School
2 Seats School Board Members for 3 year term
Robert Louf (only vote for Robert Louf)

Town
(2 seats) Selectmen for 3 year term
Thomas Keane
Rick Hiland

2 Budget Committee for 3 year term
James Hoffman (Only vote for Jim Hoffman)

1 Trustee of Trust Funds for 3 year term
Robert R. Blanchette Jr.

1 Supervisor of Checklist for 6 year term
Susan Stevens

1 Moderator for 2 year term
Peter Imse

Feel free to discuss the poll here.

TEA Parties nation-wide have found that calling, writing, and showing up in person in D.C. has the same impact as a hiccup in a hurricane. After turning out thousands of citizens at rallies, overwhelming the Senate phone lines and crashing Congress’ e-mail system, our elected representatives are poised to enact the greatest expansion of government in history. The TEA Parties followed the direction of national organizations and associations. They answered the call, but were sent over the trench-line without an actual plan or support. (See, for example, Somme, Battle of) It is time for the TEA Party movement to turn inward. In the words of the age-old adage, “ All politics is local “.

Read More…

Dear Chair Persons and Members of the Town Budget Committee, Bow Area District School Board and Board of Selectmen respectively:

Please take into account the Nation’s current catastrophic economic and financial circumstances and the Township of Bow’s directly related decline in economic well being, to include real estate values:

- Millions of Americans out of work – Bow is included
- Millions of retirees’ lifetime savings/retirement portfolios reduced by > 40%
- NH real estate values declined 15%, better than many areas, but still < 15%
- Uncertain economic recovery prospects/timetable.

In your budgeting this year, please do not consider this business as usual. Specifically, I request that you add a proven tops-down budget analysis methodology to your well documented and well represented bottoms-up methodology.

When other enterprises face challenging times like the potentially disastrous ones we now face, they do a bottoms-up budget like the $24 million school budget one that is apparently about to be recommended by the budget committee, and then they do a tops-down review working from their limited available funds. In this case, I recommend that we take the $14,000,000 + proposed school revenue budget and reduce it by 15% to $11,900,000 reflecting the degree of economic hard time currently facing Bow property taxpayers.

Prior to our March, the 13th meeting I urge you to prepare and approve the following amended budget submission:

- Withdraw the $24,000 budget predicated on what might have been a full
$14,000,000 in Revenue line #1122
- Instead submit a $20,400,000 amended budget predicated upon a reduced
$11,900,000 Revenue line #1122 to be available.
- Carefully reconcile the individual budget line items to arrive at the new
constrained budget.
- The citizens of the Town of Bow need the $2,100,000 reduction in school
revenues returned to them in a school tax mill rate reduction.

Once an economic recovery occurs, taxpayers will agree to share the recovery too.

At 8:27 this morning Bow Superintendent Dean Cascadden sent out the following e-mail to parents in the Bow School System despite promising that he would not do so at Bow Budget Committee meetings. Intent of Emergency Alert System was for just that, emergencies. Announcements of school closings and other emergency needed to get to inform parents of unexpected events. The planned school district meeting is not an unexpected event and its use for political purposes to target only parents of Bow Students and to shill only the school district website is a clear abuse of taxpayer funds.

School officials who repeatedly use taxpayer funded resources for political purposes should be held accountable. Will the school board take disciplinary action or will the taxpayers activate their oversight by tightening the control of these funds? Please go to the school district meeting initiate your oversight.

Cascadden’s Email

Documentation: Town and School Meeting Rules

BCC Voter Guide 2009

You can send questions and feedback to paulrevere@bowcitizenscoalition.org and the answers to your questions will be posted in the Questions and Answers section. Your name and email will be kept private. Questions may be edited for clarity, length, or typos.

We already have some very good questions and comments, so check them out!

To start, here are some questions we would like to ask you:

• Why don’t you attend Bow’s town and school district meetings?
• What would get you to attend Bow’s town and school district meetings?
• How can we best get information to you? You can write to the email above and ask to be put on our mailing list.
• We like documents, all kinds of documents. We especially like those that show a ‘myth’ that has been proven to be untrue. If you have any official documents, articles, or flyers produced by our elected officials, news media, or special interest groups, please send!

Is the Bow Power Plant upgrade a localized stimulus plan to minimize emissions or an opportunity to turn Bow into a ghost town from huge taxes?

Please see what Stoneyfield Yogurt owner Gary Hirshberg and the Concord Monitor will have you paying in taxes if they are successful in shutting down the Bow Power Plant.

See the Tax Impact on YOU…

Bow Budget Committee Members Cindy Martin and Rick Hiland have decided that we can no longer continue the status quo if we want to lower our taxes and have decided to be Co-Lead Petitioners for SB-2 for both town and school.

It is clear that the town meeting form of government is not serving the town of Bow well. Bow taxes continue to climb dramatically and fewer and fewer Bow residents are involved in the decision making process because of the exclusive nature of the archaic town meeting process. SB-2 is as simple as voting for president – you either vote for or against an article. SB-2 minimizes the chicanery and the abuse that is becoming more and more common in recent Bow town and school meetings where voters try to disenfranchise Bow voters by calling for a “revote” after many voters have gone home. SB-2 challenges town and school officials to keep budgets low because SB-2 evens the playing field by allowing the complete town to vote on every issue minimizing the power of special interest.

BCC welcomes the SB-2 debate and is more then ready to debunk the myths of those who are addicted to O.P.M (other people’s money). We ask Bow voters to come this website often to learn more about SB-2 and read learn how the opposition is trying to mislead you.

Please take the time to download both the town and school petitions and get your friends and neighbors sign them.

Rick Hiland reports that it took only 3 hours to get well more then the needed signatures to get SB-2 on the Ballot. Rick reports that the petitions have been turned in and the signatures have been validated which means that SB-2 will be on the ballot for both town and school in May.

SB2 School Petition Form
SB2 Town Petition Form