Hearing what they want to hear?
It seems the news papers are full of articles about the so called outside agencies and their constant need for money. To be perfectly clear, the issue was not about the worthiness of the cause but rather the use of tax dollars under penalty of the loss of your home. It is also very clear that these agencies receive money from the County and State in some cases. As we all recall, the voters of Gilford spoke on this issue last year and voted down the spending of Gilford tax dollars for several of these agencies. Wouldn’t you think that’s the end of the story? No it’s obviously not, in the era of the constant assault on the hapless tax payer. There are several things worth noting about all these stories. For starters we haven’t seen citizens in need of services roaming the streets at large and causing my taxes to go up, as these outside agencies suggest. The only people pining on about the loss of tax dollars for these agencies are the administrators whose salaries are supported by those dollars. Recently, I received a survey on the social needs of the community. What was glowingly absent from this survey was the ability to check an answer stating that I feel the current service level is adequate or in surplus. The survey is rigged to provide the service providers with a result that obviously supports the need for more services. Additionally, I find it odd that politicians hear only what they want to hear from the tax payer. For example; The Gilford Selectmen claim the lack of residents voicing opposition to allowing a tax exempt “affordable senior housing” community is an endorsement by the people to approve of such communities. The people have spoken, or in this case not spoken! Now we have the administrators of the outside agencies pleading to reinstate the money after voters clearly rejected the use of tax dollars to support them. Obviously, the voters were uninformed about the importance of these services. So voters are informed when they don’t oppose a tax exempt community but are uniformed when they vote against funding outside agencies?
Selectman Grant states that she has “always supported Youth Services and will continue to do so.” I hope that she is referring to the kind of support where individuals can voluntarily contribute to the cause and not the kind of support that sends Gilford tax dollars to these agencies against the will of the voters.
