Aldrich's votes guided by extremist libertarian ideology

To The Daily Sun,

In the run up to the election November 6, I ask all eligible voters from Gilford and Meredith to be sure to select your state rep candidates, and select them carefully.

Representative Aldrich of Gilford has branded himself as “frugal.” This is code for being part of the Free State movement. It means he has voted extremist libertarian ideology on several occasions. His frugality has cost you more money on the back end but he and the other free staters Vadney, Silber, Sewer Sylvia and Abear get to claim they kept a lid on spending. A prime example:

Earlier this year Rep Aldrich, along with Silber, et al., reduced the county budget by $92,000. Yahoo, you say. That is a 0.3 percent cut.

The cut they made was a 41 percent cut to the successful CORE program. CORE is the program that helps people avoid opioid addiction. Mr. Aldrich didn’t offer a better way of solving this issue and I don’t recall getting a rebate check in the mail.

What is the bigger picture here? How much expense was incurred by town fire departments responding to those that were not helped due to these cuts? Police time? Our courts? Lost work time by loved ones having to deal with addiction, children’s services needed for the kids with an addicted parent? I am pretty sure that would add up to far more than $92,000 this year and it will continue for years to come.

Most alarmingly stupid, was that the $92,000 was moved from CORE to fill in the budget for staffing the prison. Do they know that almost 90 percent of the inmates at county prison have substance abuse problems? No, because they don’t talk to the superintendent of the prison.

When do we stop the cycle of addiction and imprisonment? When we stop buying into rusty, broken down slogans and commit to doing the hard work of solving a problem permanently.

I am running to be your state rep so I can lower my taxes by responsible decision making and budgeting. I will address issues like the opioid crisis head on and with a view to the overall impacts and costs to taxpayers. Please vote for me.

Diane Hanley

Gilford