Windham Taxpayers

Gregory M. Sorg, (R) Easton
Member of the NH House
Grafton District 3

Citizens of New Hampshire who fail to follow the activities of their state government do so at the peril of their freedom and property. A stark demonstration why took place this week.

On Wednesday, June 4th , Governor Lynch invoked an obscure, nearly obsolete provision of the New Hampshire Constitution to call a “special session” of the Legislature, to convene that very day, a day in which the Legislature was already scheduled to meet in regular session and was in fact actually assembled in Concord and conducting business when his proclamation was officially issued. Why did he do this?

He did it because House and Senate rules prevent the introduction of new bills this late in their regular annual sessions unless authorized by a two-thirds vote of each chamber. Governor Lynch wanted a new bill introduced that would allow the borrowing of over $100,000,000 in order to cover the record budget deficit he and his fellow Democrats in the Legislature have run up. He realized that House Republicans, who comprise over one-third of its membership, would never accede to such a bill; that we would instead demand dealing with the deficit by rolling back the Democrat spending spree of the past two years that has created it. But if he were to call a “special session” of the Legislature, not only could a new bill be introduced, but new rules of procedure, stifling inquiry of and opposition to it and guaranteeing its immediate passage, could be adopted by simple majority vote.

And so it came to pass that immediately after completing the business of Wednesday’s regular session, we were called into special session, and all the normal safeguards to open government and mature consideration of proposed legislation were summarily jettisoned. The Governor’s bill, which few of us had even seen before we were required by our newly-adopted rules to debate and vote on it that very day, was not referred to a committee; was not given a public hearing; and was not discussed, voted on and forwarded to the full House with a committee’s written recommendation. So outraged were House Republicans by the resulting caricature of representative government that we staged a walkout that brought matters to a standstill for two hours, before yielding to the inevitable and watching the Undemocrats have their wicked way with Lady Liberty.

I had never expected to witness such an egregious, cynical display of raw political power in the Legislature of this state, and I hope never to again. The Lynch administration and legislative Democrats would do well to heed Alexander Hamilton’s warning: “[N]o man can be sure that he may not be tomorrow the victim of a spirit of injustice by which he may be a gainer today. And every man must now feel that the inevitable tendency of such a spirit is to sap the foundations of public and private confidence, and to introduce in its stead universal distrust and distress.”

May 18, 20008
Eagle Tribune

SALEM — A long line of teenagers and their parents stretched from the door of the Division of Motor Vehicles on a recent morning.

They were all waiting for their driving test, the final exam driver’s education graduates need before getting a license. Many were back for their third day trying to get a spot.

Matt Foden, 17, of Pinkerton Academy had come for the third time. So had Nicole Lyons, 16, also a student at Pinkerton.

Alex Marchioni, 16, of Salem was making her second attempt to get one of only 13 test slots available each day at the Salem DMV. Like most testing centers, Salem only has one test administrator available.

Marchioni and her father, Alan, had arrived at about 8:15 a.m. the previous Thursday, and were told immediately that they’d shown up too late.

The Division of Motor Vehicles only has 16 test administrators, according to spokeswoman Katie Daley, which isn’t nearly enough to keep up with the demand. And while the agency is working to create an online appointment system, it isn’t up and running yet, she said.

“The director has been asking for more examiners, as well as more licensing clerks, for many, many years,” Daley said.

Parents and teens tell horror stories about showing up before 7 a.m., waiting for hours and being told to come back another day. Sometimes, this happens several days in a row.

Those at the front of the line at the Salem DMV at 8 on a recent morning said they’d been waiting since 6:45 a.m.

“Once you take the (written) test, you should be able to make an appointment,” said Susan Parilla of Londonderry, who brought her son Robert to get his driving test.

Parilla worries about her son and other students missing classes.

While the first-time drivers who were lined up said they’d be returning to school, all agreed they’d be missing first period.

At Pinkerton Academy, there are severe penalties for missing five first-period classes without a doctor’s note, said Lyons.

She said she had been lucky because the first two days she tried to take her driving test, April 30 and May 2, were during school vacation. But the third time she went back, she missed her first-period class.

Ivan Melton, a driver’s education instructor with Calvary Christian School in Derry, said a combination of changing rules and fewer test administrators has made for a difficult situation.

“There’s been some changes going on at the DMV,” he said. “There are less examiners right at the moment, plus the fact that they’re extending the amount of time that they take a student out to drive.”

Saul Shriber, the driver’s education teacher at Timberlane Regional School District, is less sympathetic to teens and parents, though.

When he taught in the 1980s, he said, students were allowed to make appointments to take their tests, but wouldn’t show up at the appointed time.

In the 1990s, driver education teachers were allowed to give the tests themselves, he said.

“I never really liked giving the test because it was kind of a subjective thing,” Shriber said. “The road test is very subjective, to be honest with you.”

That changed about 10 years ago, he said, when the state began giving the tests again.

Among students and parents, though, there was plenty of criticism for a system that doesn’t have enough administrators and doesn’t allow students to make appointments.

“It’s stupid,” said Lyons, the Pinkerton teen.

With only 13 testing slots per day for schools in Salem, Londonderry, Derry, Windham and other surrounding towns, “the math just doesn’t add up,” said Parilla, the Londonderry mother.

And while young students by far make up the largest proportion of test takers, there’s another demographic affected by the long waits for a driving test: the elderly.

“You have to take a driving test (if you’re) over 75,” explained Reina Dubois, who was waiting with her 77-year-old husband, Albert.

He was trying to get a testing slot and had shown up around 6:45 that morning. He was second in line.

But he wasn’t too worried about the test policy. If he got a slot, which looked likely, he wouldn’t have to return for another test.

Where to take the driver’s test locally

Salem DMV — 33 Geremonty Drive in the lower level of Town Hall

Manchester DMV — 377 S. Willow St., Manchester Commons

Concord DMV — 23 Hazen Drive

Epping DMV — 315 State Route 125

Hours are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, although appointments are first come, first served. Road test applicants must show up before 3:30 p.m., although they are encouraged to arrive much earlier.

May 18, 2008
Concord Monitor

Questions raised about NH retirement system trustees’ travel

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — At a time when the retirement fund for New Hampshire’s public employees is struggling financially, the board that controls it continues spending taxpayer money to send its members to faraway training conferences.

Documents requested by the Concord Monitor show that the New Hampshire Retirement System has paid thousands of dollars in recent years for trustees to attend conferences in other countries, including an investment trade show in Italy and a hedge fund meeting in the Czech Republic. Somersworth Police Chief Dean Crombie, a board member who has traveled to conferences in France, Portugal and Spain, won approval last week to travel to Ireland.

In 2006, the system spent $57,000 on travel for trustees and staffers, $5,000 over budget. The 2008 trustee travel budget is $21,800. That money comes from the retirement fund’s coffers, paid by taxpayers and public employees. Meanwhile, the system is $2.7 billion short on its long-term liabilities and is among the worst-off state plans in the nation.

Changes are afoot. The board is reconsidering its travel policies and has a new chairwoman and a new executive director.

“We have a new executive director, and we’ve tasked her with reviewing our policies and coming up with a recommendation that takes into account past criticisms and best practices, and we look at that at the June board meeting,” said chairwoman Lisa Shapiro.

In addition to the trips paid for by the state, trustees also have taken trips paid for by businesses and other organizations.

In 1995, a state audit found that trustees had violated the system’s code of ethics by taking thousands of dollars worth of trips to Ireland paid for by the Bank of Ireland, which managed some of the fund’s investments. Another group helped foot the bill for a trustee’s 11-day trip to China. A decade later, in 2004, the longtime chairman of the board, Edward Theobald, was removed amid allegations that he had not disclosed perks he was offered by a company seeking investment from the board. The deal still is under investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s office.

Crombie, the Somersworth police chief, defended his travel by saying the conferences are the way he educates himself. He goes to about one conference a year, and said lawmakers have urged him to attend more.

“That was a big thin in the Senate: You have to go to more conferences. Education, education, education,” he said.

He said it has been helpful to meet board members from other states and hear about how better-off pension systems operate. But asked what he took away from his trip to Lisbon, Crombie quipped: “I took back a bottle of wine.”

And from France? “Two bottles of wine.”

May 17, 2008
Eagle Tribune

WINDHAM — The owner of an Indian Rock Road strip mall and the town are at odds over the property’s assessed value, with their projections millions of dollars apart.

A tax abatement was requested for The Commons at Windham Inc., an 11.7-acre site with two buildings of retail businesses. An appeal is being considered by the state Board of Tax and Land Appeals, which has about a 1,000-case backlog.

On March 28, the board ordered the two parties to try to settle their differences without a hearing.

The differences rest on the town’s $7,585,780 current assessment for the property, and the owner’s estimation of the property’s assessed value, $4,230,000.

Town Assessor Rex Norman said he arrived at the town’s figure for the 2006 tax year, from April 1, 2006, to March 31, 2007, based on measurements and other information received for the property at 25 Indian Rock Road.

The owner arrived at its figure based, in part, on size calculations, rents and vacancies and the capitalization rate. The rate is related to the property’s annual income stream, and would be taken into account by a potential investor, Norman said.

Both sides agree the property’s value should have increased between the 2005 and 2006 tax years.

That is because in 2006, the town conducted a revaluation of all property, bringing them to full market value. The average increase in assessed value was 43 percent, Norman said.

The Commons at Windham rose to $7.5 million from an assessed value of $3.7 million in 2005. The owner paid $72,101 in taxes in 2005, $116,285 in 2006 and $122,128 in 2007.

On Monday, the two sides appeared before selectmen to work out their differences. The Commons was represented by lawyer Mark Lutter.

Selectmen, however, stopped public discussion of the matter after board members complained they did not have current information.

Selectmen asked the two parties to sit down together and compare notes before returning to the board.

The Commons at Windham features a variety of stores, including jewelry, accounting, fitness and fence businesses.

April 30, 2008
Boston.com

CONCORD, N.H.—Orange trucks will help drivers from seeing red during the morning and evening commutes on Interstate 93 in southern New Hampshire.

The state Transportation Department is beginning roving service patrols on Thursday between the Massachusetts border and Exit 3 in Windham.

The idea is for Transportation Department employees in orange pickups to solve minor problems such as flats or overheated cars before they cause major traffic jams or accidents.

For the six-month pilot project, the pickups will be on the road during the morning and evening commutes on weekdays and from 2 to 6 p.m. on Sundays. There might be extra patrols on holidays and for special events.

Project Manager Peter Stamnas says minor incidents like flat tires on a congested highway can cause other problems that typically are more serious.