GilfordGrok

Why bother u say. The Council, since 1992, has capitulated to the School Board. Anual Budgets have been passed to avoid the so-called "pink Slip". And, historically, its not over till its over. Look at the history of supplemental appropriation. Then again, This City Manager and Council think nothing of carrying over unencumbered money into the next years adopted budget. Its called inovative accounting, something the Tax Cap make no provissions. Once upon a time unencumbered money was called surplus money and used to reduce the tax rate. Now the goal is to simply stay $0.0l below the Tax Cap. Name one year since 1992 that a city council has listened to any non-special interest.

I agree that citizen involvement is a problem in Laconia. However, I believe that is partly because people think speaking out does little good. Some citizens have put a lot of effort into letting their voices be heard with few results.

Fortunately, we now have a tax cap, and the beauty of that is that it forces constraints on the spending of the city. While it isn't as conservative as some of us would like, at least it's not as liberal as it could be if spendthrift department heads and unions had no parameters. Moreover, the cap is always present, reminding councilors that the people of Laconia thought that responsible spending was important enough to change the charter of the city. The tax cap is Laconia's watchdog, and it never sleeps.

I agree that, so far, the tax cap has seemingly held spending in check. That still doesn't absolve the city's residents from taking at least a passing interest in their own government. A 56 million dollar budget, capped or not, should at least tweak somebody's interest. If I lived in Laconia, you'd bet your @$$ I'd be there! And again, I am NOT cranking on you Jenny, Tom, or Niel. You guys HAVE been there fighting the good fight. It's high time someone else woke up in the River City...