“The moral test of government is how it treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the aged.” – Former Vice President Hubert Humphrey

The Windham Town Council meeting of March 8 proves to me that the majority of councilors are doing the opposite of what they promised when they ran for election. It also proves the same councilors who called themselves Republicans are, in fact, RINO’s (Republicans in name only).

And to top it off they aren’t necessarily in office for our sake either. The interview by the reporter for this paper only reinforces my belief on the reasons this town is literally heading down the sewer. Council Chair Scott Hayman’s comment about Windham having a low tax rate leads me to believe that we are in for a serious rise in property taxes and I’ll explain more later.

The council approved (Councilors Tommy Gleason and Matthew Noel opposed) spending $42,000 for a used bus and pickup truck for the Windham Parks and Recreation Department. If the economy was bustling and tax dollars were rolling in, I might possibly call that a decent purchase. However, we all know that is not the case and yet we have people in town hall spending money like they always have and a majority of councilors who are still clueless. What’s even worse is that Brian Ross, the director of Parks and Recreation, tried to justify the purchase of another bus by stating that the present bus makes 79 trips a year. Do any of them know that there are 365 days in year? There are presently two Parks and Rec 1998 vans at Public Works sitting there rusting away. Of course, that’s no different when they were parked at the Windham Town Hall just like the present white bus does most days of the week. I make the suggestion that the Parks and Rec Department take a serious cut this budget cycle or start paying for itself like the Code Enforcement office does, or at least used to. What I fear the most is now Ross is going to try to justify more town employees to drive these vehicles and to staff the proposed park at Chaffin Pond.

I used the Hubert Humphrey quote above because of the council actions during the agenda item about letting a family pay back property taxes in order to keep their house in Windham. Let me first make it clear about how I stand when it comes to people not paying their taxes. If someone doesn’t pay property taxes for years on a house that they rent out, then that house should be seized and sold by the town. I have no problem with doing the same for those who don’t pay taxes on multiple properties. I say that because my wife and I do our best to have only that what we can afford and if the government shuts down for a few months, we won’t have much either because I am retired military and both of us are on Social Security. Somehow I don’t believe that our mortgage company won’t accept an IOU from Uncle Sam.

However, back to the subject of that particular agenda item because the actions by more than one councilor really show how far backwards our local town government has gone.

Councilors Hayman and Peter Anania said something along the line that they pay their taxes. Sounds fine, but they are both business people who can afford to. Councilor John MacKinnon noticed that it was doubtful the family could make significant payments to catch up on back taxes. Councilor Gleason was the one who wondered if the family had been contacted to see if they qualified to be exempted from paying property taxes because of their financial situation. To the best of my knowledge it appears that no one in the Windham Town Hall explained this to that family and somehow that doesn’t surprise me and it reflects poorly upon town hall. Yes, I want everyone to pay their taxes but at the same time all of us must show some compassion.

I have to wonder why our Windham council chairperson has such a hard time explaining to citizens how the property tax system works. As most of us know, our property taxes are determining what the municipal and school budgets will be and then setting the property tax rate and property assessments to balance the total budget. If property assessments are high, then the tax rate declines, or vice versa, in order to raise a certain amount of money. For the most part, the answers given by the council chair and town manager were at best smoke and mirrors, at the worst bovine scatology to put it as mildly as I can. I also have to wonder if the finance committee will ever do what it’s supposed to.

Does your wallet weep, too? Contact Lane Hiltunen of Windham at lhiltunen@roadrunner.com.