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Belknap County Delegation is doing what we elected them to do
To the editor,
I thank Mr. Sanborn for his views on the conduct of the Belknap County Delegation in taking initiatives to control county spending. In his second letter he said; "...every Belknap County voter who participated in the last election indicated a choice for who they wanted to run the county".
'A few weeks ago, you published my letter explaining how Obama needed to do nothing to achieve most of his political agendas on the developing currency and debt crises before the phony deadline of 1/1/13. I explained that the Republicans had actually lost the last election and had no leverage to stop what has now become near $800 billion in revenue enhancements scheduled over the next 10 years. Fortunately the federal government can continue printing money to make up for the other 90 percent of the annual federal deficit spending, that does not address.
So let me remind Mr. Sanborn who won the last election in Belknap County. Regardless of how the rest of the state and the nation went, Belknap County overwhelmingly elected Republicans to the State Legislature. Most who voted for them expected, exclusive of the NHRS pension fiasco, that they would be voting for fiscally conservative agendas. So the delegation in my view is doing what they were elected to do.
Much of what they have to do on total compensations for employees stems from their inability to solve or even have any willingness to EFFECTIVELY address, the failing NHRS Trust Fund funding levels. If you look at the total in increased pension contributions (as cited in The Sun on Jan. 5) projected for this next fiscal year for the City of Laconia you can see that the cost is $35K more for the educators who are near 80 percent of the city work force, than for the rest of the employees of the town. Contribution increases in the current 3-year-plan to increase contributions as a patch on the Retirement Trust Fund go up at approximately twice the rate for what NHRS categorizes as Group 2s vs the salary-only employees as educators, categorized as group 1s. So there are substantial increases to county employees compensations over these last twp years and into the next year when these increases are to continue but then are SUPPOSED to end.
Unfortunately the ratio of Group Twos to Group Ones working at the county level is near an inverse of what the towns have when they count their educators. Even more unfortunate is that the NHRS has over the last 10-15 years lost about 7 percent of the contributions and their pre-2007 earnings in the trust fund of the current annuitants. The annuitants that went on pension +10 years ago are outliving the actuarial longevity expectations of those award dates. The new pensions are not defined to be against what the trust fund will be able to pay but as against their definitions NOT being PROGRESSIVELY reduced to what can be paid. So most of these current higher contributions are paying for what the current pensioners should be getting if the NHRS had earned instead of lost money.
Addressing the NHRS fiascos should be a primary bi-partisan effort by these same delegates of both political parties to the county convention on forming their agendas in Concord.
Mr. Sanborn's group might suppose that the taxpayers are a bottomless pit of money and will eventually have to cough it up for this non-feasance. They are in no mood for PROGRESSIVE cuts to pension awards that would diminish an award of a $12K pension by 2 percent. The Republican's have as their core constituency the annuitants that only make up 20 percent of all annuitants but receive more than 50 percent of the NHRS annual gross distributions. Those annuitants collecting the portions of their earnings on their contributions as if they were earned when there was instead money lost are now raiding the ever increasing contributions of our current employee NHRS participants. Republicans are in no mood to have their constituency hit with +15 percent cuts to +$50K new pension awards. This all would be judged criminal if it were not a public pension plan. The $4.8 BILLION in current under funding in this Ponzi scheme dwarfs the FRM scandal.
Please Mr. Sanborn, explain to us how any pension OVER $50K not backed by adequate and performing assets, is a pension and not a winning megabucks ticket? Or worse a continuing raid on active employee's pension contributions and taxpayer wallets. Where is money going to come from to just make these 7 percent to 12 percent annual increases in the pension contribution portion of county employee's compensations, now and going into the out years? These pension obligations as CURRENTLY DEFINED are a statutory obligation?
'Thomas Jefferson wrote: "The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to the written law, would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the ends to the means".
Mr. Sanborn, would like to sacrifice the outcome of the recent elections in Belknap County and attempt to sustain what is unsustainable? He would like to see our lives, liberty, and property unreasonably burdened by the further unchecked escalation in the costs of county government? In my opinion, that is NOT how the voters of Belknap County recently voted.
Tim Sullivan
Gilford
I thank Mr. Sanborn for his views on the conduct of the Belknap County Delegation in taking initiatives to control county spending. In his second letter he said; "...every Belknap County voter who participated in the last election indicated a choice for who they wanted to run the county".
'A few weeks ago, you published my letter explaining how Obama needed to do nothing to achieve most of his political agendas on the developing currency and debt crises before the phony deadline of 1/1/13. I explained that the Republicans had actually lost the last election and had no leverage to stop what has now become near $800 billion in revenue enhancements scheduled over the next 10 years. Fortunately the federal government can continue printing money to make up for the other 90 percent of the annual federal deficit spending, that does not address.
So let me remind Mr. Sanborn who won the last election in Belknap County. Regardless of how the rest of the state and the nation went, Belknap County overwhelmingly elected Republicans to the State Legislature. Most who voted for them expected, exclusive of the NHRS pension fiasco, that they would be voting for fiscally conservative agendas. So the delegation in my view is doing what they were elected to do.
Much of what they have to do on total compensations for employees stems from their inability to solve or even have any willingness to EFFECTIVELY address, the failing NHRS Trust Fund funding levels. If you look at the total in increased pension contributions (as cited in The Sun on Jan. 5) projected for this next fiscal year for the City of Laconia you can see that the cost is $35K more for the educators who are near 80 percent of the city work force, than for the rest of the employees of the town. Contribution increases in the current 3-year-plan to increase contributions as a patch on the Retirement Trust Fund go up at approximately twice the rate for what NHRS categorizes as Group 2s vs the salary-only employees as educators, categorized as group 1s. So there are substantial increases to county employees compensations over these last twp years and into the next year when these increases are to continue but then are SUPPOSED to end.
Unfortunately the ratio of Group Twos to Group Ones working at the county level is near an inverse of what the towns have when they count their educators. Even more unfortunate is that the NHRS has over the last 10-15 years lost about 7 percent of the contributions and their pre-2007 earnings in the trust fund of the current annuitants. The annuitants that went on pension +10 years ago are outliving the actuarial longevity expectations of those award dates. The new pensions are not defined to be against what the trust fund will be able to pay but as against their definitions NOT being PROGRESSIVELY reduced to what can be paid. So most of these current higher contributions are paying for what the current pensioners should be getting if the NHRS had earned instead of lost money.
Addressing the NHRS fiascos should be a primary bi-partisan effort by these same delegates of both political parties to the county convention on forming their agendas in Concord.
Mr. Sanborn's group might suppose that the taxpayers are a bottomless pit of money and will eventually have to cough it up for this non-feasance. They are in no mood for PROGRESSIVE cuts to pension awards that would diminish an award of a $12K pension by 2 percent. The Republican's have as their core constituency the annuitants that only make up 20 percent of all annuitants but receive more than 50 percent of the NHRS annual gross distributions. Those annuitants collecting the portions of their earnings on their contributions as if they were earned when there was instead money lost are now raiding the ever increasing contributions of our current employee NHRS participants. Republicans are in no mood to have their constituency hit with +15 percent cuts to +$50K new pension awards. This all would be judged criminal if it were not a public pension plan. The $4.8 BILLION in current under funding in this Ponzi scheme dwarfs the FRM scandal.
Please Mr. Sanborn, explain to us how any pension OVER $50K not backed by adequate and performing assets, is a pension and not a winning megabucks ticket? Or worse a continuing raid on active employee's pension contributions and taxpayer wallets. Where is money going to come from to just make these 7 percent to 12 percent annual increases in the pension contribution portion of county employee's compensations, now and going into the out years? These pension obligations as CURRENTLY DEFINED are a statutory obligation?
'Thomas Jefferson wrote: "The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to the written law, would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the ends to the means".
Mr. Sanborn, would like to sacrifice the outcome of the recent elections in Belknap County and attempt to sustain what is unsustainable? He would like to see our lives, liberty, and property unreasonably burdened by the further unchecked escalation in the costs of county government? In my opinion, that is NOT how the voters of Belknap County recently voted.
Tim Sullivan
Gilford
Last Updated on Tuesday, 19 February 2013 00:21
Hits: 44
More guns and lots of innocent folks are going to be killed & wounded
To the editor,
I hope everyone watched MSNBC Monday night: HUBRIS, the selling of Iraq war. The question to be asked is, WHY are the four Americans killed in Libiya any more important than the hundreds of thousands people killed in Iraq, to include thousands of Americans killed and wounded? This war started on the lies of the Bush Administration and no one was held accountable for it. Hopefully, one of the local Benghazi experts can answer that.
I would like to pose this question to Stephen J. Conkling of Meredith, as his letter in Saturday's Sun seems to have all the answers. The articles written urging people to arm up, carry your weapons to town is ridiculous.What is going to happen is lots of innocent folks are going to get killed and wounded. During my 20 years of service in the U.S. Army, 2.5 years were in Vietnam. My first year was a unit based at Can Tho airfield in the delta. Attached to the unit was a small mortuary that processed dead bodies in the delta area. I give you this much information so you can look up for yourself the sad statistics of everyone carrying a weapon. I searched the web for FRIENDLY FIRE DEATHS IN VIETNAM and you can read the results for yourself. This site may make some of the more level headed folks in the area to think twice before they draw their guns in a crowded area. I will remind you of Pat Tillman,a NFL football player who turned down millions of dollars in football contracts to join the army as a private. He was killed in Afghanistan and awarded the Silver Star for bravery under hostile fire. After a long investigation it was changed to killed by friendly fire.
The lesson i'm preaching here is, don't take your gun to town son, don't take your gun to town. I would also suggest that you read a book written by now Senator Al Franken called "Lies and the Liars Who Tell Them.
Henry Osmer
Hill
I hope everyone watched MSNBC Monday night: HUBRIS, the selling of Iraq war. The question to be asked is, WHY are the four Americans killed in Libiya any more important than the hundreds of thousands people killed in Iraq, to include thousands of Americans killed and wounded? This war started on the lies of the Bush Administration and no one was held accountable for it. Hopefully, one of the local Benghazi experts can answer that.
I would like to pose this question to Stephen J. Conkling of Meredith, as his letter in Saturday's Sun seems to have all the answers. The articles written urging people to arm up, carry your weapons to town is ridiculous.What is going to happen is lots of innocent folks are going to get killed and wounded. During my 20 years of service in the U.S. Army, 2.5 years were in Vietnam. My first year was a unit based at Can Tho airfield in the delta. Attached to the unit was a small mortuary that processed dead bodies in the delta area. I give you this much information so you can look up for yourself the sad statistics of everyone carrying a weapon. I searched the web for FRIENDLY FIRE DEATHS IN VIETNAM and you can read the results for yourself. This site may make some of the more level headed folks in the area to think twice before they draw their guns in a crowded area. I will remind you of Pat Tillman,a NFL football player who turned down millions of dollars in football contracts to join the army as a private. He was killed in Afghanistan and awarded the Silver Star for bravery under hostile fire. After a long investigation it was changed to killed by friendly fire.
The lesson i'm preaching here is, don't take your gun to town son, don't take your gun to town. I would also suggest that you read a book written by now Senator Al Franken called "Lies and the Liars Who Tell Them.
Henry Osmer
Hill
Last Updated on Tuesday, 19 February 2013 00:13
Hits: 251
Hassan's budget assumes millions from non-existent source
To the editor,
One might think there are other more important things to discuss but in this state we have been presented with a serious issue by a governor whom it seems cares little about governing. Presenting a budget which assumes revenue from a source which doesn't exist — $50 million from licensing a gambling establishment, on the premise that adjacent states are doing it and so should ours. First, my mother would have said, "just because they're are jumping off a cliff it doesn't mean you need to". Second, it is a sell-out of the people, it is an addiction of the worst kind, and the "profits" from it go out of state, any income to the state will be less than the cost to the lives of those living here. Third, a governor in the real world "ideally" would seek to maintain stability rather than spin wildly. N.H. was first with lottery tickets, its 2012 revenue, $66,922,642, is less than $212 million from the tax on cigarettes; but to the states credit it takes the profit not some self serving private interest.
Lyndon B. Johnson started "The Great Society" but died January 1973 at 64 years of age, if he'd lived another 20 years he may have realized the disaster. His "War on Poverty" began with a $1 billion appropriation in 1964, according to Rector of the Heritage Foundation; government has spent $19.8 trillion (in inflation-adjusted 2011 dollars) since. Now we've a president wanting to save the "Middle Class". A family of four poverty level in 1964 was $3,600. Middle income range was $4,000 to $9,000. Median income today is $50,054 to $101,582. There are not enough trillions of dollars to "save" the middle class even in half the time the Federal Government saved the poor.
We "the people" must relearn what was learned before, government can't save anything. Governments only know how to spend and today spend by taxing future taxpayers whose parents aren't even born yet.
That is slavery carried to its extreme. We were given a model with which to govern ourselves, it was written by men of conscience, at least at that moment. The idea was that people could govern themselves, that individual states could govern themselves and "United" states could survive as a nation. Presidents and other government officials swear to uphold the constitution and then immediately seek to usurp it with the "new" ideas or a means to deal with a crisis.
Just a note: I am happy to be living in one of five counties in all of New England, three which are in New Hampshire, that voted Republican (which is as close to a conservative administration as we could get).
G.W. Brooks
Meredith
One might think there are other more important things to discuss but in this state we have been presented with a serious issue by a governor whom it seems cares little about governing. Presenting a budget which assumes revenue from a source which doesn't exist — $50 million from licensing a gambling establishment, on the premise that adjacent states are doing it and so should ours. First, my mother would have said, "just because they're are jumping off a cliff it doesn't mean you need to". Second, it is a sell-out of the people, it is an addiction of the worst kind, and the "profits" from it go out of state, any income to the state will be less than the cost to the lives of those living here. Third, a governor in the real world "ideally" would seek to maintain stability rather than spin wildly. N.H. was first with lottery tickets, its 2012 revenue, $66,922,642, is less than $212 million from the tax on cigarettes; but to the states credit it takes the profit not some self serving private interest.
Lyndon B. Johnson started "The Great Society" but died January 1973 at 64 years of age, if he'd lived another 20 years he may have realized the disaster. His "War on Poverty" began with a $1 billion appropriation in 1964, according to Rector of the Heritage Foundation; government has spent $19.8 trillion (in inflation-adjusted 2011 dollars) since. Now we've a president wanting to save the "Middle Class". A family of four poverty level in 1964 was $3,600. Middle income range was $4,000 to $9,000. Median income today is $50,054 to $101,582. There are not enough trillions of dollars to "save" the middle class even in half the time the Federal Government saved the poor.
We "the people" must relearn what was learned before, government can't save anything. Governments only know how to spend and today spend by taxing future taxpayers whose parents aren't even born yet.
That is slavery carried to its extreme. We were given a model with which to govern ourselves, it was written by men of conscience, at least at that moment. The idea was that people could govern themselves, that individual states could govern themselves and "United" states could survive as a nation. Presidents and other government officials swear to uphold the constitution and then immediately seek to usurp it with the "new" ideas or a means to deal with a crisis.
Just a note: I am happy to be living in one of five counties in all of New England, three which are in New Hampshire, that voted Republican (which is as close to a conservative administration as we could get).
G.W. Brooks
Meredith
Last Updated on Tuesday, 19 February 2013 00:08
Hits: 103
I ask for your support for election to the Alton School Board
To the editor,
Vote Carlos Martinez for Alton School Board.
Many residents may not know Rep. Jane Cormier is my lovely wife. Since politics now runs deep in our family, (we are still not sure this is a good thing...), I have decided to run for an open seat on the Alton School Board. Having spent the last 16 years of my life as a certified Music Teacher in our Live Free or Die state, I believe I can offer a unique opinion on the School Board here in Alton.
As an Alton resident for over 15 years, and a small business owner, I understand financial issues facing our communities. Voters should know I am a fiscal conservative and will work toward a balanced approach as a member of the Alton School Board.
If you would like to chat, I will be spending some time at the Alton Transfer Station on Feb. 24 and March 3, Sunday from 1 p.m. – 3:30 pm. Being a Texan, these cold days can be a real humdinger, but I will be out there ready to meet you and possibly answer any questions you may have.
March 12 is an important day for our community. And I ask for your support as member of the Alton School Board.
Senor Luis Carlos Carvajal Garcia Alvarez Gonzalez Martinez el Segundo de San Antonio, Jr.
Alton
Vote Carlos Martinez for Alton School Board.
Many residents may not know Rep. Jane Cormier is my lovely wife. Since politics now runs deep in our family, (we are still not sure this is a good thing...), I have decided to run for an open seat on the Alton School Board. Having spent the last 16 years of my life as a certified Music Teacher in our Live Free or Die state, I believe I can offer a unique opinion on the School Board here in Alton.
As an Alton resident for over 15 years, and a small business owner, I understand financial issues facing our communities. Voters should know I am a fiscal conservative and will work toward a balanced approach as a member of the Alton School Board.
If you would like to chat, I will be spending some time at the Alton Transfer Station on Feb. 24 and March 3, Sunday from 1 p.m. – 3:30 pm. Being a Texan, these cold days can be a real humdinger, but I will be out there ready to meet you and possibly answer any questions you may have.
March 12 is an important day for our community. And I ask for your support as member of the Alton School Board.
Senor Luis Carlos Carvajal Garcia Alvarez Gonzalez Martinez el Segundo de San Antonio, Jr.
Alton
Last Updated on Tuesday, 19 February 2013 00:04
Hits: 131
Might government violate our rights? Ask Japanese Americans
To the editor,
So many letters from liberals, so much misinformation; impossible to correct it all.
Ray Corliss apparently thinks a six-shot revolver is an "assault weapon." That's the gun used to shoot Ronald Reagan. No one's gun control proposals (not yet anyway) will take away six-shot revolvers although hand guns were used in 70 percent of all gun murders (rifles which includes the "assault weapons" banned in 1994 accounted for less than 4 percent of gun murders).
Corliss, L.J. Siden and others keep suggesting that the NRA and Second Amendment rights advocates want automatic (assault or otherwise) weapons, M-16s and other automatic capable weapons. Where is the evidence for this? These assertions are false.
Corliss and other liberals keep repeating the ridiculous claim that gun rights supporters want to take Secret Service protection from the president. Of course that is false, the president needs protection, but so do other people. According to census data 13,756 people were murdered in 2009. How many of those were presidents, other politicians or rich people with armed protection? Two? One? None?
Almost all victims were law abiding people like you and me. Don't we deserve to live also? Shouldn't we have the right to defend ourselves from criminals?
Is there any evidence that President Obama's or Senator Feinstein's proposals will stop criminals from getting guns with which to commit crimes? Will criminals and the criminally insane comply with these regulations and submit to "universal registration"? No. And, our politicians are not even enforcing current gun laws or ensuring maximum penalties for people who use guns to commit crimes.
Is there a reason to fear government power? In the 20th Century, more than 250 MILLION people, many still trusting their governments, were murdered by their own governments. This is easier if citizens can't fight back.
Might our government violate American citizens' rights? Ask Japanese Americans about the WWII internment camps. Ask New Orleans home owners whose homes were invaded after Katrina, who were mistreated, who had loaded real assault weapons pointed at them by American soldiers, and whose legal weapons were confiscated so they were not able to defend themselves from criminals. See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf8trl69kzo and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-taU9d26wT4
Only law abiding citizens will comply with President Obama's or Senator Feinstein's gun control proposals if they become law, and that will just make more innocent people vulnerable to criminals with guns. For a safer world, curtail the rights of criminals, not of law abiding citizens.
Don Ewing
Meredith
So many letters from liberals, so much misinformation; impossible to correct it all.
Ray Corliss apparently thinks a six-shot revolver is an "assault weapon." That's the gun used to shoot Ronald Reagan. No one's gun control proposals (not yet anyway) will take away six-shot revolvers although hand guns were used in 70 percent of all gun murders (rifles which includes the "assault weapons" banned in 1994 accounted for less than 4 percent of gun murders).
Corliss, L.J. Siden and others keep suggesting that the NRA and Second Amendment rights advocates want automatic (assault or otherwise) weapons, M-16s and other automatic capable weapons. Where is the evidence for this? These assertions are false.
Corliss and other liberals keep repeating the ridiculous claim that gun rights supporters want to take Secret Service protection from the president. Of course that is false, the president needs protection, but so do other people. According to census data 13,756 people were murdered in 2009. How many of those were presidents, other politicians or rich people with armed protection? Two? One? None?
Almost all victims were law abiding people like you and me. Don't we deserve to live also? Shouldn't we have the right to defend ourselves from criminals?
Is there any evidence that President Obama's or Senator Feinstein's proposals will stop criminals from getting guns with which to commit crimes? Will criminals and the criminally insane comply with these regulations and submit to "universal registration"? No. And, our politicians are not even enforcing current gun laws or ensuring maximum penalties for people who use guns to commit crimes.
Is there a reason to fear government power? In the 20th Century, more than 250 MILLION people, many still trusting their governments, were murdered by their own governments. This is easier if citizens can't fight back.
Might our government violate American citizens' rights? Ask Japanese Americans about the WWII internment camps. Ask New Orleans home owners whose homes were invaded after Katrina, who were mistreated, who had loaded real assault weapons pointed at them by American soldiers, and whose legal weapons were confiscated so they were not able to defend themselves from criminals. See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf8trl69kzo and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-taU9d26wT4
Only law abiding citizens will comply with President Obama's or Senator Feinstein's gun control proposals if they become law, and that will just make more innocent people vulnerable to criminals with guns. For a safer world, curtail the rights of criminals, not of law abiding citizens.
Don Ewing
Meredith
Last Updated on Monday, 18 February 2013 23:57
Hits: 48
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