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THE FORMER REPUBLICAN SENATOR HAS A HISTORY OF ENDORSING DEMOCRATS. WILL TRUE HAMPTON CONSERVATIVES CONTINUE TO LISTEN TO THE POLITICAL SPEW?
This opinion letter from 2022 means a lot. Hampton misses Norm Silberdick. I went to high school with his son Andy, and the town misses him too.
The Rationale Taxpayers always had the taxpayers' back, unlike some. Whether you agreed or disagreed with them was something else.
CHECK THE ABOVE SEACOAST ONLINE OPINION LINK TO SEE FORMER REPUBLICAN STATE SENATOR NANCY SSTILE'S ENDORSEMENT OF AMY HANSEN BACK IN 2022.
NOW YOU WILL UNDERSTAND WHY WARBURTON IS RUNNING.
Here is the text from the 2022 seacoastonline article for those who can not read seacoastonline.
OPINION
Hampton Rational Taxpayers offer a word of caution: Hampton Letters
Portsmouth Herald
Hampton Rational Taxpayers offer a word of caution
To the Editor:
The 2022 Hampton ballot will contain an historically high $96 million of proposed spending, based on the combined appropriation requests from the town of Hampton, the Hampton School District and Hampton's share of Winnacunnet High school.
This amount is even greater than the $89 million in 2017, which included the $26 million bond for Hampton Academy. Only about $6 million of the 2022 proposed spending is addressed by funding from sources having no direct tax impact, such as the unassigned fund balance, recreation funds and state highway block grants.
A significant portion of the spending authorized in the proposed warrant articles will not impact taxes until the years following 2022. For example, the High Street reconstruction and Wastewater Treatment Plant bonds, as well as the union contracts will start in 2023. If you are only looking at the 2022 tax impact statements on the ballot to get a perspective on the cost, you're not seeing the whole picture. In addition, the tax impact of many of the warrant articles will continue in perpetuity. For example, if passed, the wage level increases provided for in the police and teachers' collective bargaining agreements will remain in place after the end of the term of the proposed agreements, even if no subsequent agreement is approved. The addition of two patrolmen, two DPW workers and four people in the Fire Department will be rolled into future operating budgets indefinitely. The cost of moving the parks foreman and the conservation coordinator from part-time to full-time positions will be reflected in all future operating budgets.
This is the first year for our Town Manager Jamie Sullivan’s administration and thinking. We believe that Jamie as a long-time resident and public servant has taken historical information from the charette and current master plan into consideration when dealing with Hampton’s future. In that regard, we welcome the effort but are also concerned with the volume and scope of the changes and how many initiatives can be done at once. Overall, we think Hampton is on the right track. There are more investments in Hampton that will be made over the years and the hope is that there will be both state and federal support for our infrastructure improvements.
Many of the warrant articles represent justifiable expenditures and RTOH is recommending a yes vote on many of them. However, we are concerned about the aggregate effect if all or most are approved, as well as the long-term impact from those articles that are perpetual.
We also had issues with both the Hampton and Winnacunnet school districts, whose budgets seem totally insensitive to the taxpayers with extremely generous pay packages, separate slush funds and poorly planned capital expenditure plans.
We urge you to be selective in which articles you vote yes on. We strongly endorse Regina Barnes for re-election. She is dedicated, pays attention to detail and the interests of taxpayers and is totally outspoken on issues that she is passionate about.
There are a number of warrant articles that are not money issues, such as the zoning articles and mosquito ordinances and puppy mills, and we have some opinions that we shall be putting on our website RTOH.org to give you some additional insight into the articles. In the Know and reginabarnes.com have information on these issues.
Norm Silberdick
Spokesman for Rational Taxpayers of Hampton
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