Ken Merrifield is making sense

Franklin Mayor Ken Merrifield pens a column in this morning's Union Leader highlighting his city's experiment with fiscal discipline:

The citizens of Franklin adopted a property tax cap in 1989. At the time, we had the sixth-highest property taxes in New Hampshire. We now find ourselves near the state average after two decades of sensible restraint.

The voters' decision has been a positive development for our growing community, and the proof is an increase in our equalized values that has been outpacing New Hampshire as a whole.

Restraint on government spending isn't a partisan issue. Voters in Rochester supported President Obama with 55 percent of the vote. On the same day, the same voters embraced the Rochester tax cap with 71 percent of the vote.