So I have read that Education Savings Accounts are going to lead to a “broad-based” tax because the cost may rise to $103 million. Sounds like a lot of money … until you look at the State budget.
So here’s a schematic of the current budget:
As a percentage of New Hampshire’s $6.7 billion budget for the current fiscal year, a $103 million cost for Education Savings Accounts would amount to only 1.5% (or if you prefer decimals to only .015). In other words, in terms of the State Budget, the $103 million projections is equivalent to a rounding error.
The bottom-line is that even if Education Savings Accounts do cost $103 million, if needed (that is, if the growth in future “education” tax receipts do not cover the cost) such a sum could easily be covered by tweaking existing taxes (or by restraining the increase in future spending elsewhere in the budget.)
