NH State Representative Steven Smith

I rarely get involved in partisan fights… but our Governor has left me no choice.  I have been asked why Republicans won’t compromise with the Governor.  Despite Gov. Hassan making it very difficult to do that, we have tried repeatedly.  Her first counter proposal was literally dropped on the desks of NH House and Senate leadership as she headed for a press conference to announce it.  That isn’t working together, or collaboration.  It is important to remember that we began with a budget that her office wrote and that we worked very hard to find enough of your money to accomplish it all.  A NH Governor begins the process knowing that they will get most of what they want, whoever controls the Legislature.  Despite many Republican voters wanting reduced spending, we crafted a budget with more health and human service spending than any in our state’s history.  We recognized the need for investing in solutions to the addiction crisis and taking care of our veterans.  We even found that a cut to nursing home funding that she proposed was not needed to accomplish her goals, and we added that money back in.

One of Gov. Hassan’s early sticking points was the delay in the pay raise for state employees.  A pretty big deal was made of this.  We have since found the money and offered that, in full.  She rejected it and said that we are not serious about compromise.  Now, the sticking point is the business tax cut we proposed… while still meeting and exceeding program spending proposals.  House Democrats said that tax cuts don’t help business or create jobs.  New York disagrees.  Have you seen the commercials about tax breaks for businesses that move there?  They spend millions on that advertising because it works.  More to the point, Gov. Hassan herself disagrees.  Read her press release from August 31 of this year at http://governor.nh.gov/media/news/2015/pr-2015-08-31-r-d-tax-credit.htm  where she claims credit for jobs created as a result of a tax break.  I guess they only don’t work when Republicans propose them.  This partisanship has to stop.  I have voted for many bills proposed by Democrats when I thought they were good for my district.  I didn’t check the sponsor’s party affiliation first.

Lastly, Governor Hassan says that these tax breaks will “blow a 90 million dollar hole” in the budget.  No they won’t.  The non-partisan Legislative Budget Office says that the budget is balanced.  Independent analysts say that the budget is balanced.  Gov. Hassan bases her statement on projecting years out and assuming that we lose revenue from the tax break, and that there is virtually no growth in our businesses or jobs.  I have more faith in you than that.  I think that if we make it a little easier to do business here, NH businesses will work hard and succeed.  We make our budget in 2 year cycles so that we can react to changing circumstances.  Her argument is baseless, and not representative of how our process works.  Recent projections have shown that we have enough trouble forecasting out 2 years, much less multiple cycles.  If she is just against the tax break, she should say so.

If you don’t have your Representative’s contact information, you can find it here – http://gencourt.state.nh.us/house/members/housemembers.html  Call them, email them, ask them to stop the partisan posturing and over ride the veto on September 16.  There are a lot of good programs that can help people waiting for the funding that it contains.

Rep. Steven Smith
Sullivan County District 11
603-826-5996
nhfirst@gmail.com

From http://www.unionleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20150729/OPINION02/150729063/1003/sports02

This article may help explain the key difference in the two positions on the current budget. If the Executive Branch overspent their budgets…. they shouldn’t be allowed to use process to cover that up. It is apparently not illegal for them to spend more than your Representatives authorize. It should be, otherwise, what is the point?

Steve

Budget squabble won’t end before October
By CHARLES ARLINGHAUS

THE ONGOING state budget fight is about yesterday, not tomorrow. Big squabbles in government are never about what the news release claims. This one won’t and can’t be resolved quickly.

The news conference phase of the budget that we are currently undergoing amounts to positioning before negotiations, which can’t begin until official documents are released at the beginning of the fall.

Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan vetoed the Republican Legislature’s budget last month. The public fights between those two parties have been over tax cuts, tax hikes, state employee raises and expanding the Medicaid program. The real fight, however, is all about last year.

The governor has charged the legislative budget with being unbalanced because she contends it would move $31 million of money budgeted for last year forward to this year. In her words, the Legislature is double counting that money. The Legislature’s counter charge is that nothing is double counted unless the governor and her departments overspent the budgeted authority and are trying to obscure that alarming fact.

The charges are confusing and sound both technical and obscure, leading the casual observer to dismiss them as largely irrelevant minutiae. In fact, this dispute is the most important part of the squabble and critical to future budgets.

In the budget process, the most important public document released is called the surplus statement. The surplus statement is an explanation of every major change a proposal — the Legislature’s or the governor’s — makes. It is a summary of the bottom line of the budget that shows spending levels, tax estimates and how the budget is balanced (as required by state law).

Under the law, the budget proposal does not stand as an island. It must take into account the prior year that is ending as the new budget begins.

The prior year’s spending must fall within the budget limits established by the prior budget and any adjustments to that spending authority made by other laws or executive order. In addition, the executive branch must meet its estimated managerial savings, referred to as “lapses.”

This year, up until the moment of veto, there was remarkable agreement over the outcome of fiscal year 2015. A look at the surplus statement in the budget documents on the Legislative Budget Assistant’s website shows that the Legislature and the governor estimated 2015 spending at precisely the same $1.34 billion and both count on precisely the same $51.9 million lapse adjustment. Nonetheless, in the current budget squabble, the governor claims the Legislature has underestimated spending by $31 million. Her public statements have accused the Legislature of double counting revenue and not paying for all the 2015 spending. Yet the Legislature pays for the same spending and counts the same lapsed spending.

The only possible way the legislatively passed budget doesn’t pay for the 2015 bills is if the bills are coming in high — if the executive branch is spending more than it said it spent. The Legislature has not pressured the governor to spend less in 2015. Instead, it appropriated the same amount and made the same assumptions the governor said she was making.

This is why the budget can’t be fixed anytime soon. In late September or early October, the state will issue official documents detailing how much was actually spent, whether some departments exceeded their authority (overspent their budget) and whether the $51.9 million everyone agreed was going to lapse actually lapsed.

There is no legal penalty if the executive branch spent more than it was supposed to. In fact, there will likely be an argument about what the numbers actually mean. If a department spends too much but characterizes it as “not meeting its lapses,” it amounts to the same thing as overspending its authority, but it falls within a sort of wiggle room under the law.

Nonetheless, yesterday matters. If spending will exceed $1.34 billion or if lapses won’t be $51.9 million, the managers of state government should not allow the fake number to be the basis of a budget. In about two months, the truth will come out. If spending is not as advertised, any compromise budget must include transparent methods to keep a jaundiced eye on unreliable stewards of spending.

Charles M. Arlinghaus is president of the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy, a free-market think tank in Concord.

Flags to Half-Staff Until, Saturday, July 25, in Honor of United States
Marines Killed in Chattanooga

CONCORD – President Obama has issued a proclamation ordering the lowering
of flags on all public buildings and grounds to half-staff immediately and
until sunset, Saturday, July 25, in honor of the United States Marines
killed last week in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Governor Maggie Hassan issued the following statement when directing flags
to half-staff on Friday, July 17:

“Our service members, at home and abroad, sacrifice every day in defense
of the freedoms and values that we hold dear. Yesterday’s shootings in
Chattanooga were a senseless act of violence that took four American heroes
from us far too soon. I join Granite Staters and Americans everywhere in
sending our thoughts and prayers to the families and loved ones of the
Marines we lost, as well as those in Chattanooga and communities across the
country as we continue to mourn.”