The Epsom Public Library Library will be showing Family Movies
during the upcoming school vacation. On Monday, December 22nd at 2
pm “How to Train Your Dragon 2,” and on Monday, December 29th at
6:30 pm “Dolphin Tale 2.” Both movies are rated PG and popcorn and
drinks will be provided. For more information call 736-9920.
Letter To The Editor
If you’re like me, this week’s property tax payment is putting
something of a damper on the holiday spirit. High property taxes are
the number one complaint from our constituents, and our suggestion
to get involved in school budgets is usually not a satisfying
response.
I’ve put in a lottery expansion bill which would eventually reduce
property taxes about 5%. It is modeled on the very successful Oregon
Video Lottery. It allows bars to license up to six video slot
machines. Two-thirds of the net revenue (gambling losses) collected
by these machines would be applied to reducing the statewide
property tax. Based on Oregon’s numbers this would bring in enough
to cut the statewide property tax in half, about $180 million per
year.
Unlike previous expanding gambling bills considered by the
legislature, this one has a number of advantages:
- Since the machines are in the same places that collect the meals
tax (restaurants and bars), and 40% of the meals tax is paid by
tourists, I expect tourists to pay 40% of this tax.
- It is a net financial gain to average NH citizens because the
amount they realize in property tax reduction (67% of revenue) is
greater than the amount they pay in gambling losses (60%).
- Business profits go to small NH businesses, not an out-of-state
casino corporation.
- Does not interfere with charitable gaming or other entertainment
venues.
- Like other aspects of the lottery it is widely distributed and low
key. Machines must be in rooms only accessible to adults 21 or over.
No concentrations of cash or crime.
- Not a monopoly, so it’s constitutional.
The period for filing new legislation has ended, but we welcome your
questions, suggestions and requests.
Rep. Dan McGuire
[email protected]
782-4918
Epsom Food Pantry
Well everybody, we are busy here at the Pantry. Liz and
Alice are busy getting us lined up for the Christmas Baskets. We
have all our names in and will be ready on the 22nd to receive our
deliveries. The folks at Meadowbrook will receive their baskets
right at their front door. Peter Arvanitis and his group of elves
will be there bright and early to receive the delivery from Concord.
Now down at the Food Pantry, Ken , Alice, Liz, and their elves will
be unloading the truck from Concord. You folks who will be coming
to the Pantry must be there between 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM and we will
distribute in the same manner that we did at Thanksgiving. I know
the time and the day might be a problem for some, but we do not
have a choice. We will try and help everyone.
As you know, Ken tries hard to make us all happy. Some outstanding
donations this past week which I shall tell you about next week.
See you on December 22nd. Call me at 219-3025 if you
have any questions.
Until next time,
Priscilla
Letter To The Editor
After touring the United States in the 1830’s, Alexis DeTocqueville
had a premonition about Americans being subjected to “a new kind of
servitude”.
One in which the government, “covers the surface of society with a
network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through
which the most original minds and the most energetic characters
cannot penetrate to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not
shattered but softened, bent, and guided; men are seldom forced by
it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting. Such a
power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not
tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies
a people, till each nation is reduced to be nothing better than a
flock of timid and industrial animals, of which the government is
the shepherd.”
Isn’t that the very process which has taken place in America over
the past century and which continues to this very day?
The U.S. Tax Code and local Zoning Ordinances are but two examples
of the government covering the surface of society with a host of
small complicated rules.
But just pick a department, any department, Federal or State, and
look at all the rules they have promulgated in just the past decade
to see how extensive the government’s network of rules has become.
The sad part is that most Americans have been so shaped and so
molded by the government, just as DeTocqueville predicted they would
be, that they see nothing wrong with “cover[ing] the surface of
society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and
uniform, through which the most original minds and the most
energetic characters cannot penetrate to rise above the crowd.”
Even sadder, most Americans like having the government as their
shepherd.
Jack Kelleher
Epsom
Thank You
We, the Reese family, would like to thank all who help out with the
Free Thanksgiving Dinner whether you cooked food or donated funds or
served with us WE THANK YOU!!! FOR YOU ARE TRULY APPRECIATED!!! We
had a great turn out!!!
MAY GOD BLESS YOU FOR YOUR HEARTS OF SERVICE to other.
THANK YOU AGAIN!!!
Karen Lee Reese
and family
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