Don Milbrand: Points to consider when voting in Newfound election

To The Daily Sun,

Newfound School District taxpayers, please consider a few things when voting this year.

First vote yes on Article 5. We need to pay our teachers properly.

Second vote no on Articles 6, 7 and 8. I agree with saving energy, but this is not the correct time or plan. We can consider energy saving plans with the needed building changes that are coming and not committing ourselves to $8.4 million now. Also, we do not know if this is the best approach for these projects. When asked at the deliberative session, the school board answered that they did not look for alternative bids.

In my opinion, they ignored fiscal responsibility and chose this lease purchase arrangement for purely political reasons because to paraphrase, "A lease purchase only needs a 50% vote to approve but a bond requires a 60% vote." They state that the payments will only be partially funded by energy saving. So, the return on investment relies on getting “anticipated rebates." Rebates are being phased out by the federal government.

Are taxpayers willing to gamble with their money? Plus, the rebates are only for the first year, there are 19 more years of payments with no rebates. Additionally consider that for Article 4 there are serious cuts required without increasing the budget by $1.2 million. How can we justify adding another $500,000 in spending on top of that? Let’s spend the money on the students, not on giving profits to an energy company.

Finally, please vote no on Article 10. If the tax cap is removed, the taxpayers will have no control over spending allowing the school board to spend as much of taxpayers' money as they want to.

Don Milbrand

Bristol