GraniteGrok

UPDATE:  heh!

I took a sideways "hi there!" at Dean from BH near the bottom of this post for his absolutely nutty whack at the past; guess I wasn't the only one!  Kevin Landrigan of the Telegraph saw the same thing:

The cop-out of the week award goes to the Blue Hampshire blog that blamed not Lynch nor the SEA for the layoffs, but two long-dead people – New Hampshire Union Leader publisher William Loeb and ex-Gov. Meldrim Thomson, who saddled the state with the anti-broad-based tax pledge.

But "saddled"?  The bias speaks volumes.  Kevin, you want a broad based tax?  Which one: incomes, sales, or VAT?  Or all three?

Once again, nothing about the value of low spending....

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This past Wednesday, the Union Leader had an editorial on the financial crisis here in NH with a specific example of what Doug calls the "every dollar is sacred" scam - when confronted with a spending crisis, the politicians (and their appointed officials) often decided to go after "customer facing" function instead of an "internal" function.  That way, those that are serviced by that function raise a stink and often, the money is "found" to re-fund it.

Right now, not so much.  With the $110 million money grab from the JUA (medical malpractice fund) seemingly crashing against the rocks, and now an additional $37 million in Federal Medicaid bucks not coming through, Gov. Lynch, Senate President Larson, and House Majority Leader Norelli can add "F" (for FAIL) next to the D (for Democrat) after their names.

From the editorial:

Ordered to cut personnel, state Health and Human Services Commissioner Nick Toumpas laid off all employees of the Multiple Driving While Intoxicated Offender Intervention Detention Center program. The savings will amount to something less than $1.6 million a year. The real cost? More DWI convicts will be free while awaiting sentencing...

Toumpas was ordered to make personnel cuts because Gov. John Lynch was ordered to make personnel cuts. The Legislature preferred to balance the budget this way rather than make cuts itself. This way, the Democratic majority can avoid the blame when important programs are eliminated.

But look what happens when priorities aren't set.

The DWI program's $1.6 million annual cost is supposed to be paid by the offenders. But many can't pay. Taxpayers make up the deficit. That's why HHS can't say exactly how much taxpayers will save by eliminating the program. It doesn't know how much a subsidy would have been needed.

The state could have kept the entire $1.6 million program, however, by cutting funding for nonessential services. For example, the state spends $404,000 a year to license barbers and cosmetologists that could be certified by a professional association instead.

The state will spend more than $1 million over the next two years on the Governor's Commission on Disability. Despite the budget crisis, general fund spending for this commission, which advises the governor, was increased by $88,518 in the budget passed this summer.

The state spends more than $600,000 a year, or $1.2 million in the new, two-year budget for "state arts development."

Eliminating those three state functions alone would have more than paid for the DWI program. Instead, repeat drunk drivers await sentencing while the state showers money on "arts development" and other questionable services. 

This is indicative for when there is no setting of priorities - when everything is deemed necessary, everything is a priority.  Problem is, there is ALWAYS a priority that should and MUST be set by Leaders - or else resign or go away.  If you cannot make the hard decisions, the necessary decisions, get out of the way and get out of the office.

Or, I'll be most happy to assist and make the decisions for you. After all, I (along with TMEW) make those decisions all the time for our family - list them, rank them, and then fund them.  Or not - we are not entitled to everything that we want.  Nor should government.  This is not rocket science.

When times are tough (or, as the Democrats have done, engineered their own financial crisis to make tough times tougher), tough decisions are needed.  What Lynch, Larson, and Norelli showed was an inability to make those tough decisions during the budget process (after all, they allowed the highway "wildflower" allocation to go to 6 figures - why not let that program "go to seed naturally" (could not resist!) and reallocate that money to higher priorities.  Odds are better than even that they took the usual political way to frustrate citizens rather than making the tough decisions that Leaders should have made. 

They protected government instead of citizens.

But it is always politics - Dean over at Blue Hampshire gets his knickers in a bunch about another FAIL of Lynch's Administration in that lab workers that did lead paint testing were let go - but he blames not the present Administration for botching the budget (or the SEA for making it worse) but on a lack of tax funding.

In the case of the UL editorial, I simply state that either the drunks in the program pay or no longer drive - let the consequence of making bad decisions be borne by those making those decisions instead of having society at large socialize those bad outcomes with tax money.  Pay, or surrender the license - driving is not a right.  Harsh words for some ears, but needed.

With respect to Dean - instead of always expecting Government race to solve the problem, why don't YOU do something about it - start a fund, start a charitable group, that would fund such projects if you feel that the need is so important?  Why not do something YOURself, instead of saying "somebody ought to do something about this". 

Doing it yourself - and  persuading others to join you - IS the harder thing to do.  But it seems that persuading a few politicians to spend other peoples' money is so much easier....