By KATHARINE WEBSTER, InDepthNH.org
Plaistow, N.H. – The taxpayer revolt came to Timberlane Regional School District on Feb. 6, at the end of a winter storm that had closed the schools for the day.
Hundreds of angry homeowners from Danville, Sandown, Atkinson and Plaistow drove on icy roads to the Timberlane Performing Arts Center that evening, on a mission to cut and cap their property taxes.
They succeeded in one and failed in the other during a deliberative session that ran until nearly midnight.
The leaders of the tax-cutters had been organizing for more than a year, going to school board and budget committee meetings and filing right-to-know requests, then meeting to map out strategies. They rallied supporters in Facebook groups, including SpeakOutTimberlane and Timberlane School Tax Impact Discussion Group.
All day that Thursday, as they waited to see if the district would postpone the session because of sleet and freezing rain, they pleaded with their supporters to turn out in force.
They did. The voter check-in lines were so long that the deliberative session began 40 minutes late. As voters from the four towns trickled into the auditorium, the tax-cutters clustered near the microphones at the front of each aisle. They silenced their cellphones but kept Messenger open so they could coordinate their actions.
They had clearly planned who would offer amendments to the operating budget and other warrant articles that they had placed on the ballot themselves. Those included an article that would cap annual school budget increases at 2.5 percent, like Massachusetts’ Prop 2½.
Such caps, as well as caps on per-pupil spending, are permitted under a new state law. But so far, at most school district deliberative sessions around the state, voters have amended them to be much higher. Such spending caps must be approved by 60 percent of voters and take inflation into account.
At Timberlane, the tax-cutters tackled the operating budget first, and at times, it was hard to tell who was running the show: the moderator, who was on stage with the school board members, budget committee chair and district administrators, or the apparent leader of the opposition.
That was Sheila Lowes, a former school board member from Sandown with thick graying hair and glasses. Lowes stood at the righthand mic the whole night, yielding the floor to her fellow tax-cutters one at a time like a bandleader giving the nod to a series of soloists.
She rarely commented herself, but sometimes shouted out answers to other voters’ questions before the moderator or school board members could respond.
School budget committee chair Elizabeth Kosta presented the proposed operating budget of $88.6 million – more than 3 percent lower than last year’s budget, despite the rising costs of teacher pay and benefits, school buses, heating, construction and repairs.
Budget committee and board members said the district was able to realize some savings by not filling 17 vacant positions and hiring more special education staff, so that students needing services could be educated in-district instead of being sent to expensive schools elsewhere.
The tax-cutters claimed, correctly, that the board had over-budgeted by $16 million last year. With less evidence, they claimed that the district had been “forced” to return it in the form of lower property tax bills “because they couldn’t spend it fast enough to hide it.”
Some context: The Timberlane district sits on the border with Massachusetts, and property values and median incomes are higher than average for New Hampshire because of that. A great many residents moved here for more affordable housing and to escape “Taxachusetts,” yet a sizeable number still pay Massachusetts income tax as well as New Hampshire property taxes because they work in the Bay State. The district leans heavily Republican.
A few minutes’ drive away in Massachusetts, teachers can earn up to $35,000 more per year, and most nearby New Hampshire districts pay their teachers better. Yet teachers in the Timberlane District went without raises for years because the school board and taxpayers wouldn’t approve a new contract. Many experienced teachers left, and students’ standardized test scores have fallen below the state average.
The school-age population is shrinking, as it is across the state, while the number of elderly residents is rising. (One speaker said that 32 percent of Plaistow residents are now over 55 and that they shouldn’t have to pay higher taxes to “support less than 20 percent of the population” who are students. Others said that seniors on fixed incomes were in danger of losing their homes because of rising taxes.)
Meantime, the district is paying more tuition to the Salem School District for high school students who want to attend its vocational and technical programs. It’s also losing state aid for students whose parents can get vouchers for private and religious school tuition or home-schooling.
At the deliberative session, the tax-cutters skewed Baby Boomer, and they vastly outnumbered the parents of school-age children.
So when school board member Shauna Manthorn, of Plaistow, invited voters to view their school taxes “not as a burden, but as an investment in our students and our neighbors” who work as teachers and staff, she got a cool reception.
And when Timberlane Superintendent Justin Krieger tried to present basic budget information, the tax-cutters shouted him down and made a motion to prevent him from speaking at all. The motion passed, although later the moderator allowed him to respond briefly to a question about full-day kindergarten.
The budget committee’s narrow, 5-4 vote to approve the proposed operating budget further undermined the board’s budget.
Kosta defended the proposed operating budget as necessary to prevent further cuts to staff and programs, but vice chair Karen White, of Sandown, who had voted against it, said she thought the number could be trimmed further.
Mid-debate, school board member Jack Sapia, of Atkinson, proposed an amendment to cut the budget by $2.2 million, to $86.4 million. As murmurs rose among the tax-cutting crowd, Lowes quietly instructed them to vote for it, assuring them there were plans to slash it further. Sapia’s amendment passed.
Then Ryan Labrecque, a candidate for select board in Plaistow who wore a T-shirt with the slogan “Milk cows, not taxpayers,” accused Sapia of offering his amendment “as a sacrificial lamb, knowing the temperature of the room.” And the tax-cutters proposed an amendment to cut the budget by another $4.5 million, to $81.9 million.
School board members argued that number would not allow the district to meet its contractual obligations of $83 million, let alone cover the $5.6 million needed for custodial services, construction and repairs. Some of the latter had been postponed by previous school boards even as costs rose 40 percent, Sapia said.
“Let’s not keep making the same mistakes over and over again,” he pleaded.
The tax-cutters scoffed, jumping in to debate directly with board members. But they did step aside for pleas by teachers, paraprofessionals and tearful parents not to cut the budget further.
The tax-cutters argued that they could show the board where to make cuts, and former school board and Atkinson select board member Brian Boyle urged voters not to buy into the board’s “scare tactics,” arguing that the district could have a responsible budget and still offer a good education.
“I want to make it crystal clear to every employee in this room: No one’s going to be eliminated,” he said. “I want people to understand here: Their jobs are safe.”
The tax-cutters’ amendment passed, 278-174.
They debated another article that, while costing nothing, would pave the way for the district to offer free, full-day kindergarten starting in 2027, if voters approved the money in future budgets.
“For the cost of five dozen eggs per taxpayer per year, we could offer full-day kindergarten,” said former school board member Michael Boucher, of Atkinson, the main speaker in support of the board’s work.
But the tax-cutters, tired of Boucher’s comments and questions, first voted to limit speakers to two minutes apiece and then voted against full-day kindergarten.
By the time the warrant article proposing a 2.5 percent annual cap on local property tax increases came up for a vote, it was nearly 11 p.m., and many people had left.
The momentum shifted, as school board members and parents fought back, adopting the tax-cutters’ tactics.
Kosta, the budget committee chair, offered an amendment to raise the cap to 5 percent and make it “advisory” instead of mandatory.
Nolan Pelletier, a former chair of the New Hampshire Libertarian Party and candidate for budget committee in Plaistow, argued that the amendment would “gut” the measure. But Kosta’s amendment failed by only two votes, 134-136.
School board member Mark Sherwood, of Sandown, then proposed an amendment raising the cap to 8 percent. That failed too, but it was close: 132-140.
Lowes called the question on the 2.5 percent tax cap and was immediately seconded by Pelletier. But the moderator recognized Brian Stack, a Plaistow resident who is superintendent of the Fremont School District and won the state’s Principal of the Year Award while at Sanborn Regional High School.
Stack had been patiently waiting to speak. The tax-cutters argued for an immediate vote, but the moderator stood firm, pointing out that voters had adopted his rules, including allowing anyone waiting to speak to do so before a vote.
Stack proposed an amendment to establish a committee to study the feasibility and impact of a 2.5 percent tax cap. Shouldn’t we hit the pause button, he asked?
“This is a big decision we’re making in this community right now; there’s a lot of things on the line,” Stack said. “We’ve already figured out what’s happening for next year. What’s the harm in studying this?”
His amendment passed, 149-124, to cheers and applause.
After that, most voters left and the session moved quickly. Two petition articles to end the district’s $25 million agreement with a contractor to improve and repair the district’s schools were deemed problematic. One was amended to be advisory and the district legal counsel said the other would actually add money to the budget. An amendment to clarify it failed.
The tax-cutters scored one more victory. There was virtually no debate on a warrant article that would take away the district’s ability to retain a fund balance of 5 percent for unexpected expenses. The state recommends that towns and districts maintain a margin of 5 to 15 percent.
The next day, the tax-cutters were celebrating on Facebook, while acknowledging that they still had work to do. But the pushback had already begun.
“Children First. Support our schools and VOTE NO on Article 2,” the stripped-down budget, one Facebook user posted on Friends of Education at Timberlane. He was joined by others showing children and educators under the banner, “We are not a number.”
If voters agree with them on March 11, the district will revert to the default budget: $89.8 million, $1.2 million higher than the one the board proposed. And they will avoid an emergency meeting to vote on a supplemental budget if the district runs out of money.
It’s going to be close. Stay tuned.