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Home made sign held by a student(?) hoping to save their ‘Pubic’ education, in Los Angeles.
?Contemporarily, governments all over America, be they national, state, local or municipal, have come to recognize that spending is outpacing revenue. The 2010 elections were a message that we as a nation need to become more fiscally responsible and stop spending ourselves into bankruptcy. Consequently, budgets are being slashed, expenses trimmed and austere measures are … Read more
Rumor has it Mr. Obama gave a speech yesterday about something. I didn’t watch it and with good reason. Been there, done that. Two faced, self contradicting, tired, and repetitive. Put another way, Big Ben, Parliament.
There is a city in Georgia that outsourced just about everything. The result? Better services, low taxes, no pension bombs, and money to spare.
NH Journal is reporting more fear-mongering from the left, and from the usual suspects. Teri “Billion Dollar Deficit” Norelli (D- scaring women and children), is promising us that the Republican Budget will ‘put peoples lives at risk.
To the Editor:
Those protesting the new House budget in Concord last week have one thing in common, they want NH taxpayers to open their wallets for their personal benefit.
Most protesters were public employees demanding no changes to their cushy, secure, low stress, highly compensated (compared to similar private sector) jobs, nor to the corrupt system that maintains their great jobs, benefits, and consequently grows the cost of government .
To the Editor:
Every child knows which parent to approach for permission to do something risky, expensive, inappropriate, or too impractical. The parent who says “No” is called “mean”, “uncaring“, “selfish”, etc.
Some marriages have problems because over-spending threatens financial disaster, e.g., eviction, inability to purchase real needs like food and health insurance. Sometimes one spouse stands up to avoid the disaster, slashes expenses, sells expensive toys, cancels unessential services, etc. Family members enjoying the excess spending may call these cuts “extreme” and the responsible parent “mean”, “uncaring“, “selfish”, etc.
Across our country city, state, and federal governments have recklessly over-spent and over-committed future spending.
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So in the face of this economic catastrophe, which the democrats happily sold as a disaster not unlike a Biblical plague, what did NH Democrats do? They decided that despite that we were going to take in 23% more revenue than we did when times were “good” and went on a grow government spending spree. You could call that a revenue problem, but I think it is really more of a democrats are selfish, ideological, tax and spend A-holes problem.
Budget – will it go up, or down. Here in NH, like most states, the budget HAS to be balanced. During the last 2 legislative sessions, the Dems pushed spending up 25%, using a bunch of accounting gimmickry and taking advantage of the mean trick on the backs of our grandkids by accepting "free Federal money" to help support that spending frenzy. Well, the bill came due and the Republicans in Concord have done the adult thing and said "no mas" to that unsupportable amount of spending.
Problem still remains: that of the Federal Govt. There, the Dems have held sway and true to form, they just threw not dollar bills into the air, but thousand-dollar bills into the air, thinking "there, great governance on our part". Yeah, Hope on a massive scale. What’s it gonna give us if nothing is done? Yeah, massive debt, as seen by this chart:
The right side of the chart? If we leave the current spending by Obama and his merry band of Progressive / Marxist / Socialist cohorts alone, that’s where we end up -> a bigger version of Greece. Same result, however, less spending and more hurt. That’s what happens when children-politicians decide to no longer delay self-gratification (or in this case instant gratification of their sycophant unions that keep them in power). As any family knows, spend beyond a certain point, and all the family income goes to debt service – it DOES affect the things that a family can then do (trust me, when TMEW became ill and I had to shut our small biz down, I know what it is like).
That green part? Congressman Paul Ryan’s blueprint for a more adult way of…
NH House Republican Press conference on the Budget and their legislative accomplishments this year.
Someone asked…who didn’t vote on HB1 and HB2. Who are these reps anyway? OK, we’re here to deliver. HB 1 here, HB 2 on the jump!
[update] So everyone knows, I am not passing judgment here, just posting the list. Plenty of these folks will have been excused, or approved absences, even important or necessary business that kept them away or took them away from the State House. Your job is verify the absences of your reps if they concern you, and if you are unable to find good cause, discuss it with them as time permits.
Only four democrats skipped the vote on HB 1 while twenty six Republicans did not cast a vote.
| House Rep | Party | County | District | Vote |
| Beattie, Thomas | Republican | Hillsborough | 17 | Not Voting |
| Belanger, Ronald | Republican | Rockingham | 4 | Not Voting |
| Brosseau, Charles | Republican | Grafton | 6 | Not Voting |
| Coughlin, Sean | Republican | Hillsborough | 6 | Not Voting |
| DeJong, Cameron | Republican | Hillsborough | 9 | Not Voting |
| Dowling, Patricia | Republican | Rockingham | 5 | Not Voting |
| Dwinell, Richard | Republican | Cheshire | 5 | Not Voting |
| Eaton, Stephanie | Republican | Grafton | 1 | Not Voting |
| Emerton, Larry | Republican | Hillsborough | 7 | Not Voting |
| Flanders, Donald | Republican | Belknap | 4 | Not Voting |
| Hawkes, Samuel | Democrat | Cheshire | 3 | Not Voting |
| Hogan, Timothy | Republican | Hillsborough | 23 | Not Voting |
| Hutchinson, Karen | Republican | Rockingham | 3 | Not Voting |
| Huxley, Robert | Republican | Hillsborough | 3 | Not Voting |
| Keane, Thomas | Republican | Merrimack | 13 | Not Voting |
| Kingsbury, Robert | Republican | Belknap | 4 | Not Voting |
| Larsen, Kirst en |
Republican | Strafford | 2 | Not Voting |
| Moody, Marcia | Democrat | Rockingham | 12 | Not Voting |
| Parison, James | Republican | Hillsborough | 3 | Not Voting |
| Peckham, Michele | Republican | Rockingham | 13 | Not Voting |
| Pelletier, Marsha | Democrat | Strafford | 5 | Not Voting |
| Pepino, Leo | Republican | Hillsborough | 11 | Not Voting |
| Quandt, Matt | Republican | Rockingham | 13 | Not Voting |
| Roberts, Kris | Democrat | Cheshire | 3 | Not Voting |
| Sapienza, Marie | Republican | Rockingham | 8 | Not Voting |
| Simpson, Tyler | Republican | Belknap | 1 | Not Voting |
| Souza, Kathleen | Republican | Hillsborough | 11 | Not Voting |
| Stroud, Kathleen | Republican | Hillsborough | 19 | Not Voting |
| Summers, James | Republican | Hillsborough | 26 | Not Voting |
| Terrio, Ross | Republican | Hillsborough | 14 | Not Voting |
Click through for HB 2
VISIT NHCORNERSTONE.ORG >> This Legislature has put our money where their mouth was… And we should thank them for it! Dear Tim, The message was LOUD and CLEAR last November – Stop the Spending. More importantly, government needed to live within its means. If deficit spending does not work on the home front, then there is no reason our government should … Read more
The Sunday Union Leader had a letter to the editor titled "2012 can’t come fast enough." It suggests that New Hampshire did not vote for a majority and leadership intent on stripping collective bargaining agreements from 70,000 New Hampshire workers…" which is a number I would contest given this data. (Where we may be hiding 70,000 public sector union workers is a question worth exploring, but not right now.)
The author is Kevin Foley. Kevin is a great guy. We worked together at UPS for a number of years, he was a driver, and I was a package car loader–including his. But Kevin has been a well paid union organizer with the Teamsters for years, as an IBT Business agent, and earns more than double the national average in income and compensation for the privilege. Kudos to Kevin for the sweet gig. I bet he works hard for it.
Kevin has donated hundreds, maybe even thousands of dollars to democrats and the local Teamster PAC–(Granite State Teamsters DRIVE) which supports the national union and democrat candidates in the state (one local example from NH S.o.S.); the same ones who grew state government, added public union employees, some of whose dues pay Kevin’s salary, and the same democrats who left us with a nearly one billion dollar budget deficit as a result.
RALLY AT THE NEW HAMPSHIRE STATE HOUSE IN CONCORD TOMORROW MORNING, March, 31, 2011 from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon. SUPPORT THE RESPONSIBLE REPUBLICAN MAJORITY! From Nick Pappas, Jeff Chidester, and Chris Bucik: Please join us in support of the all the State Representatives who will be voting on the current budget with HB 2. We … Read more
WOW! On March 24, 2011 the State House Finance Committee—which prepares state budgets—met to vote on a budget bill. Rep. Neal Kurk proposed an amendment that would put an end to the so-called "Evergreen Clause" that gives public employee unions huge power in spending negotiations, and an incentive to "stonewall" in order to get what they want. With … Read more
The non-partisan Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy, headquartered in Concord, leads the way with THIS ONLINE TOOL. State Senator Andy Sanborn has been agitating for some time for the state to do this in real-time, totally and completely. The cost will be trivial. The usefulness? It’s useful just to know that the members of … Read more
If the democrats in New Hampshire want anyone to take them seriously on why we should not lower the cigarette tax, they had best find a better spokesperson than House rep. Christine Hamm from the Peoples Republic of Hopkinton.(PRH)
From this mornings union leader..
Rep. Christine Hamm, D-Hopkinton, argued against the change. She said no state has seen tobacco tax revenue increase after a tax cut.
“This is yet another expensive exercise in futility,” she said. When it comes to tobacco, she said, “Every tax hike produces new revenue, and every tax cut reduces it.”
Oregon tried a 10-cent cut, and saw revenues fall by 10 percent, she said.
“To do the same thing would be fiscally stupid,” Hamm said
You know what else is stupid? Listening to Christine Hamm. Oh, and comparing Oregon to New Hampshire? There are almost no demographic similarities, the most important of which is the sheer size of Oregon and the proximity of neighboring states which are also huge.
No one is driving across Washington State, or up from California, or Idaho, or anywhere else to buy cigarettes in Oregon. Only Washington State taxes them more (the last I checked.) No incentive, no gain.
But here in New England, where people can buy almost everything cheaper in New Hampshire, the classic New England maxim does not apply–"you can get there from her," or here from there, and they do. People shop here from other states to save money. So reducing taxes on cigarettes (or anything else) gives them one more incentive to make the trip or to buy more while they are here.
Need proof?
Raising the tax already cost us revenue. Last August Maine announced that it’s sales had increased 20%. That is most likely money that used to get spent here but which the tax hike diverted back to Maine. (I wrote about it here)
And more Proof?
This Union Leader Editorial in today’s paper does exactly what we should all be doing. Pointing out the obvious hypocrisy of democrats who ignore actions by their Democrat governor. It used to be that the “essential” level of funding for state health and social services was whatever the commissioner of Health and Human Services said … Read more