Departures from public service are not uncommon. But how you depart says a lot about who you think you are and what you’ve really accomplished. Take Kathy Sgambati for example. She’s leaving the State Senate after only two terms, a paltry four years, but if you read her departure rhetoric it sounds as if she was the best thing to hit the scene since sliced bread.
Sgambati served on the Senate Finance Committee and "was a key architect in the development of consecutive balanced budgets during challenging national and local economic climates. She also served as a member of the Public and Municipal Affairs Committee.
Key Architect in consecutive balanced budgets? I think a reality check is in order. This is the same balanced budget lie Lynch has been selling. It’s based on the assumption that as long as you raise taxes or create debt (pass the buck) you can say you balanced the budget. On these terms there can be no irresponsible act. She could have authorized a trillion in debt and claimed to have balanced the budget. So maybe we should start calling her Scambati?
Scambati was a key architect in raising the cost of government 23% while economic and wage growth were heading the opposite direction. She backed an energy tax that launders 11 million a year through power companies. She supported illegal takings of property in the JUA grab. She permitted taxes without public hearings and helped bond tens of millions of dollars in two successive deficit–ridden budgets because of her own criminally negligent revenue projections.
So she paid the visa with the MasterCard, helped the state write a check to itself, and called it a day. That would make her the architect of passing the buck. And now she’s leaving the scene of the crime which might be the best thing she’s done for New Hampshire in four years.
Cross Posted at NH Insider
