For more than 10 years, I’ve had the honor of serving as chairman of the Grafton County Delegation. In that decade, with Democrats holding the majority the entire time, we have accomplished a great deal for the citizens of this county, while responsibly managing county finances and property tax rates.
County government provides essential services to residents, including operating the county nursing home, the county attorney’s office, sheriff’s department, register of deeds office, the county jail and county farm. These are, importantly, local services. Our focus has been and continues to be on strategies to keep people out of the nursing home and in their homes, and out of the jail, if possible. We’ve also managed to do this by supporting numerous nonprofit agencies that focus on these goals, providing real value and benefit to taxpayers.
In recent years, we’ve increased the available beds in the nursing home, which not only provides benefit to county residents, but also produces revenue to the county. We’ve build a new county jail, and have appropriately supported both nursing and corrections staff. Importantly, we have also supported construction of a “middle mile” internet system connecting under-served areas of the county, again providing real economic benefits to our citizens. The county farm is a nationally recognized operation that supports the food requirements of the nursing home and jail and provides job training for inmates.
We’ve achieved all of this in spite of a challenging down-shifting of costs from state government to the county, which has made our financial situation even more difficult. At the same time, we faced the additional challenges of inflation that totaled nearly 21% in this period, averaging 4.15% over those five years, and a global pandemic. Despite all of that, since 2020, county residents have seen county taxes increase by less than 1% total, for an average increase of under 0.2%.
I look forward to continuing this record of achievement, combined with strong fiscal management that always considers our taxpayers first.
George Sykes
Lebanon
A new tool for estate plans
Recently SB42 became law in New Hampshire. This bill is a terrific solution to an issue that was created last year with the adoption of TOD or transfer on death deed. Transfer on death is a new instrument that an individual can now use for estate planning purposes.
The Grafton County Registry of Deeds records a great many documents pertaining to estate planning. We had to scramble last year at this time when TOD became law, it downshifted a lot of responsibility to the local municipalities to manage the knowledge of who is responsible for the tax bill upon the filing of this document. The registers agreed to create a new code for this document as a stand-alone instrument as it does not indicate a transfer of rights, it speaks of a pending transfer, one which will be valid upon the recording of a death certificate. The municipalities have a program called Monarch provided by the registry which allows them to see all transfers in real time. This streamlined and convenient system is included in our annual contract provided by our software partner Fidlar Technologies.
Another variable other than the inevitable revocation back and forth, was the need for the town to be aware when no one was going to claim responsibility for the taxes of a property. Our legislative chair testified for a right to refuse responsibility which is a great addition to the original bill language and does offer direction to the towns. SB 42 now requires the beneficiary of the TOD to file an affidavit within 60 days of the property owner’s death. This puts the public and the municipality on notice that a new party has accepted responsibility for this property. A win for all.
We may not like a lot that happens in government, but when something intelligent happens we should take notice. Well done.
Kelley Monahan
Orford
The writer is register of deeds for Grafton County.
Don’t believe the tax cut tales
Did you get the email from the director of Social Security stating that nearly 90% of Social Security beneficiaries will no longer pay federal income taxes on their benefits? His mailing said, “The new law includes a provision that eliminates federal income taxes to SS benefits for most beneficiaries.” Don’t believe it! There is no language to that effect in the Billionaire Tax Cut Bill.
I am old enough remember that it wasn’t until 1982 that anyone at all paid taxes on Social Security benefits. You can thank Republican Ronald Reagan for that change, called the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act. If you happen to be in the bottom 75% of household income this time around, you will lose as much as $24,000 per year under the Billionaire Tax Cut Bill (the upper 25% will gain $174,000 on average). There are multiple ways to visualize this data. I recommend Stephen Semler’s Polygraph site.
So don’t go spending that Social Security benefit, because it is Republican smoke and mirrors. (Where are the Republicans of the Eisenhower years?).
Liz Ryan Cole
Thetford