The headline for yesterday's New York Times story is "One Small Step for Democracy in a 'Live-Free or Die' Town." The story, by Dan Barry, features Ian Underwood, a town selectman in Croydon, New Hampshire, who a few years ago proposed--and achieved--the abolition of the town's one-man police force. Underwood and his wife, Jody, who do not have children, moved to New Hampshire from Pennsylvania in 2007, as part of the "Free State" movement.
Here's what happened this spring at the annual meeting "when residents gather to approve, deny or amend proposed municipal budgets."
Residents approved the town budget in the morning. Then they turned in the afternoon to the proposed $1.7 million school budget, which covers the colonial-era schoolhouse (kindergarten to fourth grade) and the cost of sending older students to nearby schools of their choice, public or private.
This is when [Ian] Underwood, 60, stood up and threw a sucker punch to the body politic.
Calling the proposed budget a “ransom,” he moved to cut it by more than half — to $800,000. He argued that taxes for education had climbed while student achievement had not, and that based in part on the much lower tuition for some local private schools, about $10,000 for each of the town’s 80 or so students was sufficient — though well short of, say, the nearly $18,000 that public schools in nearby Newport charged for pupils from Croydon.
In the debate that followed, Underwood's wife, the president of the school board and holder of a PhD in education, read "a statement in support of the budget cut — in effect arguing against the $1.7 million budget that she and the rest of the school board had previously recommended. (Dr. Underwood later explained that her husband’s assertions — including that education spending had gone up 30 percent in recent years — had persuaded her.)".
Ms. Underwood had known her husband was going to make the proposal, which passed 20 to 14, but she had not put anyone on advance notice of his plan.
The shocking budget cut meant that the school board suddenly had to craft a new financial plan, while many parents suddenly had to come up with thousands of dollars to keep their children in public schools.
While the Underwoods bragged online to fellow Free Staters about what they had accomplished, many residents of town "were livid."
But they were also chastened. They hadn’t attended the town meeting. They hadn’t fulfilled their democratic obligation. They hadn’t kept informed about the Free State movement. To some observers, they had gotten what they deserved.
One resident commented:
I was practically kicking myself in the ass for not being there. I guess I assumed our town would take care of it.
Barry continues:
The moment revealed a democracy mired in indifference. Turnout at town meetings has been low for years. The town’s websites are barely rudimentary, with school board minutes posted online sporadically. The select board’s minutes are found at the town hall — open three afternoons a week — or the general store
Don't miss the rest of the story to learn what happened next.
Can't help think how this is just an extreme version of retirees voting not to raise taxes that support schools, a phenomenon we see around the nation, especially in rural and suburban communities. Also reminds me of stories out of Josephine County, Oregon, where local government was gutted--and the State of Kansas, where state coffers were gutted under Governor Sam Brownback, hindering the state's ability to provide basic services. This candidate for the Missouri legislature suggests education funding is also at severe risk in Missouri.
Meanwhile, I'd like to know how many towns do what Croydon does procedurally each year, that is "residents gather[ing] to approve, deny or amend proposed municipal budgets." Does this happen in larger municipalities? In New Hampshire or elsewhere in New England?
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