GilfordGrok

To the Editor, GilfordGrok,

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What a sad state of affairs regarding the small group of petitioners requesting a warrant article to eliminate the budget committee. I can’t blame them for not wanting over sight on their budgets. Who wouldn’t want a blank check? But for the record, let me get this straight. They had to drag out the small mob that pretends to represent the town and rail against the budget committee for cutting a whopping $70,425 from the roughly $22 million proposed budget which is still up about 5% higher than last year’s budget. Yes, that means your tax bill is going up again and even more so if the petitioners get their way. I think a much stronger case can be made to support the budget committee by replacing at least three of the old rubber stamping hold outs with more conservative members. On top of this, their uninformed water carriers are making allegations with no factual basis to them what so ever.

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Please tell me Mr. Wernig and Mr. Sanfacon, which meetings did “certain” budget committee members set policy, bully the Selectman, make indiscriminant cuts and intimidate town officials? You wouldn’t know because you didn’t even attend a single meeting! I know because I was there and all the budget committee meetings were very civil. Aren’t these the same people that claimed SB2 wouldn’t work because people would not be informed enough to vote? Now, in the safety of their special interest group, they attend the old mob rule deliberative session to make uniformed allegations about the budget committee. They get big rounds of applause which gives the illusion that they know what they’re talking about and somehow believe this is the prevailing view of the town. Thanks to SB2, the gig is up!
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The budget committee has never tried to dictate policy and has repeatedly reminded the school board that they can NOT tell them how to conduct business. The budget committee, after hearing the presentations, simply debated and voted to not allocate additional money because the stated reason for the spending was not appropriate. 

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As far as football was concerned, the budget committee said that the promised warrant article was necessary because it was a new line of future spending for the budget and the warrant article was one of the four conditions that allowed football to exist. According to the discussion, the four conditions ended all debate and if not for those conditions, football would not exist as it does today. If you had attended the meetings you would know this to be true. You should NOT be blaming certain members of the budget committee for doing their jobs when the school did a terrible job presenting their case. Budget committee members reminding the school board exactly what they said they would do does not make them evil people. Isn’t it their jobs to hold them accountable? I guess in Gilford, when you hold the school board accountable then you should be run out of town on a rail! Let’s not forget the petitioners tactic of using the kids to get their way when stomping their feet and pouting doesn’t work. Quite frankly, if parents used their children this way, a legal child advocate would remove them from the environment!

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I find it interesting that the town’s municipal side of the budget didn’t have these problems. When reasonable cuts were made through civil discussion, they didn’t stomp their feet and pout! In fact, most departments came forward with cost cutting budgets on their own. 

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I was asked why I did not attend the deliberative session and my answer was the same as to why I’m not attending the final public session. Who has any interest in attending a mob meeting with a bunch of spoiled sports that have proven they don’t play nice if you disagree with them? This is a very small group of a 100 or so people that receive money from the very budget they are going to add to at the public hearing. Let them! Thanks to SB2, the majority of us can escape the unruly mob in the privacy of the voting booth and vote NO on the proposed budget and YES on the default budget. 

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Terry Stewart