It has taken me a while to realize the source of a delicious odor wafting through Portsmouth: It is the rotting remains of the PCC, victim of the very forces they thought they controlled. Listening to the late PCC's President, Lassie Fandango, orate the dear departed's entry into the Charter Change Beauty Contest at the Council meeting Monday, it hit me: Paiva Weed makes their whole approach irrelevant.

The brilliance of Weed finally struck me like a diamond bullet: "In its fiscal year 2008, a city or town may levy a tax in an amount not more than five and one-quarter percent (5.25%) in excess of the total amount levied and certified by that city or town for its fiscal year 2007." The genius of that bill. By giving them what they thought they wanted, Weed cut all these soi disant tax rebels off at the knees.

The PCC won the battle but lost the war. By instigating a bruising Tent Meeting to gut the school budget and slash the town side, they built in a structural deficit, virtually guaranteeing that budgets will need to run right up to the cap forever.

Okay, you say, but they still have to stay under it. Right. But that cuts both ways: It also freezes tax rates. By doubling down, Pretty Crispy Carcass, Inc. gave away their hole card of tax relief. Because it's not just about tax increases, it's what people are paying right now that's driving them out of their homes.

The PCC rhetoric of cutting millions, slashing rates from 9% to 5%, defending the Charter, well, all that is off the table. Oh, sure, they'll still show up at meetings, fight every line item like wolverines on No-Doz, but they are the living dead.

The only path to tax relief now, as described by the Portsmouth Economic Development Committee in their December, 2006 report to the Council, is tax-positive growth. Since the total amount of the levy will be increasing by fixed amounts, the only way individual tax bills can decline is by spreading that over more taxpayers without incurring additional expenses. Remember the chart at left? You can click it for a bigger view.

Can Portsmouth grow in a way that positively impacts taxes without threatening the character of the town? Yes, it is possible — through analysis, planning, hard work, and tough choices. For these kinds of activities, the PCC is now irrelevant, and the new ruling acronyms will be EDC, PRA, and WSMP¹.

You can't get smart growth from a Tent.