Governors Island, NH
Well folks I must admit had I known this topic was blazing away for the last month I would have chimed in earlier. Although I am not the person who first came up with the idea for GI to form its own town (they have thought about it for decades) I have been the most recent person to champion the idea.
Just to clear the record...the comment in the LDS about my success being an open checkbook for big government was NOT in response to GI becoming its own town. If you read the article it was a response to comments from the Town Administrator Scott Dunn on my comments about the growth of the Gilford local government.
From 2000 to 2010 the municipal budget has grown 59% while the population increase has been only 4%. The school budget for Gilford has grown 69% while the student population has decreased by over 300 students. The issue is that Gilford local government GREW into the housing bubble. The assessments went up as the bubble grew and they grew the spending. It would have been a perfect time to keep the spending increase at the rate of inflation so that the tax rate was lowered. Gilford did not NEED this money...it WANTED it so it took it by force mostly from the non resident tax payers. 48% of the taxes in Gilford are paid for by people that cannot vote.
Governors Island pays 4.1M in property taxes (and GI was never part of Laconia). 1.1M goes to the town. The town has refused to redo GI's roads which are in pretty bad shape. If a GI resident dials 911 Laconia shows up first....GI gets very little for the 1.1M. GI has 12 students in the Gilford schools. GI residents pay 2M for those 12 students. That is $167,000.00 per student per year. Gilford now is a school listed as 'in need of improvement' as they have failed their AYP in 2 subjects 2 years in a row. The SAT scores are well below state average and barely at the national average yet the cost per student is twice national average.
Right now real estate values are crashing. However the town/school spending is not. So the assessments are dropping and the spending is flat so that means the tax rate goes up...for everyone...not just those 'rich' people on the water. Governors Island now has several sales BELOW assessed value and property is LISTED for below assessed value. The reason in part is because the real estate bubble has burst but the other reason is because Gilford's tax rate is high (except for Laconia) and buyers see the lack of services that they get on GI from Gilford. What few buyers there are for these waterfront homes buy in other towns. It is going to be very interesting as GI's assessments drop in a 'race to the bottom' and Gilford see's it tax rate sky rocket. Soon the people using the services will be paying for them and it will be interesting to see how they react. Gilford's goose that laid the golden egg ,year after year with the big assessments and very little pull on the services, is dead and not coming back anytime soon.
Barbara Aichinger
aka Ms. Merge
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