Petitioner reach magic number

With a day to spare petitioners seeking to add a tax cap to the City Charter collected the 406 signatures required to place the proposal on the general election ballot in November.

The tax cap would limit the authority of the City Council to increase spending from year to year at a pace greater than the general rate of inflation — plus some credit for the value of new construction.

The Daily Sun has estimated that had the tax cap proposal been in effect when the current city and school budgets were adopted in April, about $1-million in spending would have have had to have been trimmed. The total amount to be raised by property taxes in Laconia for 2005-2006 is about $31-million.

Niel Young, the local radio personality and political activist who spearheaded the petition drive, said last night that petitioners had reached their goal of 20 percent of the total number of ballots cast in the last municipal election two years ago. However, Young said that to ensure against the prospect that some of the signatories, all of whom must be registered voters in the city, may be disqualified, he intends to continue collecting signatures today, hoping to corral as many as 500.

Only Roland Maheu among the four candidates for mayor signed the petition. However, two of the three candidates for City Council in Ward 5 — Bob Hamel and Kyril Mitchell — were signatories along with three other candidates for council — Judy Krahulec (Ward 1), Mike Verhoeks (Ward 4) and Armand Bolduc (Ward 6).

Before the amendment to the City Charter to include a tax cap can be placed on the ballot the wording must be approved by the New Hampshire Secretary of State, Attorney General and Commissioner of the Department of Revenue Administration. A simple majority of the electorate is required to amend the charter.