NH State Representative Steven Smith

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

I was watching the debate between Governor Sununu and Senator Kelly and realized the depths of our problem, when neither could answer a question about where to get workers for regular jobs. The context given was the recent closing of a Portsmouth restaurant due to a lack of available waitstaff. Senator Kelly rambled about spending on education, and Governor Sununu talked about tech jobs and nursing. Neither had anything to do with the question.

Let me frame it. Politicians, particularly at that level, talk about the workforce as though there’s something wrong with you if you aren’t a computer scientist or a doctor. That is so wrong. There are a lot of people who just want to work, or actually enjoy their trade or vocation. We need waitstaff, welders, assemblers, and these are the jobs that some people want to do, and we should respect them for it. They are NOT second class citizens.

I can tell you why they are getting scarce and what needs to happen to fix it. I moved here from New York thirty years ago because I couldn’t afford housing costs on Long Island. I knew that if I came to Newport or Claremont (had spent some time here before) I would be able to get a job and an apartment. It was not a great apartment, but you could make it work with what Arlington Sample paid back then. Now you can’t. The jobs are gone and the housing is gone. In the late 1990’s, Claremont seized tax delinquent properties and removed around 600 low cost housing units from the market. This of course drove the remaining rents up.

If you want people to be able to make it as waitstaff and factory workers, we have to get housing costs down. Young people just starting out and people who want to work in retail can not afford the current levels, and they can’t all get Section 8. This is the answer that one of them should have given. If I was in the situation that I was in 30 years ago today, I do not know if New Hampshire would be my destination. This,above all, is what needs to change. We also can’t get bogged down in unrelated debates about political talking point issues like minimum wage and “workforce housing”.

Developers need to be incentivized to create rental units that are around $500 per month. Pieces of this involve reducing property taxes, lowering fuel costs, and lowering electric rates. We all need a place to live, and we all use electricity. If we want to retain young people, and make it possible for people without college degrees to do an honest day’s work and live a good life, these need to be our priorities. How hard is it to understand? if there is no viable place for them to live, then they will live elsewhere.

Steve

There has been quite a clamor for a new education funding lawsuit this cycle, and rhetoric like “hold the Legislature accountable”. Fair enough, but have any of those folks addressed all the work that has been done on this issue this past Session? I supported two measures that would have repealed or frozen the reductions in adequacy aid due to stabilization grant reductions. When it became clear that these were not going to pass, we formed a joint committee to work through the objections. They boiled down to two.

1. Stabilization grants are based on 2011 student populations. It is unfair and poor practice to send grants based on inaccurate student numbers which change over time.
2. Freezing the reductions in the absence of a new plan is wrong because of the previous reason.

For a year and a half, this committee worked on a solution that respects the opposing points of view, while creating a solution for hard hit communities like Charlestown and Claremont. The new plan bases it’s numbers on current student populations, adjusted annually, and increases aid for property poor municipalities and places with high numbers of students receiving free and reduced lunch.

The committee produced recommendations which should be supported to increase aid. A summary from the report:

“It is therefore recommended by the committee that base adequacy be raised to $3,897 and differentiated aid for students eligible for free or reduced price lunch be raised to $2,500 with no change to special education funding, English language learner and to eliminate the money for those children who are in 3rd grade and reading below proficient level. These dollars would go to all municipalities to be spent on education.”

“The “Umberger” Education grant program is based upon equalized property valuation per student, and is designed to provide funding assistance to eligible school districts in support of academic growth and achievement in grades K-12. Grant recipients may expend grant funds in a manner which best fits local need, and grant funds are not restricted or targeted to any specific group.”

 Here are the numbers for an example.

ADM means number of students (Average Daily Membership)
F&R means number of students eligible for free and reduced lunch

Charlestown factors:
ADM=617
F&R=276
Grant eligibility – $2500/student

Charlestown Numbers under the new system:
Base adequacy – 617*3897 = $2,404,449 +
F&R differentiated 276*2500= $690,000 +
Umberger grant – 617*2500= $1,542,500

Total aid to Charlestown based on 2017 ADM = $4,636,949

Claremont factors:
ADM=1632
F&R=819
Grant eligibility – $2500/student

Claremont Numbers under the new system:
Base adequacy – 1632*3897 = $6,359,904 +
F&R differentiated 819*2500= $2,047,500 +
Umberger grant – 1632*2500= $4,080,000

Total aid to Claremont based on 2017 ADM = $12,487,404

Ask your local officials if this is a better deal than they are getting now. We believe it is a giant step forward. The objections have been overcome by creating a new formula that will be based on current student populations, recognizes that property poor municipalities need extra help, and recognizes that there can be additional challenges with communities having a high percentage of free lunch eligible students.

For specific numbers for communities other than these two, you can contact me at nhfirst@gmail.com or 603-826-5940.

Rep. Steven Smith