Are you in the money-laundering business?
No? Are you sure?
If you're a Manchester taxpayer, then starting July 1st, you will be. Congratulations!
But don't worry - it's all perfectly legal, and you'll be doing it for a good cause - the city needs your help to balance the 2010 budget.
It's really neat! Here's how it works, in just three easy steps:
Step 1: The city accepts $7.4M in additional state education adequacy funding, and gives all 100% of it to the school district. All of it. Every last penny. Because it's the law. And because Ted said that's what we're doing.
Step 2: The city takes a different $6.1M from the school district and - yippeeeee - gives it to you by reducing the school tax rate from $6.00 to $5.38. I'm not sure how you can tell that it's different money from the money in step 1, but it is. It is, because Ted says it is. You don't need to know any more. If you don't get it, just sit down, and shut up already.
Step 3: Not so fast... you didn't think you'd get to keep it, did you? The city takes back the $6.1M from you by increasing the municipal tax rate. But because it came from you, not the state, it's now "clean" money, unencumbered with any of those nasty education strings, so it doesn't have to be wasted on other peoples's brats.
Thanks for doing your part. Isn't it clever? Isn't it smart? It's like those wormholes in space - the money disappears down one end, and just magically pops out at the other, lickety-split!
Wormholes are cool. We need somebody who can think like this to be our mayor, don't you think?
Then we'll truly be, as Ted says:
"Manchester - a community of the ...hole."
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