Dan H. Allen

Democratic Candidate for the
NH House of Representatives
from Danbury, Wilmot, and New London

He Favors

PERSONAL:
Born 1932, Newtonville, MA, moved to New London in 1957, married Natalie Davis August, 1986.
EDUCATION:
Keene High School; B. in Arch., MIT; M. Ed., Harvard; M. S. in Physics, UNH; M.S. in Environmental Eng., Northeastern U.; Professional Engineer.
MILITARY:
2 years, U.S. Army, helicopter mechanic, Berlin, Germany.
EMPLOYMENT:
Proctor Academy, 3 yrs.; New England College, 7 years; Department of Environmental Services, Water Supply and Pollution Control Division, 17 yrs., final role as supervisor of the State's industrial wastewater pretreatment program.
LEADERSHIP:
17 years as an instructor in the AMC's Mtn. Leadership School; author of Don't Die On The Mountain (Diapensia Press, 1998) about decision-making, leadership, and mountain safety (available at Morgan Hill Bookstore and Main Street Bookends, Warner); first Chairman, Board of Directors, Sunapee-Ragged- Kearsarge Greenway Coalition (SRKG).
SERVICE:
Budget Committee and School Board (one term each), Kearsarge Regional School District; member of the Board of Directors, Keene High School Alumni Fund, which awards a grant to the outstanding teacher of the year (1997 to present); trail maintainer with my wife, Natalie Davis, of 3.1 miles of the Appalachian Trail, and 3.3 miles of the SRKG; member of Friends of Mount Sunapee; member Friends Of Gile (Forest).

BELIEFS:

  1. We have a state obligation to provide an adequate education to all children and an obligation to responsibly define what an adequate education is. I favor a dedicated, constitutionally limited broad based tax and reduction of property taxes.
  2. A clean environment is essential and must not be compromised by reckless budget cuts.
  3. We must not lease or sell our public parks and forests for private development as the means of funding our state government.
  4. The Department of Health and Human Services was created to help those in need. I would vote for restoration of funding for this agency.
  5. I am opposed to the weakening of our state agencies that occurs when we fire our senior workers with institutional memory.
  6. I favor choice and privacy.
  7. I believe there should be a code of ethics for elected officials, appointed officials, and for state employees.
  8. Campaign finance reform is in the public interest.
  9. Jobs and fair wages must be protected, and we need an increased minimum wage.

Why I am Running:

We've got to do something about the ship of state; it is listing too far! The NH House of Representatives is presently more than two thirds Republican in persuasion. The Republicans similarly dominate the Senate. And, we've had a Republican Governor and Governor's Council. The result is that we have not had a balanced state government these past two years. Unless the Democrats field many more electable candidates, we will not have a healthy balance. I hope to be one of a large influx of Democrats in this next session. I want to help overcome the impasse over school funding. Even some of the staunchly conservative Republicans can see that our fiscal difficulties will require more taxes. The House of Representatives has been Republican since 1857. Don't you think the fat has been taken out of the budget by now? We have a deficit of a hundred million dollars, about 8% of our annual budget. Someone has projected that it will become 3 hundred million in the upcoming biennium, based on the budget and the anticipated income.

While the income tax is the proper way to connect taxes to the individual's ability to pay, I accept Peter Burling's advice that we should agree to any reasonable tax that does not add to the existing property taxes. Peter Burling is the retiring House minority leader who is now seeking the Senate seat being vacated by Clif Below.

Education is in trouble. As the cost of education has grown, so has the resistance to the concomitant property taxes. That resistance has resulted in reductions in the school offerings. Our children lose. The state needs to disconnect school funding from property taxes, as much as we can, and define an adequate education in terms of opportunities.

Our Mount Sunapee State Park has been leased to the people who own and run Mt. Okemo in Ludlow, VT. Excellent skiing has resulted along with many upgrades. But, the operators want to expand the leasehold so that they may build a new lift on the west side of the mountain that would terminate on private land. The latter would be the site of development of 250 condominiums. I am opposed to the lease expansion, because it means development of state land, and because the Park was originally intended as a forest preserve, given by the Society For The Preservation Of New Hampshire Forests. The Park was intended for public use. An example of such use is the Greenway that follows that strip of land proposed for lease expansion. The operators indicate that they cannot continue to be competitive without the expansion. No backup for that assertion has been made. They now receive annual gross revenue from the Mount Sunapee ski operation that is on the order of ten million dollars.

The development of state properties for private gain is a concept that I oppose on the grounds that it threatens all state lands. Most of those lands were given or acquired with the expectation that they would be held in public trust, that they would be used for little more that timber production and non-destructive recreation. When I asked a resident of Coos County to sign a petition opposed to the Mt. Sunapee lease expansion he declined until I pointed out that the same affront could occur in that county, and that all public lands were at risk.

At present state parks and forests must be self-supporting. This places and inappropriate pressure for development and exploitation. It is the opposite from the pressure to preserve, the normal concept associated with state forests and parks. The latter is my concept of public trust. To this end I would support separation of functions of Economic Development from Resources (forests and parks). Further, the funding for each must be divorced.

Gile Memorial State Forest is being considered for development to provide a major All Terrain Vehicle trail system. The Forest is about ten square miles in area, and about somewhat less than 2 miles in average width by about 7 miles long. A trail system that would be satisfying to users would be perhaps 60 miles in extent. Were all those miles established in the Gile Forest, it would result in fairly intensive use. There are many historic places in the Forest, and it is now a very quite place. That character would be lost. I am opposed to the development of ATV trails in Gile Forest. However, I offer this: Since each existing state forest or park is likely to have its protectors, an ATV park should be established on purpose-bought land.

I am interested in your concerns and input. I can be reached at the addresses and phone number listed on the first page. Please don't hesitate to contact me, since I hope to represent you.

Dan is, or has been, involved in the following:

signed
Dan Allen, 763-5320, natanddan@nhvt.net
1300 King Hill Road, New London, NH 03257
Robert Foote, Fiscal Agent, 526-8058