Hillary Seeger: Laconia property taxes help educate next generation

To The Daily Sun,

Recently I read a letter to the editor bemoaning the property taxes of a lakeside community. "Taxation without representation, we have our own garbage service" (which uses the Laconia Dump by the way), on and on. To the resident who doesn't want to pay for schools "because we only have 5 children there": They have access to 4,000 linear feet of shoreline on Lake Winnipesaukee through adverse possession of a state right of way. I will never discount the amount of hard work they do however, I will say there are many families and couples who make Laconia their primary residence and only 10% of the year-round population attend school. There are a lot of people just trying to make ends meet for their primary residence. They should be happy that many of them have the luxury of being able to afford a second home (the taxation without representation makes me think it's a second home) while some can't even afford a first one. Frankly, I support a homestead exemption where people would get a tax break on their primary residence and vacation homes and investment properties would be taxed at a higher rate. Additionally, as a person whose children are no longer in school, I appreciate the fact that if I want doctors, electricians, and an educated society in the future and for myself as I age, education is important. Do I think taxes are too high? Yes, there is waste and that needs to be addressed. But their lakefront community with an adverse possession of state land is not where the revenue needs to be cut.

Hillary Seeger

Alexandria