Switching from defined benefit to defined contribution was looked at.
Because the new employees would need to have accounts that are contributed to, those contributions and return on investment could not be used to offset the current system. The State, Counties, and cities/towns would all see major increases in their contributions... they are not allowed to declare bankruptcy and transfer the cost to PBGC.
The State of NH has only been controlled by Democrats for two years of the last one hundred. That largely happened because the Republicans that took an oath the State Constitution decided to ignore that oath when it did not suffice them.
The system is not inherently Democrat-controlled or problematic when reviewed in a relative manner.
We did have a problem with the Evergreen Clause placed into the system under Thompson, but that has been at least partially resolved.
Municipal power flows from the Legislature and is limited by the Legislature.
The tax rate for Laconia is historically low - in 1978 it was 23.40; it is currently 13.91
Many non-residents are seeing still seeing us as attractive. Unfortunately, because those are not families and working age non-residents, they are making the problems worse.
As I pointed out... anyone educated in NH that is paying attention realizes that we have State income and Sales taxes. An out-of-Stater moving here may fall for the ''No general sales or income tax'' quip, but it is a gimmick; psychological marketing tactics telling us that ''general'' would be overlooked. We just use a more inherently efficient manner of those taxes. We move those rates up and down in an attempt to balance state expenditures against competition from surrounding State and now more often the northeast quad (we can never meet the east-west corporate model that has been developing in the last two decades).
You will see this all play out again... and my guess is history repeat itself since politicians never learn (basically the general public doesn't do that well either) should the NHSC uphold the Superior Court findings.
But for Meredith, the focus of the thread, it is simply the push of non-residents to own lakefront. Those properties go up in value, and the other properties see the benefit of lower/stable taxation.
I was actually stunned when the younger next door neighbors moved here from San Fransisco to ''farm''. They have six acres - enough in our town to legally have domesticated livestock. The house is a bit oversized for them, but the cost of ripping it down is more than just maintaining and upgrading the energy efficiency. They could easily afford to live on the lake, but chose a more traditional NH path.
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