Quote:
The tax rates come about by the voter of Moultonborough adopting a budget, and the budget being divided by the total assessment rate, that number gets added to the county rate - done in the same manner on a county wide scale (adjusted for variation in assessing cycles for each municipality in the county), and added to the State education rate... which, since it is not collected and redistributed, is really more of an accounting gimmick to make the local school rate seem lower.
The bottom line will always be the voting at town meetings.
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What bottom line?
The town doesn't vote on the county budget, nor School Ed. (not local school).
The voters don't decide the vote on the county budget, the county delegation does.
If you think the State Ed. rate is a gimmick to the local school rate then are you familiar with the "Claremont decisions" by the NH Supreme Court and towns like Moultonborough required to be "donor towns" because of the decisions? Apparently not. I can assure you Moultonborough, and other donor towns, don't think it is a gimmick, but an abomination and a rip-off.
Using Moultonborough as an example:
The town budget is a warrant article in the warrant that is a "rubber stamp" of a vote. Most folks have never gone to the public hearings before town meeting to discuss, and don't have a clue on the warrant article vote.
The local school budget is not approved at the annual town meeting, but at the annual school district meeting. Usually different attendance, as most aren't as concerned about the local school budget, for some reason.
https://www.moultonboroughnh.gov/sit...signatures.pdf
Statutorily, the town Annual Reports come out prior to town meeting and are available at town meeting. The annual report has a detail by line items of the current proposed budget and the last budget.
https://www.moultonboroughnh.gov/sit...rt_for_web.pdf
Floor motions can be made to change amounts in the warrant article, including to zero, as some of us have done. Statutorily, no new adds (warrant already published, and articles need prior notice/ publication in the warrant).
Bottom line is .... try not paying the tax.