The good news of the day is that the scheme to amend HB 357 into the NH DOT budget plus gas-tax-increase has failed. The full House rejected the amendments 365-3.
Spec Bowers c/o Facebook
The vote was closer than expected: 3 in favor, 365 opposed. BTW, Kurk spoke against his own bill. The gas tax amendment was not even brought to the floor.
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To clarify, there was a Finance committee amendment to make drastic cuts to the DOT, and a second amendment to raise the gas tax to undo their proposed cuts. The drastic cuts were rejected, the gas tax amendment was withdrawn.
More from Spec..
The drastic cuts would have been real cuts from the current budget, not phony cuts that were smaller increases than the governor wanted. The DOT budget has been cut for three budgets in a row (if memory serves).
A modest increase to improve roads and bridges is appropriate. Yes, we want cuts but that is too big to introduce in the context of a budget. The DOT like the rest of government needs a longer, detailed study about what it should do, not do, farm out to contractors, etc. – but that is a big job.
H/T to Joseph Sweeney for posting the update I saw on Facebook (at RLCNH)
