Gary Burton: Funding for necessary services is falling to municipalities

To The Daily Sun,

It seems that federal officials are intent on making “big” government smaller. Many believe the federal government is too involved in the everyday lives of citizens across the country and even in distant places. For some, providing aid to people in foreign countries doesn’t make sense when we have no shortage of problems at home. I disagree. Since January, the federal government has been downsizing or going out of certain businesses here and around the globe. USAID and the Department of Education are good examples.

Thus, we have less federal government, fewer federal employees, and far fewer resources and services that are paid for with federal tax dollars. The 50 states have been told that if they want services that were previously paid for by the federal government such as FEMA, they should fund them. In short, the funding burden for many services has shifted from the federal level to the states.

State governors and others are telling locally elected officials that if a community or county wants something like good schools or expanded mental health care services, local taxpayers should pay for them. The funding burden is again on the move, from the state to local communities.

Not all states are financially equal, but most have multiple resources to draw upon. The three major ones are income, sales, and property taxes. New Hampshire relies almost exclusively on property taxes. Other state taxes such as those on liquor, rooms and meals, highway tolls, etc. help, but it’s primarily property taxes that determine the quality of life or provided services in NH.

It should concern all NH citizens that they are truly at the mercy of local property taxpayers. Worse yet, it appears that federal and state elected officials won’t be of much help to us in the months ahead; that’s really troubling.

Gary Burton

Meredith