To the editor:

The Portsmouth Concerned Citizens (PCC) have been going around claiming credit for a whole lot of things lately — some claims more dubious than others. But we do have the PCC to thank for the fact that we have to buy a separate sticker to use the transfer station.

There was a time when use of the transfer station was free to all town residents, covered in the budget by their taxes. This ended in August 2006, when the PCC utilized an old provision in the Town Charter that allowed, upon submission of the requisite number of signatures, for a town meeting at which those present could vote to change the budget. The town meeting was a holdover from the days when Portsmouth was a farming community with far fewer residents. Historically, few such meetings were ever held, and the charter has since been amended to eliminate the provision.

But in August 2006, the PCC was successful in obtaining the requisite number of signatures to compel the town to hold a town meeting. The number of signatures exceeded the capacity of any town-owned auditorium, so a large tent was rented and set up at the Glen for what would come to be known as the Tent Meeting.

At the meeting, the PCC moved to cut the school budget by about $1.1 million. They provided no guidance as to what expenses the schools could eliminate to comply with this budget cut. The extent of the cuts to the school budget turned out to be in violation of state law, the school department sued, and the majority of the money cut was restored.

The PCC also moved to slash the town budget by about $600,000. They never said how they derived this number or what personnel, departments or programs could be eliminated to achieve the cut. While the school department was able to file suit to recover funds, the town had no such recourse and had to cut its budget immediately.

The town council had few options and moved to take the operating costs of the transfer station, which were also about $600,000, out of the budget and change the operation to an “enterprise fund” — the system we have today, which relies on the purchase of stickers to use the facility.

Unfortunately, for the town to restore the facility to one supported by town taxes today, the resulting increase in the tax rate would exceed the cap allowed by state law.

We would not be in this situation if the PCC had not forced an arbitrary cut to the budget in 2006, an action it took with zero input on how such a cut could be accomplished. This is why we have the PCC to “thank” for the fact that the transfer station is no longer free for use by all taxpayers.

Mark Katzman

Portsmouth