Supplemental Appropriation; Another Bite At the Apple

Belknap county delegation

As the ink was still drying on the 2017 Belknap county budget a crisis arose which would require dipping into the county’s contingency fund.

If you want to get Pravda on Winnipesaukee to write some serious fear porn just find a way to put nursing home residents in “danger.” This was clearly contrived to demonstrate the dire ‘lack of funding’ in the budget. It was rejected, and not another peep has been heard in the following years. Sprinkler systems need routine maintenance.

A mere month later the Convention was assembled to hear a request from the county commissioners for a supplemental appropriation. The request for $229,500 failed on a 7-7 tie vote.

On August 8, 2017 the Convention again gathered to hear another request for a supplemental appropriation. The extra $256,852 was approved. At the year-end we would find this exercise was unnecessary and $900,000 would be returned to the county’s fund balance. The time, money and effort that went into getting the supplemental appropriation was not a benefit to the citizens of the county, rather it went to make managing the budget a very simple process – just spend what you have, there is plenty. It’s hard to understand how that can even be considered management.

If you go back through the records you will find that the commissioners hired two law firms to assist in their pursuit of additional funding. They spent $6,540.05 in their zeal to grasp control of appropriating authority. None of that money benefited the citizens of the county, it simply made the commissioners’ job easier. Do you recall this one: 643:1 Official Oppression. – A public servant, as defined in RSA 640:2, II, is guilty of a misdemeanor if, with a purpose to benefit himself or another.

Each time they get away with this sort of behavior, they become bolder in their disregard for the law. Bear in mind as the years roll by that we have differing members of the board of commissioners. One might want to put a bit of thought into why it is that the commissioners continue to act in the same way despite the change in elected officials.

2018 will be a banner year for corruption in the county, we’ll get into that next time…


All the pieces in this series:

It Is Overspent

Belknap county delegation

Just a couple of weeks after the judge made his ruling, as we saw in the last post, the county Executive Committee met to review the county budget. Not that anyone would expect an instant turnabout, and the commissioners were busy spending more taxpayer money in legal fees to challenge the court order, the Executive Committee found spending beyond what had been appropriated.

September 15, 2014 Executive Committee budget review.

And the legal bills would come to the Executive Committee in the form of a transfer request February 17, 2015. Note the comment of the newly appointed (Republican) commissioner Hunter Taylor.

February 17, 2015 Executive Committee meeting.

The Convention in 2015 set a line-item transfer limit of $800, an increase from $300 in 2014, allowing the commissioners more flexibility in moving money between lines in the budget.

2015 transfer authority

In 2016 that limit was increase to $1,000. By the summer of 2016 we would start to see signs of problems ahead.

There is a word that describes spending beyond that which is appropriated; misappropriation. Perhaps you recall the earlier statement by commissioner Taylor?

24:15 Exceeding Appropriations. –
I. No county commissioner, or elected or appointed county officer, shall pay, or agree to pay, or incur any liability for the payment of, any sum of money for which the county convention has made no appropriation, or in excess of any appropriation so made except for the payment of judgments rendered against the county.
II. In the case of an emergency, the county commissioners, or an elected or appointed county officer, may apply to the executive committee, which, after a public hearing, may grant to the county commissioners or officer authority in writing to make such emergency payment.

IV. If any county commissioner, or elected or appointed county officer, is found in a prosecution for violation of RSA 643:1 to have paid or incurred any liability for the payment of any sum of money contrary to this section, it shall be prima facie evidence that such county commissioner or officer has knowingly refrained from performing a duty imposed by law.

We can clearly see that funds had been spent beyond appropriations in August of 2016 but we can not say who is responsible for the misappropriation. That would have required an investigation and prosecution.

643:1 Official Oppression. – A public servant, as defined in RSA 640:2, II, is guilty of a misdemeanor if, with a purpose to benefit himself or another or to harm another, he knowingly commits an unauthorized act which purports to be an act of his office; or knowingly refrains from performing a duty imposed on him by law or clearly inherent in the nature of his office.

We can see in this November 22, 2016 Executive Committee meeting that the county administrator is aware of the issue, yet the commissioners deny knowledge.

At this point you might start asking yourself why I don’t grab a mirror and have a look at my responsibility for allowing this to continue. Good point. While there will be more in the next installment, I’ll give you a glimpse of the past when I previously brought up the need for an investigation. From January 12, 2015, you can get a sense of the cool reception.

We will come to see there is little appetite in government to hold ourselves accountable, but I will not stop so easily. More to come…


All the pieces in this series:

Irreparable Harm to the Taxpayers

For far too long the Belknap County Board of Commissioners have been usurping budgetary authority from the county Convention. This was seemingly corrected in 2014 when the Convention won an injunction barring the commission from acting without authority given by the Convention’s Executive Committee.

Some highlights from the court’s ruling:

Upon review, the Court agrees with the petitioner’s argument. The legislature has created a comprehensive scheme of checks and balances for the creation and implementation of county budgets. Voters elect state representatives, who make up the county conventions of the counties from which they are elected. Voters also elect a board of commissioners for each respective county. The commissioners draft proposals for the county budget, which they present to the county convention. The County convention then votes on a finalized budget, taking the commissioners’ proposals into account. Once passed, the effective budget for the following year is returned to the county commissioners so that they may execute it.

Should the petitioner prevail on its merits, then this would necessarily mean that that respondent has been transferring and spending taxpayer money outside of the scope of its authority under law. If the Court were to deny this request for temporary relief, then this would allow the respondent to continue this practice until a final disposition in this suit was rendered.

The possibility of the continued unauthorized transfer and expenditure of taxpayer money, especially in the wake of the likelihood that the petitioner will succeed in this case on the merits as discussed below, creates the prospect of immediate and irreparable harm to the taxpayers of Belknap County. This factor therefore also militates in favor of the Court granting the petitioners request for temporary injunctive relief.

August 28, 2014 ruling from Belknap Superior Court judge James D. O’Neill, III.

If the respondent continues to transfer and expend funds during the pendency of this case, there is the very real possibility that the vast majority of the 2014 budget will be expended by the time the Court issues a final disposition.

Applying the above standard, the Court finds that under the plain meaning of RSA 24:14, line-items in the 2014 budget constitute “appropriations.” RSA 24:14, II defines an “appropriation” as “an amount of money authorized for a specified purpose by the legislative body.” [emphasis added.] In this definition, the legislature made no distinction between money allocated to departments generally and to specific line-items within each department. Instead it defined “appropriations” broadly. The definition on its face suggests that line-items fall under this provision.

Additionally, RSA 24:14, I, states that “[a]ppropriations by the county convention shall be itemized in detail.” (emphasis added.) The legislature’s use of the word “shall” in RSA 24:14, I, not only suggest that conventions are permitted to itemize their budgets, but appears on its face to expressly require them to do so.

This reading of the definition of “appropriations” is also supported by the way in which RSA 24:14 functions in conjunction with RSA 24:15. RSA 24:14, I, grants conventions the power to “require that the county commissioners obtain written authority from the Executive Committee before transferring any appropriation or part thereof under RSA 24:15.” RSA 24:15, III reads:

Unless otherwise ordered by the county convention, under RSA 24:14, whenever it appears that the amount appropriated for a specific purpose will not be used in whole or in part for such purpose, the county commissioners may use such sum to augment other appropriations, if necessary, provided the total payments for all purposes do not exceed the total sum of appropriations in any year made by the county convention.

Thus, while commissioners are generally afforded limited authority to transfer funds between appropriations, county conventions are explicitly reserved the power to regulate these transfers by requiring the written consent of the Executive Committee. If line items were not “appropriations” under RSA 24:14, then this would severely hamper the ability of a county convention to utilize this power. The respondent’s reading of RSA 24:14, I, would give commissioners virtually unfettered ability to transfer funds under RSA 24:15, III without regard to convention restrictions under RSA 24:14, I, as long as transfers were made between line-items within the same budgetary department. County conventions would either have to substantially alter the way by which they formulate budgets in order to ensure that fewer items were outside of the scope of these provisions, or resign themselves to the fact that they have limited oversight over how commissioners expend appropriated funds. This would encompass an unwarranted erosion of the power expressly afforded to the county conventions on the face of RSA 24:14, I.

On March 3, 2015 the county commissioners submitted to the court a stipulation, agreeing to abide by the law and seek transfer authority as adopted in the yearly budget.

You might think this would be the end of budgetary shenanigans at Belknap County. Who could fault you for thinking the commission would abide by their word.

To be continued… It Is Overspent


All the pieces in this series:

Stop the Fear

Project Veritas has recently exposed CNN for using fear to attract viewers. It is a shameful technique used widely in media and politics. Your local ‘news’ paper uses it more than you may realize.

In a recent story about the Belknap County nursing home’s difficulty in finding nursing staff, it was made to sound as if this was an isolated problem for the county home. The reality is there is a wide spread problem in nursing in general. The problem is made worse by the easy availability of generous unemployment benefits.

As I know what is going on and I attended the commissioners’ meeting that spawned the article, I was not concerned. We have an excellent administrator at the Belknap County nursing home and the residents receive 5 star care.

A few days after the article appeared I received a call from a friend. She has a loved one residing at the nursing home. The story in the paper, as she read it, made it sound like the nursing home was going to be closed. I assured her that the nursing home is not closing and she could relax.

This was not a case of sloppy writing, it was carefully crafted to sow fear. This is shown in a more recent piece written about the county delegation investigation into spending irregularities.

Having attended the meeting from which this latest article arose, I found it odd that two references were made to oxygen in the nursing home. It was implied that there was insufficient funds available to have oxygen supplied to nursing home residents. It has nothing to do with the investigation and not a word about oxygen was spoken in the meeting. It seems only to be inserted to stoke fear of patients lacking proper care.

I immediately recognized this to be a manufactured ‘crisis,’ before I went to check the budget.

As of June 6, 2021, which covers the first 42% of the year, the budget for oxygen has spent 29%. From a budget of $39,000 only $11,266 has been spent. In fact, the estimate for the year end is that $9,000 will remain in the oxygen budget. Note that this is based on the very frugal delegation budget, the county commissioners had budgeted $49,800 for the year. What’s $20,000 between friends? Some might call it fraud.

More than enough in the budget for oxygen. And 1/2 million excess in nursing services!

2021 Belknap County Budget

The county board of commissioners’ budget for 2021 proposes to raise property taxes by 12%. As is always the case the commissioners have provided enough padding in the budget to allow them to spend as they desire without needing to manage a budget. They are also using $2 million from fund balance (previously paid taxes).

Let’s note here that many of the county’s senior citizens will be getting a 1.3% increase in their social security.

As we know the commissioners like to compare one budget to the next in order to downplay the actual increase they are seeking. The 2020 budget was $30,829,837 which was ~$2.25 million higher than was needed to fund county operations in 2020. In other words the taxpayers were forced to pay $2.25 million more than was necessary for county operations in 2020.

Now let’s compare the 2020 spending of ~$28,600,000 to the 2021 commissioners’ request of $31,961,320. We can see here that spending would increase by 11.8%, compare that to growth (loss) in the non-government sector. Because the commissioners use the budget-to-budget scheme they can claim the increase in spending is only 4% over 2020.

While this escalation of spending is bad enough on the surface it is actually worse. The commissioners have finally removed a taxpayer gift to Community Health Services Network, LLC. from their budget. That line in 2020 was $580,000. In the end a little less than $300,000 was given to this corporation.

As we look at bringing common sense to the county budget, we should be staying within $28.3 million (28.6 million minus $300,000) with a 2% maximum for inflation. Using such a sensible method will put spending for 2021 at ~$28,900,000. Taking this reasonable projection of the funds needed to run the county shows that the commissioners have asked for $2.9 million more than is necessary.

The executive committee has gone through the budget and removed some of the fat. They have pared down the spending to $30,256,185 which is an increase in spending over 2020 of 5.6%, well above inflation. As I have said in the past, governments can only grow faster than the general economy for a short period of time before large problems force a solution upon them.

The citizens of the county have faced many challenges in 2020 from an economy disrupted by the reactions to the virus. The county has amassed a fund balance beyond the commissioners’ upper limits. A $6,000,000 fund balance is 20% of the county’s annual budget. How many of our citizens have savings of 20% of their annual salary? Few, I will guess. The executive committee has budgeted a return of $3,000,000 to the taxpayers, giving them a bit of relief while maintaining ample funds to handle any emergencies.

This is how the administration views the budget, comparing to the previous budget.

The county administration loves to obfuscate reality by comparing budget-to-budget. We know that the 2020 budget had over 2 million dollars appropriated that were not necessary. So, in order to get a proper evaluation take the 2020 budget of $30,829,837 and subtract the excess $2,250,000 to start with a realistic budget of $28,579,837. Now you will see that the commissioners’ request is an 11.8% increase. The executive committee is allowing for an actual spending increase of 5.8% which is well above inflation.

A quick review

  • Exec Comm budget increases funding to $30,256,185 (5.69% increase)
  • Exec Comm uses $3,000,000 from fund balance to offset taxes (leaving $3,000,00 in fund balance)
  • The amount to be raised by taxes is $13,145,309 a reduction of $1,625,198 (11%)
  • They also voted to restrict transfers between departments to $1,000 without Exec Comm approval

There is one more step in the budget process, bringing it to the full county delegation. The administration will fight to have more money put back into the budget. If you want to avoid higher taxes join me to have your voice heard.

Deliberation

photo by Cliff Newton
LDS letter

When one comes under attack by certain segments of the population, we sometimes respond by lumping together those people and give them a rather broad label. This is a common practice and it is unfortunate. I try to avoid such errors.

I know there are many rational thinking people, with whom I disagree, that are Democrats. Often they get tarred with the broad stroke of a brush wielded by some in the Republican party. With this in mind, I must reply to those who have a habit of responding to events without thought or the application of reason.

I stand proudly with the members of the House who voted against suspending rules on January 6th. As Representative Hough explained, we were in a parking lot in Durham in session and separated from news of the events happening in Washington at the time. Our legislature is a deliberative body, we are to think about our actions as they have an effect upon not just ourselves but also our constituents. When this vote was called, we lacked information about the events that were occurring and what would be included in the Resolution which would follow. When presented with such a vote, with insufficient information, I consider it to be irresponsible to vote in the affirmative.

I do not want this to be taken as a criticism of those who supported the motion; they may have had more information than I. This situation brings into focus the difficulties associated with remote meetings; the more closely a group meets, the better information flows through the body.

In the end the Resolution was adopted. Rep. Terry has pointed to a somewhat embarrassing problem with the Resolution. It was put together with such haste that it inadvertently condemns “all… action in Washington, D.C.” Surely we did not intent that to be included in our Resolution. When one assembles a sentence that will be recorded in history, deliberation will assure that “all violence and action in Washington, D.C.” can not be misconstrued.

Rather than shaming Representatives Comtois, Sylvia, Ploszaj, Bean, Aldrich, Silber, and Hough, those who react with outrage should pause before they fly off the handle, and look for a bit of perspective which might explain why we voted as we did. The voters of their districts are not as irrational as you might think.

Thank You

I am happy to have received a vote of confidence from the people of Belmont. I will continue to stand for the limited government our constitution guarantees to us. Together we will maintain the New Hampshire Advantage that makes Belmont such a great place to live.

I also want to thank George Condodemetraky and Don House for their efforts to bring alternative choices to our citizens. Our democratic republic thrives because of competition and we would all be poorer without George and Don. Thank you.

Election Day 2020

Belmont sample minus the socialism

For those who will be voting in person, November 3 will be an exciting day at the Belmont High School. Polls open at 7 AM and close at 7 PM. All the official details can be found at the town’s website and the sample ballot is at the Secretary of States office.

Be sure to come out Tuesday, November 3rd to defend America and the New Hampshire Advantage.

September 8th Primary

Vote Mike Sylvia

We are counting down the days until the primary and there is good news to report; there are currently no active cases of COVID-19 reported in Belmont by NH Department of Health and Human Services. If you have symptoms of the virus it is best to vote absentee or wear a mask and wash your hands if you go to the polls. The WHO reports “SARS-CoV-2 transmission appears to mainly be spread via droplets and close contact with infected symptomatic cases.”

We should remain vigilant to risk associated with COVID-19 but we do not need to live in fear. I’ll see you Tuesday at the Belmont High School between 7 a.m and 7 p.m.

Vote Mike Sylvia

Endorsed by AFP-NH

Rep Mike Sylvia

I’m honored to be included with Governor Sununu in AFP-NH’s first list of endorsed candidates. With your support and vote on September 8th in the Republican primary I’ll have the opportunity to continue my work in Concord.

“The conservative, pro-free-market group Americans for Prosperity-New Hampshire is making its first-ever endorsements in political races, backing Gov. Chris Sununu and former Executive Councilor David Wheeler, along with five state House members who are seeking reelection and one former lawmaker looking to return to the House.”

NH Primary Source