12,092 in taxes from the 2017 year.

Bahre is suing the Town of Alton, because their valuation is still $5,355,811 higher than the asking price at which the property does not “clear.”

The article notes parenthetically that

At $14.98, Alton has one of the lowest tax rates among communities with extensive waterfront on Lake Winnipesaukee. Moultonborough’s rate is considerably lower, at $8.22 per $1,000 of assessed value. But Wolfeboro, Meredith, Gilford, and Laconia are higher, with tax rates of $14.98, $15.23, $17.26 and $21.03 respectively.

Now, from my relative hovel in Milton, any one of those “higher” rates seems vastly better than our $25.89. We began below the high end of this “higher” rate list eleven years ago, and rose, and rose, and rose, peaking at $28.60 in 2015 and $28.40 in 2016. Then BOS Chairman Rawson was asked last year what rate would finally be “too high.” He said $30, $30 per thousand would be too high. (“Miss me yet?”)

Only the phantasmagorical flash valuation of last year allowed the Milton selectmen to “cut” us to $25.89. Well, yes, there was not much pain in it for them. Fantastically high valuations combined with a slight cut in rate produced a fantastically higher bottom line still. (And they did not even get it right).

This Alton multi-millionaire guy can probably afford to sue the Town of Alton into the ground, so this will be interesting to watch. And the premise of his suit is itself interesting. The Town’s high tax rate – yes, he means the $14.98 – is scaring off potential buyers. He cannot realize the full value of his property because of high taxes.

Fascinating as all of that is, the real nugget was buried near the bottom of the article:

The suit filed by attorney Margaret Nelson on behalf of the Bahres, argues, “Even affluent potential purchasers are concerned about the very high tax burden, especially in light of recent changes in the federal tax law regarding the deductibility of property tax expenses.”

Beginning with this federal Income Tax year, taxpayers will only be able to deduct $10,000 in state and local taxes from their income tax.

Yes, you read it right. If a business bears a tax burden that is greater than the deductible $10,000, the portion above that amount is no longer deductible from Federal taxes. Remember, they pay a local NH State Business Tax too.

The Feds just stopped subsidizing places with high local taxes. For a valuable property, having it in Milton, or California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, etc. – all high tax places – just became even more expensive than last year.

What effect might that have on businesses? Would taxes even higher-than-high tend to make Milton more attractive to them or less?

You figure it out.

References:

Laconia Daily Sun. (2018, September 27). Bahre sues Alton, alleging taxes on lakefront estate scaring away buyers. Retrieved from www.laconiadailysun.com/news/local/bahre-sues-alton-alleging-taxes-on-lakefront-estate-scaring-away/article_7132b470-c0eb-11e8-ac87-472a3856d0fc.html

 

By S.D. Plissken | September 28, 2018

Last night, the Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA) approved the variance for the Binker Brothers (Chris and Michelle Penta) to use their own Grange property in a commercially-zoned part of Milton Mills as a retail antique shop. The vote was unanimous.

Hurray! But it is not over. The ZBA mentioned several times that there was a follow-on stage in which the Planning Committee, the DPW, and the Police would have to approve also. The Police were to decide if the presence of three or four cars would obstruct visibility.

And if someone appeals in the next thirty days, the whole process can begin again.

There you find one of the thorny knots that obstruct businesses in Milton. All of these boards and committees are overlapping, interlocked, referenced, and cross-referenced, working from manuals originally copy-and-pasted from State exemplars and then “tweaked” over the years to make them even worse. And therein lies a problem.

My late grandfather worked all his life as a tool and die maker for the General Electric Company (GE). I often helped him do various household projects in his retirement years – painting the house, repairing the roof, building a wall, etc. He had a sort of joke that he would make when he had considered some way or means of accomplishing our objective and then rejected it. He would invariably say, “We’ll send that to Planning.” At the GE, that was what they always said when they tabled things, usually forever. Planning was where ideas went to die.

I have an acquaintance who grew up in Massachusetts. (He escaped). That acquaintance told me a story of how they think there. In the police section of his hometown’s annual Town Report, every year, the Police Chief would document with impressive charts and graphs the particular intersection that had experienced the most accidents in that year. Now, this was never “Death on the Highway.” You could count the  minor fender-bender accidents on one hand. And the solution to this grave problem? They would put up a traffic streetlight in that intersection.

Can you guess what happens next? In the next year, another intersection would move to the fore as being now the one that had the most fender-benders. And the solution to that new problem was to put up another traffic streetlight. And so on, through all the years, until nearly every intersection in town had a traffic streetlight. You may well imagine that there were still minor fender-benders, maybe even more than before, but they had created also a new traffic congestion problem.

When all you have is a hammer, everything begins to look like a nail. My friend heard recently that the proposed solution to the manufactured traffic congestion was to make all the major streets in town into one-way streets. (Rochester went this way). The townspeople finally rebelled and said “no.”

We may note that reversing the original failed idea is never seriously considered. When some ill-advised government notion fails, some additional complication, or some further intervention, is always the “fix” instead.

I employed a contractor last winter for a household project. He reminded me that “all of the towns around here” had created their various boards and committees at just about the same time – the late 1970s and early 1980s. (One might even suspect they all got their bad advice from a single source). He said that “the general idea was to make sure that nothing ever changed.”

I will take that with a grain of salt, but it is true that the net effect of a passel of committees with overlapping and competing authorities is to impede change. That is how Hitler managed his satraps – he set them all against each other with overlapping authorities. Only he could “resolve” the bureaucratic differences that inevitably arose. Stalin was the same. That is the way authoritarians think.

Everyone seems to think that the Milton town government needs to “encourage” businesses. I do not know from where this bad idea comes. (Maybe the same source as the committees). It is obviously wrong, but is also obviously widely held.

But, putting that aside for a moment, if you really want to “encourage” businesses, I mean, if it is really more than just lip service, why not separate the overlaps of these committees? (Use an axe). Does the ZBA really need to reference the DPW, the Police, and Planning as the next stage for a simple variance?

I am certain – absolutely certain – that a typical Grange meeting took up more parking space – with horses and buggies – than the Binker Brothers will ever have at any one time as antiques customers. And horses are generally taller than cars. Did the Police of that time have to pass on “visibility” before the construction of the Grange hall could proceed? Of course not, they would have regarded that as absurd and tyrannical.

Or go the other way. Combine the committees that have overlapping authority into fewer committees. The Planning and Zoning were originally one entity. Right now, you are just stuck in a bureaucratic morass. “Less is more.”

Get out of the way. And reduce taxes. Do that first. Then do it again. Lather, rinse, repeat. That would be the most “encouraging” thing that could be done. Who knows which of the fine home businesses on the Milton Made Products Site might blossom into something bigger and better if the ever-increasing demands of the town apparatus were not sapping their strength?

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By the way, when one is going through a list of standards, each one of them is a criterion. Criteria is the plural. This is similar to data (plural) and datum (singular).

By S.D. Plissken | September 27, 2018

Just rumors. Really, rumors? Or are they just facts that you don’t like?

Closing of China Pond

On Tuesday, September 25, 2018, a sympathetic resident posted on local social media (Our Milton Home Facebook Group) that “China Pond is closing forever! I am devastated!!!!” When asked about this, the resident replied,

No. She [i.e., one of the owners] told me they couldn’t get the proper [State] permits [for Ray’s Marina]. Their lease [on China Pond] is up on October 7th and they’re gonna take a break and spend quality time with their children.

This seems pretty straightforward. The resident poster spoke with one of the owners and then reported what they had said.

It is not the State’s fault that the Cumberland Farms landlord raised the rent on the China Pond tenant. The State only is to blame for years of permitting issues having to do with parking at the hoped-for Ray’s Marina complex restaurant.

Cumberland Farms is not to blame for raising the rent on China Pond at the expiration of the lease. The Town of Milton is responsible for that. What did you suppose would happen when taxes are increased at double the rate of inflation for over a decade?

The Town of Milton imposed exorbitant taxes on Cumberland Farms (and all the rest of us); Cumberland Farms simply passed that increase on to China Pond at its earliest opportunity – the expiration of the lease. That is the way of the world and completely to be expected. In effect, the Town of Milton raised China Pond’s rent. And yours, and mine.

By the way, one of our commenters says that the Board of Selectmen (BOS) knew about the China Pond closing a couple of weeks ago. Selectman Lucier mentioned it in a BOS Meeting. At present, that is just a rumor, although one capable of being checked. (Editor’s Note: This has since been verified. Selectman Lucier announced the China Pond closing in the BOS Meeting of September 10, 2018).

Ray’s Marina

Ray’s Marina closed in 2002 after fifty years in business. According to the Town’s online assessing database – Avitar – the property was sold to Ocean Management Group for $742,000 on August 13, 2007. Those would be the people that had RVs displayed there for sale for some years before the recession. The businesses that suffer most in a recession are those that sell “optional” products, such as RVs. Did the Town “encourage” them in any way? No, it continued to raise their taxes, despite the recession. TD Bank called in their mortgage on May 30, 2013.

The current owners bought the property for $180,000 as Gold River, LLC, on August 21, 2015. (Note the $570,000 drop in price from the foreclosed bubble price of $750,000 to the reality price of $180,000). Gold River has presumably been paying Milton’s ever-increasing taxes on that amount for three years now. It is currently assessed at an increased value of $189,900.

By calculation, that would be about $4,916 in taxes this year, about $5,370 last year, and about $5,140 the year before. Gold River will have paid a three-year total of about $15,246 in taxes on a non-performing property. That is to say, nothing at all came in the door and $15,246 went out the door. They have paid already something like 8.6% of the purchase price in taxes alone, while seeking State approvals.

The costs are a fact. Ask yourself, if this were you, how long could you keep paying that much for a non-performing property? Not long, that is a fact too.

Binker Brothers Antique Store

On August 3, Mr. Elder posted regarding Chris and Michelle Penta’s purchase of the old Grange building for their Binker Brothers’ Antiques business. He congratulated them on their commitment to remaining in Milton Mills. The Pentas posted on August 9 that they had begun renovations and were seeking information about contractors. Chris Penta sought to get rid of old appliances on August 14.

But there was a dark cloud on the horizon, a Town of Milton-shaped cloud. Michelle Penta posted on September 2:

Starting a business has many necessary steps. Apparently our town has one additional step that doesn’t exist in other communities. It is a step that delays opening/generating income by AT LEAST 30 days. This has been a roller coaster ride with many ups and downs. Receiving all the encouraging words and support from other residents gives us the motivation to keep on going. Maybe together we can work towards changing the process to be more user friendly, for the next person who wants to create something great in our town.

This would appear to be referring to a particular definitional twist. The property is zoned “commercial,” which you might think would include a little antique shop. No, that is a “retail” use. I suppose the Pentas can open all the shoe factories that they want, such as used to exist in Milton Mills, but not a retail antique business. Unless they get a variance. Really?

Michelle Penta posted again yesterday:

Chris Penta and I have been diligently preparing and the time is here! We are going before the zoning board to seek approval to open an antique store in Milton Mills on Thursday 9/27 at 6pm. Endorsement from residents is powerful! This is a public hearing. Anyone can attend and speak. If you want to see a fabulous store that supports local artists and sells ridiculously cool stuff, please show up on Thursday! We are super excited, hopeful yet nervous! The zoning board approval is critical! Your presence would be greatly appreciated!!!

So, I do not see that anything said yesterday was only a “rumor.” It seems pretty fact-based to me.

China Pond is closing because their rent went up. Their rent went up because Cumberland Farms passed their Town of Milton tax increases on to their tenants. No surprises and no rumors there, just basic economics. The taxes are what economists call a “pass through” expense – they go right on through to the tenant. The Town raised the rent.

The Ray’s Marina restaurant project stalled on State regulatory issues regarding parking availability. Thank the State for its help. However, the Town of Milton tax rates definitely contributed to the financial pressure on those prior owners during the “great” recession. And it has been no picnic for the current owners either. The numbers are right there in Avitar. They are stalled by the State and the Town of Milton is bleeding them dry. Discouraging.

The Binker Brothers’ antique store is stalled on the Zoning Board of Adjustment’s (ZBA) interpretation of what constitutes “commercial” use. Factories, yes, quaint antique stores in renovated historical buildings, not so much. (It depends on what the meaning of ‘is’ is).

I have no words. The meeting is posted by the Milton ZBA and the antique entrepreneurs have asked us to attend.

Evidently, we should all be there with bells on. We’ve been invited. Tonight at the Emma Ramsey Center, at 6:00 PM. That is the rumor anyway. Pitchforks optional.

References:

Binker Brothers Antiques. (2018). Binker Brothers Facebook. Retrieved from www.facebook.com/Binkerbrothers/

Milton NH Community News. (2018). Milton NH Community News Facebook Group. Retrieved from www.facebook.com/ourmiltonnews/

Our Milton Home. (2018). Our Milton Home Facebook Group. Retrieved fromwww.facebook.com/groups/OurMiltonHome/

Town of Milton. (2018). Assessment Data Review Online (Avitar). Retrieved from data.avitarassociates.com/logondirect.aspx?usr=milton&pwd=Milton

Town of Milton. (2018, August 17). Case2018-2 Request for Special Excpetion [Sic], Chris & Michelle Penta. Retrieved from www.miltonnh-us.com/uploads/zba_189_808339455.pdf

Town of Milton. (2018, September 10). BOS Meeting, September 10, 2018. Retrieved from youtu.be/PlwhI_Uz_rs?t=1673

Town of Milton, ZBA. (2018). Agenda. Retrieved from www.miltonnh-us.com/uploads/zba_189_2246368897.pdf

By S.D. Plissken | September 26, 2018

If local social media is accurate, the owners of the China Pond restaurant intend to close it, when their lease expires on October 7. The owners intend to spend more time with their family instead.

If I have understood my fortune cookies correctly, which is doubtful, zài jiàn is Mandarin Chinese for goodbye. (Apologies in advance for any Mandarin error). So, zài jiàn to China Pond. I hope you fare well in whatever comes next for you.

As I understand it – from very far outside – the owners had hoped to set up an American-style restaurant, as well as a couple of apartments, in the old Ray’s Marina complex. This proved to be impossible due to permitting issues. The current permitting issues, at least the insurmountable ones, are said to be with the State, and have to do with parking. This has gone on for several years now.

From afar, I have often wondered if they might rent the use of ten or a dozen spaces from the Dollar General complex across the street. I have never seen the Dollar General parking lot full, especially out at the margins, because most of its customers park naturally near the store entrance. Some spaces along the street would be relatively far from the Dollar General’s entrance and relatively close, if not actually closer, to the Ray’s Marina complex.

Too bad. It might have been sort of a win-win: extra money for Dollar General and parking access for the intended restaurant across the street. There is probably some sort of regulation that forbids such a solution. There usually is.

I shudder to think of the regulatory tortures of the damned that have been imposed upon these hapless restaurant entrepreneurs. This has been going on for a couple of years now. Again, from afar, they seem to have purchased the Ray’s Marina property. (I could be wrong). That is a pretty big investment. Now add a couple of years of Milton’s crushing tax burden to a non-performing property. And, as the cherry on top, a couple of years of legal expenses wrestling with boards and regulatory officials. Their working capital must be pretty much exhausted. Not a very “encouraging” prospect is it?

So, China Pond joins Stop, Drop & Rolls in leaving the so-called business district. Do a count: there are more businesses out of the business district than there are in the business district. We have really more of a business district museum than a business district. An exhibit of the business district that was, when there was a train depot and before the Spaulding bypassed the town. Is it time to just stop calling this the “business district”?

Social media has reported also that the antique store proposed for Milton Mills got bogged down in regulations too. And these were not State regulations. The owner said that Milton has some sort of extra layer of regulations above and beyond every other place in New Hampshire. Sort of like a “double secret probation.” He politely said that he is trying to work with the town on this. Of course, the town could just eliminate that extra hurdle – just to stay even with everywhere else. If they want really to move forward towards being “encouraging,” they could go on to whack a couple of more layers of nonsense too.

The ongoing Mi-Te-Jo expansion tragicomedy comes to mind. It would be difficult to imagine something with a lower environmental impact than expanding a seasonal campground. I mean, compared with hiring out the town as a landfill. But NIMBY. I suppose now Mi-Te-Jo will depart too and a housing development or something will spring up instead. Try that in your back yard. Much better than expanding a seasonal business.

I wonder if a Mi-Te-Jo failure to thrive will have any effect on that other store. The one near the bridge-that-was.

How about if we post Economic Revitalization Zone (ERZ) signs? I mean, as opposed to reducing taxes and regulations. That should do the trick. Yeah, that is the sort of thing you see in places that have check-cashing stores and title-loan shops instead of banks. (Rochester has a check-cashing store, a title loan shop, and ERZ signs). Is that where we are headed? I do not find that very encouraging.

How about if we just try liberty? (We pledge to it before every meeting). That seems to have worked in the past. You know, let us try what worked in the time before Economic Development, Planning, Zoning, and whatever boards and committees even existed. It has not been that long – within living memory.

If it is really vital that we have businesses for some reason – a reason that is never satisfactorily explained – let us return to the regulatory conditions that prevailed when businesses thrived.

Try to reproduce the conditions that existed when the business district created itself.

References:

Our Milton Home. (2018, September 26). China Pond Is Closing Forever. Retrieved from www.facebook.com/groups/OurMiltonHome/

Rochester Voice. (2018, June 22). China Pond’s Plan for Move Across Street Inches Forward. Retrieved from www.therochestervoice.com/china-ponds-plan-for-move-across-street-inches- forward–cms-10350

By S.D. Plissken | September 25, 2018

The minor league Pawtucket Red Sox’s contractual agreement with their “home” city of Pawtucket, RI has run its course. It was little mentioned in press reports, but the Pawtucket Red Sox (PawSox) organization shopped around for the best terms. That would be its fiduciary duty. It did the right thing.

Pawtucket, and the State of Rhode Island, failed to come to terms with the “home” team. The best that Pawtucket and Rhode Island could offer was an $83 million project without any state bond involvement. That was nowhere near good enough.

Worcester’s economic developers offered more, which “encouraged” the PawSox to come to an understanding with them. The PawSox will invest a bare $6 million on new facilities in Worcester. Worcester will take out $100.8 million in bonds for the venture, up front, repayable over thirty years. The PawSox will contribute $30.2 million toward repayment of that, but spread over the thirty year period. The Worcester taxpayers will pony up the rest. If bond interest functions anything like mortgage interest, the “rest” will be a vastly larger number than $100.8 million minus $30.2 million equals $70.6 million. It might cost double the $70.6 million, or even more, before the bonds are “retired.”

So, the PawSox will become the WooSox, or something of the sort, when they take up their new residence in Worcester, MA. Grand. Hopefully, other businesses will flow into town in the WooSox wake. That is the idea, anyway – a WooSox business district.

Some other cities that have financed minor-league baseball stadiums have failed to cover debt payments with new revenue, and have had to dip into their general funds (WBUR, 2018).

Of course, even if new businesses do take up residence around the new stadium, they will have been subsidized by Worcester taxpayers. The taxpayers will have paid partially already for whatever those businesses might offer, before they even step into them. They pay to create those businesses and then they pay more after for the goods and services themselves. That sounds great, for those new businesses.

And, heaven forbid, what if the WooSox were to fail and go out of business before the period of thirty years elapses? The taxpayers would still be on the hook for those bonds. Even those not yet born and who would never have even seen the WooSox play.

What happens in thirty years? Well, the WooSox will shop around again, just as they should. Worcester can then try to further “encourage” them, as Pawtucket did. Perhaps the WooSox will want a new stadium, an exit ramp, or some other basket of goodies, in order to remain in Worcester. More taxpayer money. Failing that, the WooSox will be happy enough to become the Someplace-Else-Sox, if someplace else can come up with a better “deal.”

Well, here’s a thought. Will the taxpayers get tickets to the games at least? Yes, if they buy them. Seats sold separately.

References:

Business Insider. (2018, February 24). What abandoned Olympic venues from around the world look like today. Retrieved from www.businessinsider.com/abandoned-olympic-venues-around-the-world-photos-rio-2016-8

Forbes. (2018, August 21). Red Sox Affiliate, A Minor League Gold Mine, Is Leaving Pawtucket For Worcester. Retrieved from www.forbes.com/sites/barrymbloom/2018/08/21/the-loss-of-red-sox-triple-a-franchise-for-pawtucket-is-worcesters-gain/#24de56112fb4

Milton Observer. (2018, August 31). Milton’s Idée Fixe. Retrieved from wordpress.com/post/miltonobserver.com/206

Providence Journal. (2018, September 3). PawSox season finale brings poignant sense of loss to fans. Retrieved from www.providencejournal.com/news/20180903/pawsox-season-finale-brings-poignant-sense-of-loss-to-fans

The Simpsons. (1993, January 14). Marge Vs. the Monorail – Excerpt. Retrieved from www.youtube.com/watch?v=taJ4MFCxiuo

WBUR. (2018, September). Worcester City Council Approves $100 Million Stadium Package To Lure PawSox. Retrieved from www.wbur.org/bostonomix/2018/09/13/worcester-city-council-approves-100-million-stadium-package-to-lure-pawsox

WGBH. (2018, August 17). Why The Pawtucket Red Sox Are Moving To Worcester. Retrieved from www.wgbh.org/news/local-news/2018/08/17/why-the-pawtucket-red-sox-are-moving-to-worcester

Wikipedia. (2018, July 21). Crony Capitalism. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crony_capitalism