Reasons for not recommending LRMHC funding are wrong

To The Daily Sun,

At the recent Gilford town meeting budget session, a warrant article was presented (and recommended) to provide funding in the town budget for the Lakes Region Mental Health Center. The arguments against doing this, as I understood them, were twofold. First was that LRMHC is a charity, and should therefore be funded by individual charitable contributions rather than by non-voluntary taxpayer contributions. Second, somewhat related to the first, was that, if LRMHC wanted to be included in the town budget, it should be subject to the same detailed budget review that other town departments receive.

While both these arguments are attractive at first blush, I disagree with them. The first argument confuses two distinct entities: a charity and a nonprofit agency. They are simply not the same animals. They serve different purposes and are organized completely differently.

The second argument makes sense until one realizes that the agency serves 28 (if I remember) localities in our part of the world. I agree their operations and finances should be available for examination, but feel that some more streamlined process could be made available.

As a Budget Committee member, I regret not bringing these points up at the meeting, but I hope you will consider them before voting on the warrant article.

Johan Andersen

Gilford