Wayne Snow

To the editor,

On town meeting day March 9, 2004 you will find a question on the official ballot, of both the town and the school, asking you if you are in favor of adopting RSA40:14 better known as SB2. I respectfully request that you vote NO on these questions.

Before you take on something new you should ask yourself, "What is it going to do for Gilford"? The answer is absolutely nothing. There are 236 towns in the State of New Hampshire but only 50 have adopted SB2. Two towns rescinded SB2 after they had adopted it. If SB2 is so good why have only 50 towns adopted it? This alone should tell you something.

The special interests will tell you how great this is and that it will increase voter participation and that people on vacation will be able to vote absentee. Yes it will increase voter turnout but only about 10-15 percent. If this increased voter turnout by 75-80 percent this would be something. Yes, absentees can vote on warrant articles. We have 4,923 residents on the voter list. In the town elections we usually have 12 to 18 absentee ballots. Wolfboro's absentee ballots actually went down after adopting SB2.

The foregoing means that 4,900 of you voters will have to change your ways to accommodate a dozen or so who are on vacation to their other homes in Florida, the Bahamas, St. Thomas, the Barbados, etc. These are the more affluent of the town that can afford to spend the winter at their other home. When most of us who can afford a vacation we usually look at the calendar and work our vacation around important dates and events to us. If voting is the most important events to these vacationers then let them fly home to vote. They must be able to afford it. Mr. Ed Chertok used to fly home from Florida to attend his County Commissioner's Meetings. That's dedication.

The Town of Atkinson, which is about the same size as Gilford, voted to go to SB2 and the cost of running the so-called town meeting increased from $3,000 plus to $16,000 plus. Many towns didn't even have a quorum at the deliberative session, as called for by their charter, so the proposed budget flew right by to the voting booth, where you can only vote YES or NO. Many town budgets go straight through the deliberative sessions due to poor attendance. This year New Hampton had 35 at their deliberative session, Wolfeboro had 70 of which one-half were town employees. Seabrook didn't have a quorum so no business could be conducted, so the budget went straight through. Newfields had only 12 at the District School Meeting. When the special interest group presented the petitioned article to the selectmen the petitioners complained that only 300 attended our 2003 town meeting which was consumed by special interest groups. I will agree that the special interests took complete control of the meeting, as they were really organized, and spent $78,000 more than the budget committee had recommended for articles that had no merit but 300 attendees is far better than one dozen or so.

One of the biggest complaints heard from the SB2 voters is that the deliberative sessions are too far away from the voting date and they have forgotten what the budgets were about. While having coffee one morning I asked my friend next to me, who had preached SB2 to me for some time, "Do you remember what the police budget is this year?" He said "No I don't." So I asked him, "Do you remember what the fire department is?" Again he said "No I don't?"

I said, "Under your SB2 you would be voting on the town's appropriations and you have no idea what you'd be voting on." It makes no difterence if voter turnout is higher if the voter is uninformed as to what he/she is voting on. I would rather have fewer informed voters than more uninformed voters. The towns of Milford and North Conway found that their voters were uninformed, because of SB2, so they put together and mailed out a "Voters Guide" in hopes of informing the voters, which cost them $32,000 each. Attendance went up about 15 percent. The other 85 percent went into the garbage.

The University of New Hampshire made a study of the Traditional Town Meeting as compared to the SB2. This study found that under SB2 the voters are very uninformed and have been known to spend up to 40 minutes in the voting booth. The state has authorized SB2 towns to install extra voting booths to handle the lines waiting to vote. Normally the law calls for one booth for every 125 voters on the checklist. The study also found that SB2 towns spend more money than the traditional town meetings. It appears that due to the lack of attendance at the SB2 deliberative sessions tbat the special interest groups manipulate the budgets to suit themselves. Remember all the additions, changes, amendments, etc. are dooe at the deliberation session under SB2 so when you get to vote you simply vote YES or NO.

The special interests will tell you that the SB2 voter does become informed but in reality he/she only gets the special interests or the neighbors version of the budget item. In the traditional town meeting we deliberate, we hear the facts, we make changes and amendments and that is followed by an immediate vote by voice or by ballot, if requested.

A few years ago I developed a way to vote by secret ballot on all of the warrant articles at the town meeting; I feel that a secret ballot is the only way to get the voters true feelings but it all fell on deaf ears. People should be willing to take a couple of hours per year to come to town meeting and listen to how and why your taxes are being spent. This session sets the tax rates up or down. Spend more and you're taxed more.

Please come out and vote at the Middle School.

See you at the polls.

Wayne Snow

Gilford