Hudson - Litchfield News | February 3, 2012 - 5 More Letters to our Editor continued from page 4


Support Litchfield Schools by Going to Deliberative Session on Feb. 4


Your Litchfield Education Association would like to thank you for your support of students and teachers throughout this academic year. Back in October, you came out in force to send a message about the importance of education in your community. It was gratifying to see that this town recognizes the importance of strong local education and its undeniable tie to the value and vitality of the community as a whole. We’d like to take this opportunity to invite you to attend the town and school district deliberative sessions this Saturday, February 4, in the Campbell High School auditorium. If you attend, you’ll be able to offer your viewpoints on the town budget at 10 AM, followed by an evaluation of the school district budget at 2 p.m. At this event, attendees also have the ability to adjust the overall budgets as they see fit. Te warrant articles up for discussion at this


year’s school district deliberative session will include Article 1 - the full annual budget. In support of Litchfield students, your Litchfield Education Association would ask that you place a special focus on the following areas, which have been subject to significant cuts: • Maintenance of physical facilities • Technological infrastructure (wireless and 24- hour remote access)


• Support for special needs students (tutors, specialists, and summer programs)


• Safety and security measures (updated fire alarm system for LMS)


• Adult education programs for community members In addition to the full budget, several other warrant articles are available for your review. If you attend deliberative session, you can make your voice heard in favor of public education. Normally, session attendees also can take a first look at a warrant article covering new contractual information for your schools’ teachers. Tis year, however, no such warrant article exists, as the Litchfield School Board and the Litchfield Education Association were unable to come to a mutually acceptable contract agreement. Your teachers continue to work hard in your schools and community, and we hope that you’ll do your part as a citizen to support excellence in Litchfield education. Come on out to the deliberative sessions this Saturday, February 4. Food and drink will be available, thanks to the CHS Class of 2012; free child care will be provided by the CHS Key Club.


Carolyn Leite, President, Litchfield Education Association – Litchfield


My Opinion on ‘Freedom of the Press’


To the person who sent me an envelope with a cut out of the Hudson~Litchfield News highlighting “I don’t respect anyone who will hide behind the cover of anonymity to viciously attack an individual or an organization. I do feel sorry


for those individuals who don’t have the intestinal fortitude to face those that they attack and allow them the opportunity to defend themselves. Maybe they are afraid that they would be ‘sued’ for slander. Perhaps that is the reason why they hide behind the cover of anonymous because they know their statements are false and would result in them being ‘sued.’” Yes! Very brave going to Massachusetts to mail the envelope with a Forever stamp “First Bull Run July 21, 1881.” Only a wise “historian” would come up with this. “No name” on the correspondence. More legal threats “bullying.” I hope the taxpayers won’t pay for the legal fees; I know I won’t. Tere is a volume of documents and witnesses to please the court! Practice what you preach! Fly like an Eagle is my motto! Vote in March.


R. Lemieux - Hudson


Tere’s No Place for Rudeness Tumbs down to the Hudson Police Office who


was extremely rude to myself and other drivers on Saturday, January 21. I had driven up the hill on Belknap Road by Cumberland Farms and there was a cruiser parked on the side of the road with its lights on. All you could see was the cop and a tow truck pulling a truck onto its bed. When I stopped and the officer approached me he states, “Where are you going? Where is that? Can’t you see the road is blocked? What would give it away? Te lights on my car going, the orange vest I am wearing? You cannot go this way ...” First of all politeness is apparently not freely


given by the police for to its residents. Second if every time I saw a cruiser with its lights on and an officer in a vest and assumed that meant the road was closed then I would not be able to use very many roads. Tey generally have lights on and vests on for any traffic detail. All he had to say was the road was closed. I could not see from where I was parked. I was polite and left. I later, at the next light, asked another car the officer had barked at if he thought the officer was rude as well. He agreed with me. Tere is no need for rude manners. It is our tax dollars, after all, that pay their salaries. I have a lot of respect for the HPD, apparently that is not mutual.


Derek Libby - Hudson Don’t Vote the Status Quo


Tuesday, March 6, is coming upon us. Tis is the day when Litchfield residents will have a decision to make. Will they vote for the status quo? What is the status quo? Maybe the status quo can be defined as elected officials that routinely make decisions without public input such as last minute decisions on the eve of turning money back over to the taxpayers to take $150,000 from the taxpayers to spend as they see fit, never even considering the need to ask the voters of Litchfield. How about certain school board members holding an illegal meeting of a quorum of the School Board discussing non public events? Could this really happen? Isn’t it the responsibility to the School Board to be


transparent with the people that elected them on all decisions made on their behalf? Anyone that has been paying attention for any length of time can easily come to the conclusion that not all the decisions made on behalf of the taxpayers of Litchfield has been with the right intentions in mind. If they were we would not have children with special needs being left out. Tere is something fundamentally wrong when we consider the burdens of fund raising by the wrestling team a greater burden than that of students with special education needs. I’ll bet most Litchfield residents don’t know that since 2008 fewer Litchfield students with special educational needs received the help they needed to succeed. Again, there is something fundamentally wrong when we pay $250,000 to three individuals leaving the system as parting gifts but deny the students in our care with the services they need. We are told that all the decisions made by the School Board are for the children, yet only about 25 percent of the actual budget can even be considered as specifically touching the educational needs of the children. We have a School Board that finds more ways of spending our money yet less ways of specifically identifying how they are improving the quality of education to the children of Litchfield. At a recent meeting one citizen asked John York about $70,000 that was being proposed to address the so called math problem in Litchfield. Specifically Mr. York was asked how the money was being spent. He had absolutely no clue how the money was being spent to address the issue. Another example that comes to mind is when the board was asking for money for additional janitors and the question was posed as to how many janitors were already in the system. Not one person could answer that question yet they were sure we needed more. Nobody would argue we need clean schools. Te problem is looking for more ways to spend the money taxpayers are spending on areas that do not directly touch the actual educational needs of the kids but continually telling the town that everything is done for the children. We are living in economic uncertainty in this country. As many Litchfield residents know, none of us know what tomorrow will bring regarding financial security. Even Mr. York has recently been touched by the unemployment bug. We have to keep in mind the excess burden we are placing on the citizens of Litchfield and balance that with ensuring we give the students in our care the best education we can. Tan means finding where waste is and directing the money already in the system directly to the children’s needs and stop finding new ways to spend taxpayer money without ever addressing how we are going to improve the educational needs of the kids. I watch every School Board meeting and would challenge Mr. York or any other School Board member to prove to me or the taxpayers of this community that they spend more time dealing with the specific educational needs of the children of Litchfield than they do about union needs and other issues the have no direct impact on improving the educational system


Letters to our Editor - continued to page 6


Piece of the Pie Maintaining Your


The Tax Return – Taxes: They are a ‘Changing. Part 2


W.F.Boutin EA - Total Tax Solutions LLC


Last week we mentioned a few proposals being presented to the American Taxpayer that would either eliminate or overhaul the “tax code” as we currently know it. Without a question of a doubt, the present tax code is cumbersome, complex and confusing. A large majority of taxpayers may not understand the code but do pretty much know what to expect they need to pay under the current system. We must all realize that whenever there is a tax cut, it will always benefit those with high incomes more so than lower incomes. Lower income earners should also realize that many of the benefits that they receive under the present code in tax credits or deductions are not available to the higher income brackets because most of these benefits have a phase out income limit. We must also realize that if any proposed plan lowers taxes for all taxpayers, then benefits currently supplied by the Federal Government must be curtailed. We can see the results of the last major tax cut of 2001 vs. our current deficit. What are we willing to give up to keep our existing cuts in the code? We have recently seen that the result of the “Super Committee”, a bipartisan effort to trim the deficit, was unsuccessful. Some of the proposals to cut the deficit have included downsizing government, removing government regulations and letting business govern themselves to grow the economy. Greed and profit will not rule these company’s missions, and increased competition will lower prices at the retail level. I think that we have all seen this exercise in action over the past


several years. The price of a barrel of oil increases and within hours the price increase is seen at the pumps. The price of a barrel of oil decreases, and it may take months to see the affect at the pumps. Of course the oil producers and refiners have explained this phenomenon to the general public is such a way that our greatest export could be mushrooms for all the balderdash we are to believe. One of the biggest selling points of the consumption tax proposed by the 9-9-9 plan and the Fair Tax is that it eliminates the current tax code. It replaces this code with a sales tax on new goods and services. A “prebate” an advanced rebate, is mailed to all taxpayers monthly to cover the taxes for purchases of the basic necessities of life. The “prebate” amount is determined by the number of people in the family unit. (I have failed to find the calculation which determines what is included in the basic necessities of life.) Under a consumption tax system, we are told that the price of all consumer goods and services will drastically drop due to the elimina- tion of the embedded taxes that are now included in the prices that we pay for the same. The belief is that the companies’ will not increase their profits by their reduction in cost; but will lower their prices to be competitive. Henceforth, the additional price we pay in sales tax for new goods and services will be negated by the drop in retail price. Add this to the prebate that we will be receiving and we will all be saving large amounts of money. Once again we are assuming that greed and profit do not prevail! Remember that all of these proposals are at the Federal level of taxation. This does not mean that the States will follow suit. In most circumstances when there is any reduction in Federal aid to the State, the State finds it necessary to increase their tax code whether it is at the income, sales or property tax level. And remember, under a consumption tax system there is no longer a Federal Tax code or return to file so there is nothing to deduct! Next week- The Income Tax Return Have a tax question? E-mail taxquest@totaltxsolutions.com About Total Tax Solutions: W.F. Boutin EA registered Total Tax Solutions in the State of NH as a LLC in the summer of 2006 after 10 years experience working for a major tax preparation company and 8 years of teaching various tax courses. The company mission is to deliver an excellent customer service experience year around, to offer knowledgeable advice so that clients can make informed decisions regarding their financial future, and to provide this service with integrity, confidence and professionalism.


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