State's dirty secret: 'Donor towns' are making a return

Josiah Bartlett Center Chairman Eugene Van Loan writes in the Concord Monitor that donor towns are making a comeback.

So, that should mean that there will be no donor towns, right? Wrong! SB 539 did create donor towns. However, in a separate piece of legislation (SB 530) - presumably designed to prevent a gubernatorial veto of SB 539 - the obligation of donor towns to send their excess tax collections to Concord was suspended so long as they used the money to pay for the education of their own students (i.e., for costs beyond adequacy). So, all is well, right? Wrong again! The suspension lasts for only two years and then it self-destructs. In other words, there are no donor towns today - but there will be tomorrow.

No one in Concord is talking about this dirty little secret.

Have you seen any list of prospective donor towns? Not likely.