Doug Robinson: What is the real price of the nonprofit failures in Laconia?

To The Daily Sun,

When nonprofits fail, cities like Laconia are left holding the bag. We rely on these organizations to support our most vulnerable — those facing addiction, homelessness, and mental illness. But when they collapse due to mismanagement, lost grants, or a refusal to collaborate, the burden doesn’t fall on federal agencies. It falls on us: local taxpayers, first responders, and the people who needed help most.

Laconia doesn’t write the checks for their operating budgets, but every time a program fails, a shelter closes, or a service disappears, we’re left footing the cleanup bill. Police and EMS become the default crisis response team, handling overdoses, encampment cleanups, and mental health emergencies — tasks that should be managed by nonprofits that failed our city. Hospitals absorb the cost of uncompensated care and pass it on to us through higher insurance premiums. And when nonprofits disappear, the city scrambles to fill the gaps, diverting funds from our roads, our schools, and infrastructure to emergency shelter and sanitation. We pay that price in potholes, delayed repairs, and lost civic momentum.

Too many nonprofits operate alone, chasing the same grants and avoiding accountability. When they fail, they hurt the entire city. Laconia becomes the default service hub while surrounding towns contribute little. Disorder rises in our parks and trails. Public trust erodes. And taxpayers are left asking: where did our money go?

We must get every nonprofit operating in Laconia to be accountable. We need county and state partners to share the financial load. And we deserve transparency — real data on police hours, diverted municipal dollars, and the true cost of failure. Laconia deserves better than cleanup duty. Let’s stop paying for failure — Laconia needs results.

Doug Robinson

Laconia