Posted by Len Mullen on June 02, 2009 at 12:37:38:
In Reply to: NH Free Staters Make The Boston Globe Front Page. posted by Dennis Herrick on May 29, 2009 at 19:22:55:
"The officials already are wielding influence, he said. For example, a Free Stater elected to a planning board in a town near Keene, which he would not identify, swayed the board to vote against a zoning ordinance restricting new big box stores, a measure the Free State member said unfairly restricted property rights."
How do you feel about Free Staters, Dennis? You can't favor the position on the big box retailers.
I think a more reasonable approach is to unincorporate towns. Were all towns to unincorporate, roads, police, fire, education, and taxes would be managed at the state or county level. This would result in more efficiency and consistency.
I think we'd have fios if most of the state was unincorporated just because the franchise agreements would happen at a higher level (there's be less of them to negotiate and manage).
This would also open the door to school choice as people could choose schools outside their town and schools could woo people outside their town.
Early adoptors would enjoy a period of tax relief as lawmakers struggled to overhaul the tax system even as the state was forced to pick up the tab for services to unincorporated towns.