More Budget Games?
Because there is a lack of guidance on exactly how to prepare the Default Budget, we have long seen our Town Administration play games with the Default Budget to ensure that their Proposed Budget passes. Now, it seems that the SAU Administration is playing similar games with the Cooperative Default Budget.
The School Board decided to cut Alternative Education from the Budget, reducing the Proposed Budget by about $400,000. However, they left the $400,000 in the Default Budget. What gives?
The Default Budget law says that if a program or line item is discontinued, it should be dropped from the Default Budget just as it is in the Proposed Budget. The SAU Administration didn't do that in this case. As a result, the Default Budget is now $240,000 more than the Proposed Budget. Was this an attempt to make the Default Budget larger than the Proposed Budget in order to get their Budget passed?
If you are concerned about these types of games that force us into ever increasing taxes, come to the Cooperative School Deliberative Session on Thursday, February 5, at 7:00pm in the High School.
I've seen all this happen in a once-small town years ago. The Exeter government will grow, all in the name of progress. New and more public works projects, programs to "help" the needy, more "infrastructure," and so on. Meanwhile, the logical consequence is that more money will be extracted from the producers, and more power will be usurped by government bureaucrats. This power will make the police even more thuggish and brazen of their treatment of us peons. Life will get worse. This is evil.
ReplyDelete"The Default Budget law says that if a program or line item is discontinued, it should be dropped from the Default Budget just as it is in the Proposed Budget. "
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That's interesting. Where does it say that?
“Default budget” as used in this subdivision means the amount of the same appropriations as contained in the operating budget authorized for the previous year, reduced and increased, as the case may be, by debt service, contracts, and other obligations previously incurred or mandated by law, and reduced by one-time expenditures contained in the operating budget. For the purposes of this paragraph, one-time expenditures shall be appropriations not likely to recur in the succeeding budget, as determined by the governing body, unless the provisions of RSA 40:14-b are adopted, of the local political subdivision.
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