Representative Government Committee

League of Women Voters^®
of the Upper Valley

Description of this committee

Can we create better election districts?

Redistricting, independent commissions, and political competitiveness
A talk by Professor Benjamin Forest, Department of Geography, Dartmouth College (January 19, 2006).

Past Forums

Since its formation in 2004, the Representative Government Committee has sponsored two educational forums about the functions of local government.
In early 2005, UVM Professor Frank Bryan and author Susan Clark spoke about their new book about town meeting.
On November 30, 2005, in Hanover's Community Center, Commissioner Michael J. Cryans explained that the county provides some services of a regional nature which are too expensive for the towns to finance. They include the Nursing Home, Jail, Register of Deeds, space for state Probate and Superior Courts, Dispatch Center (communications), University of NH Cooperative Extension, County Farm. Mimum security prisoners work on the farm and in the nursing home. There are not enough programs to keep all inmates constructively occupied.
Mr. Cryans is one of three county commissioners, representing Grafton's District One which includes the towns of Enfield and Hanover, and the city of Lebanon. The County's annual budget totals more than $26 million, of which $14 million comes from property taxes. As costs increase, the state shifts responsibility to the counties. Grafton is the second largest of New Hampshire's ten counties.

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