Despite the few candidates on the ballot, there are two issues for voters this year when they get to the polls.
The first is non-binding consideration of adding a 1% sales tax to help property owners save money:
“ARTICLE II
Should the Town of Brattleboro provide property tax relief and help defray the cost of Police- Fire facilities renovations by adopting a 1% local option sales tax?
YES
NO”
It’s non-binding, meaning the results will only be used as advice. Representative Town Meeting will make the “real” decision, again (they smartly voted it down not long ago).
The second issue for voters is a resolution declaring that humans cause climate change, and calls on the EPA and the President to fully utilize the Clean Air Act to reduce carbon in the atmosphere.
“ARTICLE III
BE IT RESOLVED, that climate change is not an abstract problem for the future or one that will only effect far-distant places, but rather that climate change is happening now, that we are causing it, and that the longer we wait to act, the more we lose and the more difficult the problem will be to solve; and we, the People of Brattleboro, do hereby urge the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and President Barack Obama to move swiftly to fully employ and enforce the Clean Air Act in order to reduce carbon in our atmosphere to no more than 350 parts per million.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Town Clerk shall forward a copy of this resolution to the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and President Barack Obama.
YES
NO”
These are the two issues voters will be considering when they pick up their ballots on Town Meeting day in early March. Similar issues will be put before Representative Town Meeting later in the month.
Purpose/consequences of proposed sales tax
I will be voting against the proposed sales tax. Its purpose, as stated in the ballot initiative, is not to help taxpayers save money but to help defray the costs of the police/fire facilities. Personally, I think the initiative should have asked whether the Town of Brattleboro should continue with this project on its current scale.
The fact that they are even floating this initiative points to the obvious, which has been stated by others many times on this site. We can’t afford it, not now.
The other reason I am against this tax is that it will hurt local businesses, who already have to deal with being on the border of no-sales-tax NH. Driving businesses out of town is bad for the businesses, bad for those of us who live here, and bad for the town’s coffers. It is hard enough for a small business to survive as is. Why make it harder?