French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr said, “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose”: “The more things change, the more they remain the same.”
It’s business as usual for the cabal on Liberty Street. Concord’s School District SAU 8 raised taxes with a 2% budget increase. They hired a “compliance officer” (bureaucrat) with a $137,000 annual salary. Why now? Children will not be in school until September.
I’ve got to wonder how this new “compliance officer” will react when reporting to and working with SAU 8 notorious “non-compliers,” the assistant superintendent and district business manager who for years deliberately didn’t “comply” with credentialing requirements. It should be no surprise to learn that, without review, discussion or debate, these two had their contracts renewed. These people truly are shameless.
New Hampshire’s unemployment is 15% and climbing. This economic crisis will soon have developers, commercial property owners and landlords asking Concord for property tax deferments, tax breaks and assessment reductions. Any money coming from Washington will go to them while seniors on fixed incomes and hard-working middle-class homeowners, many who have lost their jobs, perhaps permanently, will once again be thrown under the bus.
Concord taxpayers have struggled with huge annual tax increases, the consequences of misplaced priorities and reckless spending. Examples: $17 million Main Street boondoggle, $3 million squandered on the employment building, a skate house, turf park, an 18-hole golf course that loses $78,000 every year. Fortunately, Concord taxpayers have a public relations officer who will try “put a shine” on this impending disaster.
RAPHAEL LAHOUSSE
Concord