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Welcome to the Thornton (NH) Taxpayers Group website.
A group of concerned citizens got together as a result of the March 20233 issue of the school board trying ram a $17 million project for additions to the school. We decided that our town needed a watchdog group to pay attention to the town’s finances and to make these issues quickly and easily available to the townspeople.
We set up this site because navigating the financial entities for the town is cumbersome and confusing. There are three main components that drive your property taxes:
- Town operations – roads, police, fire, etc
- Thornton Central School – on Route 175, grades K-8, there are about 190 students there as of late 2023
- Plymouth Regional High School – in Plymouth, this is where we educate grades 9-12
At the outset, we are focusing on the town operations and the Thornton Central School operations. Eventually we will include Plymouth Regional High School.
But, there is one more component to your property taxes and that is who your elected officials are. Other than road signs and maybe a Facebook profile, there is no central place where candidates can tell you about themselves. That’s why we’ll added a Candidates page prior to the March elections. Any candicate can submit a 500-word or less bio about themselves, their background and qualifications, and why they want to run.
The data here are mostly drawn from the Town of Thornton 2022 Annual Report. Note that the 2022 annual report was actually produced in the first quarter of 2023.
Important links
- Town website: www.townofthornton.org
- Calendar of all meetings for the town (not including the schools. Calendar: Public Meeting | Thornton NH (townofthornton.org)
- Thornton Central School website: Thornton Central School (pemibaker.org)
Click here to get a list of all town meetings
The town and the school district are considered separate entities. Click here for a list of town meetings, Board of Selectmen, Planning Board, etc.
Click here to get a list of all Thornton Central School meetings
The town and the school district are considered separate entities. The school board of the Thornton Central School normally meets on the fourth Monday of each month at the school at 5.30.
Click here to get a list of all Plymouth Regional High School meetings
The town and the school district are considered separate entities. The school board of the Plymouth Regional High School normally meets on the first Tuesday of each month at the school at 5.00.
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Heather Baldwin gets a ZERO score from School District Governance Association of NH
The School District Governance Association of New Hampshire is a non-profit that helps school districts with school boards. They track important bills in the legislature relating to schools. Heather Baldwin, our State Rep for Thornton, Waterville Valley, and...
Heather Baldwin votes to not require dead people removed from voter rolls.
SB576 This bill simply requires that when the Town Clerk is notified of a death in the town, they must notify the Supervisors of the Checklist (i.e. the people who manage the voter rolls) so that person can be removed from the voter rolls. The bill is short, here is...
Heather Baldwin votes against towns and school district tax caps
This is from the bill "This bill creates an additional adjustment to local tax caps based on inflation and population changes. The bill also establishes procedures for adoption of a budget cap by school districts." This bill was passed, despite Baldwin's negative...
Heather Baldwin votes against bill restricting biological males from competing in women’
The bill passed both the Senate and the House and is heading to the Governor's desk for signature. Here is a summary from the bill itself. "This bill requires schools to designate athletics by sex and prohibits biological males from participating in female athletics....
Why do ballots for the high school include warrant articles?
In the 2024 local election, you will notice the PRHS ballot is different than the other two. On this one, there are the warrant articles included. Why are warrant articles included there but not in the other two? The answer is that there are actually two different...
2024 Town and School Election Results
Note there are actually three elections, the town of Thornton, the Thornton Central School District, and the Pemi Baker Regional High School (PRHS) District. If you know voted, you know this because you had three separate ballots. Election results are here:...
WRITE-IN Candidate profile – Bob Hatcher, Town Moderator and Planning Board
Many of you know me as I've been around town politics and activities for several years. A Thornton resident and taxpayer since 2000, I've seen the town both thrive and struggle. My goal in running is to make our town run smoother, to keep the small-town flavor, to...
Results of the School District Annual Meeting, March 8, 2024
All items on the warrant passed including the big one to borrow over $4 million for school renovations. Most warrant articles require a 50% vote but warrant articles for debt over $100,000 require a 60% vote. This one passed with a 70% vote. Here is the warrant...
What happens at a town or school district annual meeting?
Annual meetings are an important part of town governance. At annual meetings, the funding of town or school board operations is conducted. In this document I will refer to the town, but the process is identical for the Thornton Central School school district. The...
Why we advocate voting no on the boiler bond issue.
(The post allows comments, and we welcome comments from the community and from the school board and SAU. See the bottom of this page.) This "boiler issue" has been around for many years. There is no question the school needs a new heating system as the oil-fired...
Heather Baldwin gets a ZERO score from School District Governance Association of NH
The School District Governance Association of New Hampshire is a non-profit that helps school districts with school boards. They track important bills in the legislature relating to schools. Heather Baldwin, our State Rep for Thornton, Waterville Valley, and...
Heather Baldwin votes to not require dead people removed from voter rolls.
SB576 This bill simply requires that when the Town Clerk is notified of a death in the town, they must notify the Supervisors of the Checklist (i.e. the people who manage the voter rolls) so that person can be removed from the voter rolls. The bill is short, here is...
Heather Baldwin votes against towns and school district tax caps
This is from the bill "This bill creates an additional adjustment to local tax caps based on inflation and population changes. The bill also establishes procedures for adoption of a budget cap by school districts." This bill was passed, despite Baldwin's negative...
Heather Baldwin votes against bill restricting biological males from competing in women’
The bill passed both the Senate and the House and is heading to the Governor's desk for signature. Here is a summary from the bill itself. "This bill requires schools to designate athletics by sex and prohibits biological males from participating in female athletics....
Why do ballots for the high school include warrant articles?
In the 2024 local election, you will notice the PRHS ballot is different than the other two. On this one, there are the warrant articles included. Why are warrant articles included there but not in the other two? The answer is that there are actually two different...
2024 Town and School Election Results
Note there are actually three elections, the town of Thornton, the Thornton Central School District, and the Pemi Baker Regional High School (PRHS) District. If you know voted, you know this because you had three separate ballots. Election results are here:...
WRITE-IN Candidate profile – Bob Hatcher, Town Moderator and Planning Board
Many of you know me as I've been around town politics and activities for several years. A Thornton resident and taxpayer since 2000, I've seen the town both thrive and struggle. My goal in running is to make our town run smoother, to keep the small-town flavor, to...
Results of the School District Annual Meeting, March 8, 2024
All items on the warrant passed including the big one to borrow over $4 million for school renovations. Most warrant articles require a 50% vote but warrant articles for debt over $100,000 require a 60% vote. This one passed with a 70% vote. Here is the warrant...
What happens at a town or school district annual meeting?
Annual meetings are an important part of town governance. At annual meetings, the funding of town or school board operations is conducted. In this document I will refer to the town, but the process is identical for the Thornton Central School school district. The...
Why we advocate voting no on the boiler bond issue.
(The post allows comments, and we welcome comments from the community and from the school board and SAU. See the bottom of this page.) This "boiler issue" has been around for many years. There is no question the school needs a new heating system as the oil-fired...
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We won’t bombard you with emails, just important stuff that you will want to know about.
On November 28, 2023, the property tax rate for 2024 was announced. Here is a comparison to last year.
| 2024 | 2023 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| County | $1.71 | $1.59 | +7.5% |
| Schools | $13.53 | $12.92 | +4.7% |
| Town Operations | $3.82 | $4.23 | -9.7% |
| State Education | $1.70 | $1.27 | +33.9% |
| $20.76 | $20.01 | +3.75% |
In a nutshell, here are the operating budgets for the three entities for 2023
Town operating budget
$4,237,039
2022 Annual Report, page 86
Thornton Central School Budget
$5,728,362
2022 Annual Report, page 141
Plymouth Regional High School Budget
$2,336,058
2022 Annual Report, page 103
Remember that the above are operating budgets, the expense side of the equation. Each entity also has revenue streams other than property taxes. For example, the town receives money from car registration fees and the like, and the schools get reimbursements from the state and federal governments. This next table shows the net amount each entity needs to collect via property taxes.
| Entity | Amount | Amount per thousand | Percent of total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Town operations | $1,915,410 | $4.10 | 20.5% |
| Thornton Central and Plymouth Regional schools | $5,866,560 | $12.92 | 64.6% |
| County operations | $722,438 | $1.59 | 7.9% |
| Contribution to state education fund | $566,910 | $1.27 | 6.3% |
| Total | $9,071,318 | $20.01 | 100% |
These data were from mid-November, 2022. The new rate will be published in mid-November, 2023.
The town reports are HERE. Remember that the reports are labeled for the previous year. For example, the 2023 report is for fiscal/calendar year 2022.
If you are interested in how the town assesses your property, see this document from 2019. This “Revaluation Manual” is updated every five years and is being updates in Q4, 2023
The town funds operations via various sources of income including taxes and fees but the bulk of them are raised via property taxes.
The calculation is simple. Just take the total dollars the town needs, for example in 2022 that was about $9.1 million and divide it by the town’s total taxable property. Here the info for the total taxable property Q4 of each year:
Q4, 2023 = $462 million
Q4, 2022 = $440 million
Q4, 2021 = $427 million
This information is contained in a document entitled MS1 and is filed with the state. As of November, 2023, see HERE. These data are included in the town’s annual report.
There is a page for each entity that provides more detail.
This website is brought to you by the Thornton Taxpayers Group. We welcome thoughts and suggestions for the site. Send suggestions to info@thorntontaxpayers.com
We welcome comments on this site and suggestions on improvement. Please contact us: