Thirty Years of Ignoring Our Constitutional Right
To the Editor:
Over 30 years ago, the Claremont I, Claremont II, and Londonderry Supreme Court rulings affirmed that New Hampshire citizens have a constitutional right to a fairly funded state education. These rulings declared it unconstitutional for the state to shift that responsibility onto local towns, leaving taxpayers to shoulder an unfair property tax burden.
For over three decades, the legislature has ignored this constitutional mandate, paralyzed by political gridlock. This negligence has come at a steep cost to both taxpayers and students in communities like Newport, Claremont and Charlestown. Our towns have faced economic stagnation while we’ve struggled to fund our children’s education, even though over 50% of our students qualify for free or reduced lunch and a significant percentage have special education needs.
This funding gap has crippled our schools and burdened us with some of the highest property taxes in the state. Now, with two new lawsuits — ConVal and Rand — taking the state back to court to demand our constitutional rights, the state is wasting over a million dollars fighting these cases instead of fixing the problem. As stated in one Supreme Court ruling, “[no] branch of State government can lawfully perform any act which violates the State Constitution,” and “[any] legislative act violating the constitution or infringing on its provisions must be void because the legislature, when it steps beyond its bounds, acts without authority.”
We need elected officials who will move beyond political stalemates, who honor their oath of office in Concord and finally uphold our right to a fair and adequate state-funded education. Thirty years of inaction has bankrupted us and hurt two generations of children. It’s time for change. That’s why I’m voting for Dave Trumble for Senate District 8 and for Jenny Ramsey and Nikki Murphy to represent us in Newport.
Kathy Hubert
Newport, NH
Re-elect Linda Tanner
To the Editor:
Nov. 5 we vote for Sullivan County district five state representative. Democrat Linda Tanner, current holder of that office, and Republican George Grant are on the ticket. They differ on three important points: vouchers for school education, women’s reproductive health care, and gun safety laws.
Tanner’s Republican opponent supports school vouchers that were originally set up to enable students in a poor public school district attend a private school if they chose to do so. But somehow vouchers morphed into a money tool to help pay school tuition at religious schools for privileged children of wealthy parents. The use of voucher tax money prevents some public schools from receiving adequate tax money for programs like special ed and others. Tanner, a retired teacher, supports public education that provides broad educational opportunities for all types of children regardless of educational standing and financial means. She opposes vouchers using tax dollars for religious schools with little accountability and a curriculum somewhat based in religion.
On women’s reproductive health, Tanner supports all abortion options, contraception, IVF and Mifepristone medication to treat miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies. Grant is on public record stating no abortions after first six weeks of pregnancy. Often, women don’t even realize they’re pregnant during this time. If a woman is bleeding out from an ongoing miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy and needs abortive care beyond six weeks, how does he respond to these life threatening issue?
On gun safety, Tanner’s opponent says “No” to common sense redflag laws that will prevent people who are a danger to themselves and others from owning/obtaining guns. Redflag laws don’t impinge on Second Amendment gun ownership. Most gun owners support them. We deserve safety in our communities and schools and should not be asking children to practice gun safety by hiding in a closet, hoping their classroom isn’t selected for gun deaths on any given day. Tanner supports red flag laws and will vote to enact them for our collective safety.
Common sense says “re-elect Linda Tanner as NH State Rep for district 5 Sullivan County.”
Jackie Smith
Sunapee, NH
Vote for David Trumble
To the Editor:
For too long Sen. Ruth Ward has (mis)represented the 20 communities of the 8th district with regard to fairly funding public education. This has cost my fellow citizens of Newport hundreds and possibly thousands of excess tax dollars annually. Ruth has no incentive to fix school funding as she lives in Stoddard, which has the fifth lowest school tax rate of the 20 communities in the 8th. Let the other 15 towns eat cake! With her positions on the Education Committee (Chair) and Rules and Enrolled Bills Committee she has been able to bury bills or fail to move some forward that could have provided substantial tax relief to my fellow Newporters and those in the 15 towns with larger tax rates than Ruth’s Stoddard.
Sen. Ward is opposed in this November’s election by Weare resident David Trumble. David has a strong resume, does his homework on the issues and has spent countless hours testifying in Concord on many issues beyond education funding. He also understands that his town of Weare, as well as many in the 8th, is disadvantaged by the archaic and regressive property tax. New Hampshire’s 8th and our children’s education deserve better than Ruth Ward. On Nov. 5 vote for David Trumble for State Senate.
Larry Schissel
Newport, NH
Support David Trumble
To the Editor:
New Hampshire Senate District 8 candidate Dave Trumble wants to improve the education our youth receive. He also wants to reduce our local property taxes. Both are great ideas.
And he says both can be done by requiring the state to meet its obligation under the New Hampshire Constitution to adequately fund public education. Right now, the state provides only 30% of the cost of educating our children. This is the lowest percentage in the nation, and certainly not adequate. So, the other 70% is borne by local communities that continue to raise property taxes to meet New Hampshire’s legal obligation to our children. This failure of the state to fulfill its constitutional responsibility keeps our local taxes too high.
Trumble’s opponent, Ruth Ward, says we should instead “take a good hard look” for efficiencies. But, as chair of the Senate Education Committee, has she done this or demanded that it be done? No! And efficiencies won’t significantly change anything as district budgets are already bare bones.
Ironically, Ward continues to push for more taxpayer money ($22 million in 2023) to go to private and religious schools, even though 85-90% of our students attend public schools. She does not represent the voters’ wishes nor what is in the best interest of our youth.
The solution? Vote for Dave Trumble — for public education and for reducing local taxes.
Jack Hurley
Claremont, NH
Democrats are gaslighting you
To the Editor:
Democrat State Representatives tout “affordability” like New Hampshire hasn’t been watching them these last two years. They directly voted to raise your electric bill 5 times by over $500 million. While Republicans fully phased out the Interest and dividends income tax, Democrats sponsored a steep tax hike of over $133 million to bring it back. But, this was just the start. When that tax hike proposal failed, they decided that taxing you an extra $133 million was not enough and raised it to a staggering $451 million. Their attempts to make life less affordable didn’t end there. They also aimed to tax churches, increase tobacco taxes, and then tried another time to tax your retirement savings and bank account interest.
It is absurd and insulting that Democrats can even have the nerve to try to gaslight you like this. In Fact, Democrats are so delusional that they went on to say, “Granite Staters WANT to pay an interest and dividends tax.” I don’t know what planet they’re on, but I have yet to meet a single person who enjoys paying taxes, especially in this economy.
Granite Staters deserve better. As Democrats plan what taxes to increase, Republicans are planning what taxes to cut to make life more affordable. From cutting the meals and rooms tax, to decreasing the SWEPT tax by $100 million and cutting taxes on Meals on Wheels participants, it’s clear, Republicans have plans to make life more affordable, Democrats have plans to take more of your money.
Wayne Hemingway
Claremont, NH
