Page 8 — THE LACONIA DAILY SUN, Friday, November 30, 2012
NEWFOUND from page one our base,” said Wendelboe. Good news for taxpayers this year, said Wendelboe, but bad news for budget builders who must factor the two percent tax increase allowed on the lower amount — meaning the district must eliminate about $895,000 from the 2013–2014 budget now being prepared. Wendelboe said the School Board and the Budget Committee had tacitly agreed on a $11,214,000 budget target for 2013-2014 — an amount that would allow the district to absorb the increases in state retirement contributions, insurance, fuel and to give small raises to the para-professionals who she said “really took it on the chin” in this year’s budget, which was reduced by 10 percent from the 2010-2011 school year level. Wendelboe said there are three possible solutions to the district’s dilemma and the path of least resistance is having the DRA reinterpret the legislative intent of the law that was passed which permitted school districts, among other governmental entities, to have property tax caps. She argues that lawmakers only intended to control the rate at which property taxes can be increased; their purpose was not to have the law drive down the total amount that can be collected because of something that happened the year before. She said a representative of the school board, a representative of the Newfound administration, herself, and State Senators Jeb Bradley (R-Wolfeboro), David Boutin (R-Hookset) (the two sponsors of the tax cap bill in 2011) and Sen. Jeanie Forrester (R-Meredith), who represents most of the district, were meeting in Concord yesterday to discuss their options and to clarify what the legislature intended
when the law was passed. She said the DRA was invited to the meeting. She said the school board has made a formal request to meet with Gov. John Lynch in hopes he can help clarify the legislative intent of the tax cap and the DRA’s current interpretation. If that fails, she said the second option would be to “fast-track” legislation this January that would clarify what she believes was the original intent of the law. “This would be tough,” Wendelboe said, noting the clarification legislation would have to have bipartisan support in both the House, the Senate, and Governor-elect Maggie Hassan who would need to sign it. She said the legislation would have to be enacted and signed into law before the school district is legally required to post its budget for public hearings in February. The third option would be to reduce the budget by the $895,000, present it to the deliberative session (Newfound is governed under SB-2), and make a floor motion to raise it by a maximum of 10 percent. By law, a tax cap means only that the School Board and the Budget Committee must develop and present the governing body — the voters — a budget that is under the legal cap. Voters at a deliberative session have the right to increase (or decrease) a presented budget by 10 percent. In towns and school districts that are not governed by SB-2, voters at annual meetings can make whatever changes they want. Should the deliberative session choose to raise the budget, she said the voters at the second session of the district meeting would either adopt or reject the it by a ballot vote in March.
VILLAGE from page one who has helped create Christmas Village year after year, said that several dozen people offer a hand, either before, during or after, to help transform the interior of the Community Center into the North Pole. He estimated that about 5,000 people visited the attraction last year, and expected much of the same this year. The format of the event remains unchanged from recent years. Visitors will first enter into the Community Center’s basement level, where a team of volunteers led by Sharon Cavanaugh offers a series of games and craft activities. Visitors will then move upstairs, where they will get a ride on Santa’s sleigh, visit Santa’s workshop and pick out an orna-
ment, enjoy cookies and lemonade in a café, have an individual meeting with Santa and receive a gift, and finally spend some time in “Grandma’s Living Room.” The only cost of the experience is an optional $3 for a photograph of the visitor with Santa. Bolduc said visitors should plan on spending “at least an hour” when coming to Christmas Village. For many, the event has become a part of yearly holiday tradition. Even for Bolduc, who is nearing his 40th Christmas Village, the event retains its charm. “It’s the holiday, it’s Christmas, it’s Christ. It’s what it’s always been and we like to keep it going.” The best part of the event, for Bolduc, was seeing children get excited about the holiday. “That makes it all worth while.”
Belknap County Delegation and Belknap County Commissioners Public Hearing – December 10, 2012 at 7:00 PM
The Belknap County Delegation will convene at the County Complex, 34 County Drive, Laconia, NH in Conference room #1 for the following purposes: • Presentation of the Commissioners recommended budget • Public hearing on the same (RSA 24:23) • First Meeting (RSA 24:9a) Belknap County Commissioner's Recommended Budget Summary
Expenditures: General Fund Nursing Home Total Appropriation Revenue: General Fund Nursing Home + transfer from General Fund Subtotal Fund Balance Used Total Revenue To be raised by taxes:
2012 Budget
Commissioner's Recommendation 2013 Request
$ $ $
19,788,366 11,103,635 30,892,001
$ $ $
15,536,044 11,248,522 26,784,566
$ $ $ $ $ $
1,779,574 7,418,724 3,900,553 13,098,851 3,750,000 16,848,851
$ 1,628,175 $ 7,756,781 $ $ 9,384,956 $ 2,100,000 $ 11,484,956
$
14,043,150
$
15,299,610
RASH from page one he went to his bedroom and saw that all of the drawers had been pulled out and his medicine chest was open that he realized someone had been in his house. He said the person got into his house by breaking out one of three glass panes in a rear entrance, reaching in through the broken window, and turning the knob. The victim said nothing was taken. “I don’t leave any money in the house and I don’t have any jewelry,” he said speculating that those were the things the burglar(s) was seeking. “I guess I’m very fortunate that whoever it was didn’t trash the place,” he said. The victim noted that in two of the other burglaries, who are people he knows, said they told him entry was made through a door that was in the rear of their homes and their backyards are bordered by woods. City police are asking people to make sure their doors and windows are locked and to report any suspicious people or automobiles they see in the neighborhoods. PALESTINE from page 2 will give the Palestinians a boost, elevating their status from U.N. observer to nonmember observer state — like that of the Vatican. The resolution upgrading the Palestinians’ status was approved by a vote of 138-9, with 41 abstentions, in the 193member world body. Anton Salman, a resident of the Palestinian city of Bethlehem in the West Bank, said he hoped international recognition will mark the beginning of a new period that “will begin to build a real state and to recognize our identity as a people with a state and land.” The vote recognizes a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, the lands Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war. This represents far less territory than the Palestinians were offered on Nov. 29, 1947, when the U.N. General Assembly passed Resolution 181. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, in a rare moment of candor, admitted in an Israeli TV interview last year that the Arab world erred in rejecting the plan. “It was our mistake. It was an Arab mistake as a whole,” he said at the time. Resolution 181 called for the partition of the British-ruled Palestine Mandate into a Jewish state and an Arab state: 33 countries voted in favor, 13 against and 10 abstained. The resolution was accepted by the Jews of Palestine and set off jubilant celebrations. In a whiff of nostalgia, Israeli TV on Thursday aired grainy footage from that day of people dancing in the streets. Israeli radio interviewed Israeli seniors about their recollections from that day. It was a strikingly different Israel from today — a place where only several hundred thousand Jews lived, most of them European. Their suits and hats see next page