Citizens in Merrimack have formally announced their intention to add a spending and tax cap amendment to the town charter this year.  The petition committee paperwork will be filed Monday January 5^th at the Merrimack town hall by Matt Murphy, a representative of the New Hampshire Advantage Coalition (NHAC), and Merrimack Town Councilor Mike Malzone.

This amendment is identical to the one that passed in Rochester last November by a 70% to 30% margin.

The spending cap allows for increased spending from year to year but pegs the amount of the increase to the cost of living, sometimes referred to as the rate of inflation.  The tax cap portion protects property owners by restricting increases to the property tax rate under the same formula.  The latter protection is of particular importance during revaluations.  The combination of the tax-cap on tax-rate increases and the spending cap on the budget combine to prevent the town from using increased values as a motivation to raise taxes or spending beyond the fixed formula.

But the cap doesn’t just limit spending and tax increases.  It also comes with a provision for allowing supplemental or emergency spending within the framework of the town charter, whenever two-thirds of the town council votes to approve it.  So at no point is the town prevented from addressing necessary short term spending that occurs outside the normal operating budget.  But that spending is only good for the duration of that fiscal year, and cannot be included in the operating budget when calculating the next year’s budget.  But it can be apporved in succeeding years by another two-thirds vote if the town council has the will to do so.

Opponents, most often town employees or those employed by the town through a union will insist that this kind of cap will force a cutback in services; even critical services like police and fire.  But Derry, Franklin, Laconia, Nashua, and Dover all have a spending cap.  Some of these towns have been operating under a cap for 15 years or more, and none of them are starving for public services.  There is no shortage of policeman or fireman.  But that’s what they’ll tell you is going to happen.  It’s simply not true.

It is important to remember that while the town will always need to address spending issues, that spending should not be permitted to exceed the ability of the taxpayers to fund it.  Most of us will not get a significant raise every year, not in our paychecks, nor see that in the value of our homes.  Perhaps not for some time.  Most people won’t even see a fraction of that–particularly under the current economic conditions–yet the unions, and the budget writers could continue to ignore these facts when they talk about spending.

By asking the Town of Merrimack to approach its budget the same way Merrimack’s families approach their own, we are simply mandating more responsible management in how local government operates.   We are reconnecting the budget writing process to reality, matching our own expenses with the cost of living, and asking our elected officials to do the same.

Thomas Jefferson once wrote in a letter to John Taylor that, “Excessive taxation…will carry reason and reflection to every man’s door, and particularly in the hour of election.”  Well we are prepared to carry a petition to every door, and ask your support in amending the town charter–so that the cost of government will never exceeded our ability to fund what is truly necessary for our mutual well being.