Doing more and more of the Town’s business behind closed doors opens it up for more inefficiency, less checks and balances, more cronyism and potentially corruption. We strongly suggest that the Selectmen and Town Manager ...

“It was determined that one ballot which was counted as a blank by the Accuvote machine was deemed that the voter’s intent was a yes vote thereby adding one vote yes to the total tally creating .....

We see this as yet another example of back room dealings that set a bad precedent and represent the unacceptable role that cronyism is playing in the management of Town affairs.

The cost of the renovation and expansion adds $4,000 to $5,000 a year, each year, for the next 25 years to the per pupil cost of educating a Hampton Academy student; this is excessive and insensitive to taxpayers.

In 2013, NESDEC enrollment projections were used as supporting information for the $588,000 expansion of Center School. However, actual enrollments have declined even faster than those projections and school administrators are planning to use vacant space at Center School to temporarily house the SAU90 Administrative offices.

On a financial level, since 2001 the SAU90 cost per pupil has more than doubled from $7,342 to $15,769 in 2016, way beyond general inflation. This is based on information published by the State of NH Department of Education. If the Academy renovation and expansion is approved

Hampton’s long term debt will more than double

As we get closer to the March election there are several warrant articles that Rational Taxpayers of Hampton are vehemently opposed to. After factoring in the interest expense associated with proposed bonds, the overall request is to authorize $50 million of additional spending for 2017. This amount of new spending is incomprehensible to us given that this is essentially equal to Hampton’s total property taxes collected last year. To be clear, property taxes will not double in 2017, but Hampton’s long term debt will more than double.

Upon reviewing this report (“IT ENVIRONMENT REVIEW REPORT”),... I am APPALLED at the outcome.

We wouldn’t be surprised to see an attempt orchestrated by surrogates to the Selectmen to eliminate the Budget Committee in conjunction with a 2017 Warrant Article, all part of an effort to reduce accountability and to concentrate more power with the Board of Selectmen.

The majority of the Operating budget increase is payroll related, in many cases driven by unnecessarily generous wage increases, including several salary increases which were in the 5% to 10% range. It can be characterized as “Death by 1000 cuts” as approximately $700,000 in increases is spread across 75 wage and benefit line items with a median line item increase of 4.3%. Six overtime lines across several departments increased collectively by $110,000. This is particularly disturbing given that actual spending on overtime had already increased from $1.2 million in 2013 to $1.5 million in 2015. Overtime is a significant factor driving up pension benefits. Is it really necessary to increase overtime by 35% or 40% over a 4-year period?