I am asking for your vote to continue to represent you. You’ve been barraged by a lot of political “messaging”. Try to think of the specifics you’ve been given. I say this, because if someone told you that they had a plan at the state level, it needs to be submitted in a few weeks if it has major budget impact. That’s the deadline. I have a detailed plan to create property tax relief by restructuring our education funding formula to be fairer. This plan was created by a commission resulting from a bill that I filed. The bill ending the devastating stabilization grant reductions is already filed. The work is done. We just have to vote for it now.

I’ve helped our towns by bringing home money for local projects, so that they can be done without property tax increases. Some of these involve paying for security upgrades to Fall Mountain and Lempster schools, hundreds of thousands of dollars for local road and infrastructure projects that won’t need to come out of your town budgets, supplemental grants for local drug treatment, and increasing the portion of the rooms and meals tax sent to local towns.

I fight to make sure that we are not forgotten when they decide what roads to pave. We finally got the road to the high school done and are executing a plan to make sure that Route 12 doesn’t slide into the river. I never stop beating the drum that I93 and 101 are not the only roads in the state that matter. We live here on the west side of the state and our needs matter just as much as Manchester’s.

I spend most of my time helping people navigate problems with state agencies and passing bills that make your everyday life easier. We fixed a problem that now allows sponsoring agencies to help homeless people get driver’s licenses so that they can get their lives back and drive to work. It is easier now to register and inspect your car, and I led the team fixing our problem with the federal government so that NH residents have the right kind of id (if they wish) to avoid extra security screenings. I restructured the NH Rail Transit Authority to embrace new transportation technologies and private companies who want to come build here.

Being a State Representative is not about politics. It is about trying to make your everyday life easier. I understand that and think that I’ve been effective. I am not wealthy or retired. I have to get by just like you do. That’s why I have fought, successfully, to protect you from county tax increases for 8 years. I am asking for your vote so that I can continue to represent you and remind those in power that common sense solutions for everyday problems should always be every Representative’s highest priority.

Respectfully,

Rep. Steven Smith