HippoPress -- The Hippo -- Guide to Manchester and Nashua NH

These beans would provide the city with money for schools, police, parks and roads. Taxes would go down or maybe go away completely. Where are all the beanstalks when you need them?

Believing a tax cap will lower our taxes and make Manchester a better place to live is only slightly less silly than believing in magic beans.

It may come as a surprise to tax-cap-junkie Jeff Kassel, but people like services such as police and fire protection, kindergarten for their children, parks to jog in and clean streets. That’s why we choose to live in a city.

These services cost money. Every two years we elect people to set the tax rate and choose the level of services. If we don’t like the result, we choose new people. That’s our tax cap.

Creating a magic bean — I mean tax cap — to solve all of our problems is just wishful thinking. Tax caps haven’t solved problems in Nashua or Berlin; instead they’re creating budget crises.

There are only two reasonable ways to decrease the amount of taxes we pay on our homes: find some other way of taxing ourselves, such as a sales or income tax, or grow our commercial property tax base with projects such as the baseball stadium. That’s as magic as it gets.

Residents step up

Manchester is lucky to have so many groups and people working to create events and raise money to support local nonprofits. September is a particularly busy month for fundraisers.

	Fight to Educate
	Where: Verizon Wireless Arena
	When: Wednesday, Sept. 14, at 8 p.m.
	What: First professional boxing match in more than 50 years
	Benefits: SEE Science Center

	5th Franco-American Golf Tournament
	Where: Passaconaway Country Club, Litchfield
	When: Friday, Aug. 26, 7:30 a.m.
	Benefits: Franco-American Centre

	3rd Annual Golf Tournament
	Where: Derryfield Country Club
	When: Monday, Sept. 12, 7 a.m.
	Benefits: William B. Cashin Senior Center

	Glendi
	Where: St. George’s Cathedral, Hanover Street
	When: Friday, Sept. 16, Saturday, Sept. 17, and Sunday, Sept. 18
	What: Greek festival of food, dancing and crafts (Manchester’s largest festival)
	Benefits: St. George’s