GilfordGrok

My name is Skip Murphy and I am running for re-election for the Gilford Budget Committee. I am also endorsing Barbara Aichinger and Stuart Savage for the BudComm and for the following reasons. Bev Buker correctly identified the spending problem in her Laconia Daily Sun 2/9 Letter “to work with the available money on hand” as for some in Town “the available money “ is never enough; the implicit demand is that the needs of Government trumps that of taxpayers' need for their own hard earned money. What is rarely is addressed is the important point: what is the cost of Government doing more? Unfortunately, there are those in Gilford that don't care – they just demand those services regardless of the cost (or the result). They seldom ask “can this service be done better at a lower cost?” nor, “what is the unit cost of providing that level of service”?

Terry Stewart in his Sun Letter (2/14) Letter, honed in on that lament – one cannot reduce budgets without some departmental budgets getting haircuts. I've heard the hysterics over the years that services will suffer if even the slightest of cuts are implemented but I've heard very few ever raise the issue of “Does Government have to have the best at the expense of taxpayer wallets?”. Two concrete examples are the buying a costly new fire engine vs fixing the current backup one to last a couple more years, and propping up the Planning Dept staffing even as its work load has plunged the last few years.

But the biggest problem is that Labor costs constitute the majority of our budgets and are amongst the highest of NH towns our size. My first meeting on the BudComm, I unveiled a salary study that showed that Gilford consistently paid highest salaries for all the Town related job descriptions of the 32 town surveyed. Nothing I have seen since has led me to believe that has changed. Even the School Board's own Administrative Salary study found their costs were higher than similar districts. These costs lead directly to a larger tax due price that show up twice annually – unless someone fights to keep that in check.

That was one of the reasons I originally ran to be on the Gilford Budget Committee and why I am, again, asking for your vote to re-elect me to the Budget Committee. Much has been done and in conjunction with others, I helped achieved real financial structural changes benefiting taxpayers with starting the process of employees paying more for their healthcare as in the private sector and moving from COLAs to merit increases to name two specific examples. I've also been the only Member that has consistently, over the years, asked for large budget decreases to keep more of your money in your pockets.

I have been accused of having an agenda these last six years and I readily admit such: “why should Government spending rise faster than the ordinary family's income?” Government does need to serve its citizens but never at a price that puts families second financially. That is why I ask for your vote for me as well as Barbara Aichinger and Stuart Savage; I need their help and I can promise that we will look out for your wallets!