What to Expect From GOP Control of State Government – Cronyism, Kochism, and Not Much Else … Except, Naturally, Lockdown-II

Sununu announced his agenda for the next two years on election night. And it’s underwhelming to say the least … cutting New Hampshire’s sales tax on restaurants and hotels/motels (the room-and-meals tax) and cutting the tax on businesses that don’t show a profit (and thereby avoid paying business-profits tax) because they distribute all the profit to the owners as salary (the business-enterprise tax):

Shortly after winning a third term, Gov. Chris Sununu vowed to press for one long-held priority: tax cuts.

In a press gaggle Tuesday night outside his campaign party, Sununu said he would push for cuts to the meals and rooms tax to support hotels and restaurants, and potentially a future cut to the business enterprise tax in his next two-year budget.

A few comments. These tax cuts will do nothing to help working people. To the extent taxes are preventing people from going out to eat, the culprit is stratospheric local education property taxes not the room-and-meals tax. And what has and is really hurting the hospitality industry is not the rooms-and-meals tax, but the junk-science COVID lockdown.

But the local Koch organization, which poured quite a bit of money into Sununu’s reelection, needs to be kept on board for 2022, so it’s more Koch tax cuts.

Sununu’s agenda is notable for what it does not contain.

New Hampshire has the most extreme abortion laws in the country, essentially abortion-on-demand until birth. You would expect a State government that is controlled by the GOP to do something about that. Some reasonable regulations, such as limitations on third-trimester abortions, perhaps? Don’t hold your breath. The poll-driven Sununu is paranoid about not being seen as “pro-choice.”

Cleaning up New Hampshire’s elections is also not on the agenda. How about once and for all making it so out-of-Staters cannot vote in New Hampshire? Nope. Not on the agenda.

As far as reforming education is concerned, I am sure we will see the Legislature spend the $46 million or so in federal money for charter schools that the previous Legislature blocked, as well as approve the Learn Everywhere regulations also blocked by the previous Legislature.. But with total control of State government, the GOP … if it wanted to … could do so much more, such as enact meaningful parental choice. Not some byzantine scholarship system, but a system to make choice a reality for all children. Not on the agenda.

As for health care, there really is not that much difference between Sununu and the Democrats. It was a law signed by Sununu and supported by many GOP legislators that made Obamacare State-law in New Hampshire. And Sununu’s Attorney General is working with Democrat Attorney Generals to uphold Obamacare in the pending case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

What we probably will see, however, is Lockdown-II as cases (NOT HOSPITALIZATIONS or DEATHS) inevitably rise with more testing and colder weather driving us indoors.

And something that we will definitely see … with the Executive Council now in GOP control … is more cronyism. Sununu’s first two nominees to the N.H. Supreme Court were clearly unqualified. Sununu has already said that he will renominate his Attorney General for the vacant position of Chief Justice. While not unqualified, MacDonald (who has refused to ask the N.H. Supreme Court … in the pending education funding litigation … to overrule Claremont) is NOT a judicial conservative. But he has been very loyal to the Governor.