No Taxation With FULL Representation...
The July 24th Citizen reports on a new 40 unit senior housing project located behind the First United Methodist Church here in Gilford. No big deal, right?
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Here's the part that caught my eye:
Wesley Woods is currently working on a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement with the town.
Do you know what that means? They are tax-free properties. In a system such as ours, where the property tax funds the entire local government, this might not be such a good thing. Oh sure, they will make a "payment in lieu of taxes," but you can be sure it will be less on the aggregate than what Joe & Jane Bluecollar Homeowner will pay to support local government. What happens if these retirement communities become populated with government-growing elitists who then vote for libraries, community centers, etc. en masse, knowing others will bear the burden of the results? It's too late for the existing tax-exempt developments in town to be stopped. Perhaps any future proposals should be denied? After all, we can't stop those with immunity from increased taxation from voting, can we?
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Could this be how the spenders in Gilford plan their end-run around SB2 type ballot-booth voting?
