Editorial: Taxes go only one way — up!

Posted 4/11/19

The government machine never stops. Driven by salaries, pensions, health benefits, new services, capital projects, technology … the cost of doing the public’s business never stops …

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Editorial: Taxes go only one way — up!

Posted

The government machine never stops. Driven by salaries, pensions, health benefits, new services, capital projects, technology … the cost of doing the public’s business never stops rising. Ever.

Blame does not belong on the shoulders of today’s municipal leaders in Bristol. This group is relatively cost-conscious, with genuine concern for the average taxpayer and the cost of living in Bristol.

Yet the system could care less.

For decades, the system has chewed through budgets and benefits, contracts and challenges, and spit out higher tax bills at the other end. No matter what happens, what gets cut or what politicians pledge, the end result is always the same — taxes go up.

The only way to stop the machine, is to stop the system of long-term labor contracts that guarantee specific wages and benefits — and lock them in three years in advance.

The Bristol Warren Regional School District is feeling the crushing weight of this burden right now. In the midst of a long-term contract with its teachers, the district needed $1.5 million for pay raises next year —that’s a million-and-a-half dollars, just to keep everyone employed. It needed another $935,000 just for increases in benefit costs.

So they needed about $2.5 million just to open the doors with the same staff they have this year. They didn’t get the money. They got about $2 million less than they asked for, and now something has to give; parents should expect to hear about nasty budget cuts soon.

Yet even with the tight reins on school spending, the local property tax bills are going up. Depending on the new assessed value of your home, you could be looking at a 3 percent, 8 percent or 12 percent increase in your tax bill.

Why? Because everyone gets raises, all benefit costs go up, the pension rolls grow, and the capital projects never end.

Nothing can stop the machine this year. Too many guarantees were inked in the last round of labor contracts to stop the automatic increases in the cost of government. The only recourse is to negotiate contracts differently the next time they are open for discussion — or get rid of them altogether.

There was a time when public sector employees, including teachers, were poorly underpaid and undervalued, as compared to their peers in the private sector. That time ended long, long ago.

Today’s veteran teacher can easily earn $100,000 per year. Today’s municipal worker has benefits that most private-sector workers can’t comprehend.

The unions have won, their employees are respected and well-compensated, and the tables have turned. Today, they wield too much power and influence over the average taxpayer who has a lower salary, fewer increases, weaker benefits, no retirement, and a property tax bill that does only one thing — it only goes up.

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Meet our staff
Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.