Vote Like You Don't Need the Money???

Dateline: Feb. 23, 2023

That headline is really a play on a #1 country music hit from 1989 by Kathy Mattea called "Come from the Heart." It is doubtful if anyone would ever sign up for that sentiment.

The song included these lyrics:
"You've got to sing like you don't need the money,
Love like you'll never get hurt.
You've got to dance like nobody's watchin'.
"It's gotta come from the heart
If you want it to work."

Most of you could approve of those sentiments.

But the task at hand is to know how to vote on March 14.

Town Budgets and Warrant Articles

For the 2023 town budgets and warrant articles, you should go to this town web link:

 2023 Town Warrant Articles

The proposed and default town budgets are pretty close so it's a toss up as to which way to vote. The Proposed Sewer Dept. budget is $237,000 (9.7%) more than last year so the default budget may be more acceptable. The rest of the articles move unspent tax funds into various capital reserve funds, which is a good way to save up for one-time big ticket items like a fire engine or plow truck.

Article 19 proposes we buy the ARD school bulding for $1.00. The school can't sell it without having the state deduct the sale price form the school bond. Such lovely people up there at the Dept. of Education.

Article 21 seeks approval of a townwide energy plan through which all electricity users in town band together and negotiate a low bulk price for electricity. This is similar to Our Town Energy Alliance (OTEA) in Center Barnstead which has thousands of members who have banded together over the years and purchase millions of gallons of home heating fuel at a low negotiated price.

School Budget and Warrant Articles

For the 2023-24 school budget and warrant articles, you should go to the Quick Links panel on the Allenstown School Board web site and click on 2023 Deliberative Session Packet.

 School Warrant Articles

The proposed school budget ($12,688,082) is about $112,000 more than the default budget ($12,576,318) and $444,000 more than last year's budget. With the school bond adding to expenses, you might want to vote for the default budget.

The raises for the paraprofessionals (Article 2) might be effective for holding onto staff. For the teachers' raises (Article 4), consider the fact that most of the full-time teachers' salaries range from $35K to $77K. The better alternative would be to transition from multi-year contracts to merit raises as done in professional private business. Each teacher would then need to provide an annual performance report to demonstrate accomplishments that justified a salary increase. The top performers would then receive the top increases. The students would benefit.

A significant article is number 10 which would authorize the school district to sell AES and ARD to the town for a dollar each. Remember the caveat about the NH Dept. of Education deducting the sale price of the schools from the bond for the new school. Talk about a lose-lose deal.

Candidates for Town and School Offices

Several residents have signed up for various town and school positions. We need to thank those people for volunteering their time and talent for those positions, some of which are for a three-year term.

Allenstown-Alt offers the following picks.

 Town candidates
 School Board candidates

The official ballots can be found via the link in the Related Sites column on the right. Note that, for many positions, candidates are running unopposed. In those cases, you might write in your own name.

What You Can Do

Vote like you need the money. Economic conditions are slowly improving in Allenstown, but right now, with the January 2023 inflation rate at 6.4% after averaging 8.0% in 2022, and economists talking about a possible recession, people probably can't afford higher property taxes.