Oppose HB 1393
To Sen. Ward,
As your constituents, we ask that you resoundingly vote no to HB 1393. This bill is a farce, a mere propaganda piece, for a few legislators that have a hidden agenda to dismantle public education. HB 1393 is also a distraction that instead of doing the work necessary to solve the education funding crisis, enables more opportunities to arbitrarily restrict how municipalities and school districts can support students’ education.
Towns and cities do not need HB 1393 to place a tax cap on education spending, as they already have the jurisdiction to implement budgetary caps, such as we have seen in Manchester and Franklin.
Yet, HB 1393 is unique, as a budget cap under this legislation would be in place permanently until a three-fifths supermajority vote is achieved to remove the arbitrary cap.
While it is true that the lawmakers in Concord are increasingly hearing the cries from seniors, low to moderate income families, and property poor towns; their backs are breaking under the current tax system that relies so heavily on local property tax payers to pick up the tab for education. Seventy percent of the cost of educating our children is pushed down to the local property tax payer. This makes it increasingly more unbearable for the State and Federal governments to place unfunded or partially funded mandates on local districts, making a mockery of the statement “ local control.”
Yet the New Hampshire Constitution unequivocally — upheld by Supreme Court cases — dictates that it is the States’ responsibility to ‘adequately’ fund education and that those funds are to be raised fairly throughout the State. With our legislators subject to such a binding legal mandate – for over 30 years – why are we not seeking transformative and essential legislation to restore our statewide Constitutional rights? We ask you as a member of the Municipal Affairs and Election Law committee, Chair of the Education Committee, and as our elected Senator in Newport, provide leadership in opposition to HB 1393.
More than two years ago, taxpayers footed the bill for an education commission. As echoed in the summary of the Education Commission’s summary report “the state’s current system is inequitable from both student and taxpayer perspectives.”
Vote no on HB 1393 and provide real leadership to fix the current education crisis, Newport’s and New Hampshire’s kids and taxpayers are counting on you.
Kathy and Guenter Hubert
Newport
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