Yesterday Terie Norelli celebrated my Birthday by taking to the pages of the Keene Sentinel to talk about what a great job the New Hampshire democrat party has been doing with the state. One of the things she’d like you to believe is that they have created (or saved?) a job friendly environment that has allowed the Granite State to recover more quickly than other states. But is that really true, and do democrats have anything at all to do with it?
It is a matter of fact that under the left New Hampshire has grown the size of state government and its regulatory nature. They have increased taxes and fees. While Ms. Norelli opines all the additional regulations they have added to inspire growth in the job market—and thus the economy—this is like someone handing you a tiny cup of water to put out a raging fire they started and then expecting you to thank them.
About the only thing they can claim is having inherited an ages old State formula that used to create jobs and growth. One they have tinkered with to the point of destruction. And things are not–as Norelli would like you to believe– heading in the right direction.
Back in March of 2010 the unemployment percentage took a turn for the better, but because of how that number is calculated , it does not mean that the job situation did. According to the state, using numbers she must certainly have access to, In March the labor force was estimated at 748,140. In the most recent report, (June) that number was 741,850. That is a loss of 6,290 working Granite Staters. Is this surprising?
Historical data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows a steady rise in the states labor force–the number of people working or looking for work–from January of 2002 to January of 2007 (ending roughly when democrats took over government at every level in the state and took control of congress.) After January 2007 that number slowed–plateaued–and has begun to slip locally.
From March to June 2010 in New Hampshire the actual number of employed persons rose by 2200, but when you take out the decrease in work force population the net result is a loss of almost 4100 workers. So while the state is reporting unemployment around 5.8 or 5.9%, it is actually 6.5% or higher, and some 4100 fewer people are looking or available for work. They either gave up or sought employment outside the state.
And the state actually calculates the percentage of underutilized workers–those who stopped looking, look occasionally, are marginally attached, or are taking any work–part time or otherwise well blow their skill set at over 12%. While that’s a bit broad, to suggest New Hampshire democrats have improved the situation at all is a hard sell.
But it gets worse for local democrats.
The Union leader is reporting this morning that thanks to almost one billion in recovery dollars New Hampshire has added (or saved) roughly 8000 jobs, just over 2700 in the last three months alone. But how can you claim to have saved anything in the past three months when the workforce population actually declined by almost 6300 workers? No one saved anything and the 2700 eclipses the 2200 reported by the state.
If we go so far as to assume that the recovery money added 2734 new jobs, we exceed the three month employment growth figure by 534. Unless Norelli and company would like to dispute the stimulus figures, all the NH dems have done is cash checks from the feds to hide whatever real damage they have done, and tried to sell an influx of federal money as their own handiwork, while apparently scaring thousands of job seekers out of the state.
Put that on your campaign sign.
What we are left with is the potential for a slowly declining workforce in a limited growth scenario where any reduction in federal dollars would reveal the true nature of what the left has done to New Hampshire. That is to say, they have sold the state out to the federal government to hide their destructive policies, with money that does not even exist, and which will need to be paid back by future generations of Granite State families–not just to the state (to merely sustain the stagnating situation we are in now), but also to the federal government in even higher taxes. So moving forward we’ll have higher taxes and even less capital in state to allocate on our own, forcing us to become even more reliant on the feds.
So we’ve seen more spending, more taxes, more government, a bigger deficit, fewer jobs, and less growth.
If Norelli and the Left would like to run on that platform I invite them to do so.
