May 2008 Archives

NEW GOP CANDIDATE?

The Republicans may have a second candidate for governor, after all.

With just four weeks left before the opening of the June 4-13 filing period, James "Jim" Adams of Pittsfield has Republican leaders excited.

Adams, the recently retired former New Hampshire/Vermont district manager for the U.S. Postal Service, said yesterday he is seriously thinking of running because he's upset by what he views as excessive spending in Concord.

Adams said he will make a final decision before the filling period opens and is currently trying to raise money. He says he's been encouraged by state party leaders.

While Adams would be making his first run for elective office, he's not a political novice, said state GOP Chair Fergus Cullen.

"Jim's initial strengths are management experience with a large organization with large budgets and a less tangible set of political skills that comes from rising to the top in a large political, bureaucratic organization and staying there," he said.

Adams, a New Hampshire native, spent 36 years at the postal service, the first 10 as a letter carrier. In 1988, he went to Washington as senior advisor to the assistant postmaster general and then as chief of staff to postmasters Anthony Frank and Marvin Runyon. He said he helped Runyon cut $14 billion in costs from the postal services in six years and was liaison to the White House, the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs, and worked with congressional leaders.

He returned to the state in 1997 as the district manager and "cut costs by 2.5 to 3 percent a year in every year I was here."

He retired on Feb. 29 and about three weeks ago, became interested in running.

"I was concerned with the state of the economy and with the 17.5 percent spending increase in the state budget," he said. "Where I came from, that sort of budget would have meant the individual in charge would no longer be there."

Adams called Democratic Gov. John Lynch "a good man and a very popular governor," but he believes the budget and government can be cut.

He took the anti-broad based tax pledge in an interview, and said that no, he is not related to former White House chief of staff and Gov. Sherman Adams.

Senate Democrats’ energy plan is garnering more criticism today, and not just from fellow Democrats.  Investor’s Business Daily has a scathing editorial today discussing the folly of Democrats’ proposal for a windfall profits tax and their unrealistic ideas about “price gouging.” IBD writes in part, “As any student who's taken Econ 101 at the local junior college can tell you, higher taxes don't encourage production; they discourage it.”

National Review Online’s Jonah Goldberg also takes Democrats to task in his column and exposes the absurdity of politicians deciding for themselves just what profits are “reasonable.”

Another criticism leveled by the IBD editorial is that Democrats are looking to return to failed 1970’s energy policies. Indeed, a number of the Democrats’ ideas are particularly stale, reaching all the way back to 1974.

Additional: here, here

Meanwhile, Senator Gregg is trying to make a difference:

New Hampshire Senator Judd Gregg has co-sponsored an amendment to address rising gas prices and reduce the country's dependence on foreign sources of oil.

The amendment increases the production of oil and gas in the United States, as well as supports the development of renewable energy and advanced energy technologies.

Gregg says the American Energy Production Act of 2008, on which the amendment is based, will produce up to 24 billion barrels of oil domestically and expand the nation's commitment to renewable sources and advanced energy technologies.

The amendment is pending on the flood insurance bill being considered by the Senate. It's been scheduled for a vote on Monday.

And Senator Gregg calls out NY's Schumer, and wins:

A recent report by New Hampshire Union Leader senior political reporter John Distaso discussed attacks on New Hampshire's senior senator, Judd Gregg, by a newspaper in New York.

Sen. Gregg rightfully took issue with an earmark inserted to a bill dealing with air traffic safety. The earmark was to fund a rail project in New York City. Rather than defend the rail project on its merits, the newspaper suggested that this project relates to 9/11 and thus anyone who criticizes it is insensitive.

Ironically, the first vocal critic of this dubious earmark was none other than The Wall Street Journal. If the World Trade Center had a hometown paper, one might argue the Wall Street Journal was it. Here is what the Journal had to say about the Schumer earmark in December of 2006:

"One of the projects to be funded: a new train from Manhattan to John F. Kennedy Airport. Why people in Oshkosh or Olympia should have to pay for this urban choochoo is a mystery.

"What makes this project especially objectionable is the creative financing conjured up to pay for it. This earmark hangs like a Christmas ornament from a must-pass bill to extend certain annual tax credits. And how's this for a misnomer? The subsidy is called the 'New York Liberty Zone Tax Credit.' Here's how it would work: New York would receive up to $2 billion over 10 years (about $1.3 billion of which is Sept. 11 money, for a net new subsidy of $682 million).

"Of course, New York City doesn't pay federal taxes, so this bill allows the Big Apple to retain the employer share of the payroll taxes that the city collects on behalf of its public employees ... The result: a new $2 billion hole in the budget. Our congressional sources say this is the first time this kind of tax credit has been provided for a city or state to pay for infrastructure pork."

In Washington, the easy path is to just stay silent about other members' earmarks and about wasteful spending in general. But, in the Granite State tradition, Judd Gregg has taken the road less traveled. New Hampshire taxpayers should be thankful he is trying to make a difference.

Jim DeMint is a Republican U.S. senator from South Carolina.

Date:        5/14/08

UNH POLL SHOWS SEN. McCAIN AHEAD IN NH: 

The most recent UNH poll shows Senator McCain defeating both Barack Obama (49-43 percent) and Senator Clinton (47-43 percent) in New Hampshire.  The poll shows McCain defeating Obama by a staggering 61-27 percent among independents, and topping Clinton by 53-30 among the same group.  McCain also wins a healthy chunk of Democrats against either candidate.  To read the UNH survey, go to here

 

THIS IS GREAT NEWS FOR NH REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES THIS YEAR: 

Candidates won’t be running into a headwind like 2006.  Help us put a stop to the higher spending, tax increases, and left-wing agenda that has dominated Concord for the past two years by running for office this year!  Contact Mike Hamilton or 225-9341.

 

POLL ALSO SHOWS SUNUNU GAINING, SHEA-PORTER IN TROUBLE:

The UNH poll shows Senator Sununu up five points in the Senate race compared to the last time the poll was done and Carol Shea-Porter losing in the first CD. Check it out  

 

LYNCH INTRODUCES A NEW TAX, RAISES OTHER TAXES: 

To fill the growing state budget deficit resulting from Gov. Lynch’s 17.5% increase in state spending last year (NH has record revenues yet still has a deficit), Gov. Lynch this week proposed raising taxes on cigarettes (for the third time in four years) and alcohol, and introduced a new tax on poker.  One of the reasons fiscal conservatives seek to limit the number of different taxes (“no new taxes”) is because once a new tax is in place, it’s all too easy to raise it a little here and a little there, you know, for the kids.  Like Lynch is doing with cigarette and alcohol taxes.  Does any one really think a new poker tax will stay at the initial rate for long?

The much anticipated education bills (SB 530 and SB 539) will finally come to the floor of the House this Wednesday and, should they survive the legislative process and are signed into law by Governor Lynch, they undoubtedly will be challenged in the courts.

Despite facing a budget deficit of more than $250M, Democrats in the House Finance committee have amended and passed SB 539, adding more than $130M in additional spending to the cost of an adequate education. This bill is expensive, ineffective and blatantly unconstitutional! It violates every one of the Claremont decisions, 2-13. This marks the fifth time that the original bill, presented by Democrats on the Adequate Education Costing Committee, has been amended and each ‘fix’ has been worse than the previous one. This bill provides for an arbitrary cap on state aid. Transitioning to full adequacy aid is not the same as full adequacy aid, and our Supreme Court has ruled on more than one occasion that the state must pay, from day one, the full cost of a constitutionally adequate education.

SB 539 also establishes nearly 40 new donor towns while purportedly “holding them harmless” for two years. Those districts that would receive less state aid in FY 2010 and FY 2011 under the majority formula would be guaranteed the amount they received in FY2009. Donor towns purportedly would have their excess statewide education property tax rebated, but after two years, the taxpayers in everyone of these communities would be hit hard.

This is exactly what the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional in Governor Shaheen’s “ABC Education Plan.” It contains absolutely no mechanism to send money back to the towns from the state. The Democrats have added more than $130M in spending with absolutely no idea of where the money is coming from. The majority have clearly chosen to put off the hard work until the next budget—after the fall elections—thus significantly increasing the fiscal problems facing the state in the next biennium and leaving us open to broadbased taxes.

SB 530, relative to kindergarten aid, is also unconstitutional and will be headed for the courts. In funding the new kindergarten mandate adopted last year, Democrats fail to pay for the entire cost imposed on the twelve school districts which have not voluntarily chosen to offer public kindergarten—a clear violation of Article 28-a of our State Constitution. The four year transition period available to these school districts to pay for kindergarten does not cover the land, site preparation or core facilities’ cost. The bottom line: SB 530 orders twelve school districts over a four-year period to construct kindergarten facilities. Forcing the state and the municipalities to do significant construction and spend millions of dollars at a time when our economy is at a standstill is fiscally irresponsible.

When will the Democrats wake up to the fact that, as Ronald Reagan once famously stated, “we don’t have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem?” It’s a fact that revenues this year are $72M ahead of last year, a 3.8% increase. Had the Democrats held spending to a more modest increase, instead of their 17.5% boost in spending, and listened to Rep. Major’s warnings of overinflated revenues and a slowing economy, we would not be facing the financial crisis that we are in today.

Rather than looking for reasonable places to reduce the bloated budget passed last year and bring it into line with our rising revenues, Democrats look to raise still more taxes and fees. In fact, just this week Governor Lynch announced a plan to raise money for the general fund while ignoring an earlier pledge not to raise taxes or impose new fees on the citizens of New Hampshire.

The Lynch plan calls for increasing the tobacco tax by 25 cents—the third time that our “let’s not raise taxes” governor has increased this tax! If the State of Massachusetts fails to pass a proposed $1 increase, it would leave NH just $.18 a package lower than the Bay State. What would that do to the many businesses located in our border communities?

Governor Lynch has also proposed imposing a new tax, at a rate of 10% on Texas hold ‘em winnings, raiding dedicated funds in the amount of $1M, imposing additional costs on business owners by reducing the discount on alcohol they buy to 10% and forcing lapses of $2.2M on Home-Community Based Health Care (HCBC) and nursing services program. The governor also proposed to bond $80M of school building aid over the biennium, which will free up an additional $40M in general fund revenues each year, but represents a significant shift from the New Hampshire tradition of paying for such projects in cash. By bonding our school building aid, we are mortgaging the future rather than paying our obligations as they come due—much like using one credit card to pay off another one. And as Rep. Major has calculated, this bonding will cost the state an additional $32M before it is paid off.

This will be a very important week in the NH Legislature as we take up education funding and begin the discussion of a Constitutional Amendment. We invite all members of our caucus to attend a Republican Caucus on Tuesday morning at 10:00 AM in Representatives Hall. The first order of business will the discussion of a possible Constitutional Amendment. Following that, and if time remains, we will then take up the regular House Calendar. On Wednesday, our caucus will be held, as usual, at 9:00 a.m. in Rooms 305-07 of the LOB.

Please remember that we value the input of every member of our caucus. I hope to see a good turnout for our caucuses on both Tuesday and Wednesday. If you have any concerns with regard to legislation appearing in the calendar, please let us know.

For Immediate Release                                                                           Contact: House Republican Office   

May 1,2008                                                                                            603-271-3665

Today Governor Lynch announced a plan to raise more money for the general fund, but in doing so he ignored a pledge he made just months ago not to raise taxes or impose new fees on the citizens of New Hampshire.

The Lynch plan calls for increasing the tobacco tax by 25 cents, imposing a new tax at a rate of 10% on Texas hold’em winnings, raiding dedicated funds in the amount of $1 million, imposing additional costs on business owners by reducing the discount on alcohol they buy to 10%, and forcing lapses of $2.2 million on Home-Community Based health Care (HCBC) and nursing services programs.  This plan would theoretically bring in approximately $45 million for the year, according to Rep. Norm Major (Plaistow), former Ways & Means Chairman.  The governor also proposed to bond $40 million of school building aid, which will free up an additional $40 million in general fund revenues.  

House Deputy Republican Leader David Hess (Hooksett) stated, “I am frankly disappointed that the governor has not kept his pledge to the citizens of New Hampshire. But I am not surprised.” 

“Ronald Reagan famously stated in Washington in the 1980s that ‘we don’t have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem.’  That is exactly the case in New Hampshire in 2008.  Rather than looking for reasonable places to reduce the bloated budget passed last year and bring it into line with our rising revenues, the Governor and the Democratic leaders of both the House and Senate want to raise still more taxes and fees.  If we had passed a reasonable budget, with an increase in line with the Consumer Price Index (CPI), we would not be where we are now,” added Rep. Hess.  “While our projected deficit for this fiscal year is $45 million, revenues are actually up $72 million, or 3.7 percent above last year,” stated Rep. Major, who serves on the Ways and Means committee.

Republican Policy Leader Rep Gene Chandler (Bartlett) said, “This plan is going to hurt more than help our citizens.  Reducing the discount for small business owners to 10% for alcohol, threatening our hospitality industry; it is outrageous to think that either consumers will pay more or small business owners make less at a time when our economy is in trouble.  These businesses are the backbone of tourism for our state economy; we can not and must not do anything to endanger that.  By bonding $40 million in school building aid, we’re mortgaging the future rather than paying our obligations as they come due.  We also should have learned our lesson from last year when we increased the tobacco tax and revenues dropped off.  Here we go again with an additional tax burden to our citizens; it is irresponsible and not in the best traditions of doing what is right for New Hampshire.”

“War Over Gas Prices Explodes” is the headline in Roll Call today, which writes, “[B]oth parties and President Bush ratcheted up the blame game Tuesday and scrambled to propose an ever-expanding list of possible salves.”  Of course, it’s instructive to recall that Democrats have been firing salvos over gas prices for more than two years. In fact, Senate Democrats and their Senate candidates were saying, “Talk is cheap, gas is not,” and promising that if they were given control of Congress, they would act to alleviate high gas prices.

Two years later, “Gasoline . . . is $1.25 more, on average, than it was when the Democrats took over Congress,” as Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said at a press conference yesterday. Senate Republican Conference Vice Chair John Cornyn elaborated: “Two years ago, Speaker Pelosi said that if Democrats were given the majority, they would produce a common sense plan for reducing the pain at the pump. Well, we’re still waiting for that plan.”

Politico reports today, though, that Democrats are actually working on proposals, but that they are apparently more interested in scoring political points against Republicans and demonizing oil companies than doing anything to address the real issue of energy supplies.  Their ideas apparently range from bad Carter-era retreads like windfall profits taxes to demanding price gouging investigations that have turned up nothing in the past.

At a Rose Garden press conference yesterday President Bush warned, “Congress is considering bills to raise taxes on domestic energy production, impose new and costly mandates on producers, and demand dramatic emissions cuts that would shut down coal plants, and increase reliance on expensive natural gas. That would drive up prices even further. The cost of these actions would be passed on to consumers in the form of even higher prices at the pump and even bigger electric bills.”

As Roll Call noted, “Republicans said there was no mystery to rising prices — supply isn’t keeping up with rising demand.” Indeed, Republicans took the opportunity yesterday to remind reporters that Democrats have repeatedly scuttled GOP proposals to increase domestic energy supplies. As Sen. McConnell said, “[W]e’ve had an opportunity to build more refineries, and the Democratic majority voted it down.  We’ve had an opportunity to open up additional parts of the outer continental shelf, even in a place like Virginia where you had one Democratic senator and one Republican senator in favor of it, and the Democratic majority voted it down. It’s clear that on the production side of the equation, this new majority is not interested in doing anything.” Senate Republican Whip Jon Kyl added that President Clinton vetoed a Republican plan to drill for oil in ANWR years ago, which could now be producing quite a bit of oil.

Republicans have proposed basic steps Congress could take to increase domestic energy supplies, but Democrats have repeatedly opposed them. It’s unfortunate, but unsurprising, that in the absence of constructive suggestions, Democrats are looking instead to score political points.

Despite facing a budget deficit of more than $250M, Democrats in the House Finance committee today ignored the impending financial crisis and added more than $130M in additional spending to the cost of an adequate education, passing SB 539 in a partisan vote. 

According to House Deputy Republican Leader David Hess of Hooksett, the bill violates every one of the Claremont decisions, from 2-13. “This bill is expensive, ineffective and blatantly unconstitutional,” said Hess. “It provides for an arbitrary cap on state aid, preventing any town from receiving more than 115% of their current state aid over the next biennium. As such, the bill costs an adequate education but then blatantly fails to fully fund it,” he added. 

“It marks the fifth time that the original bill, presented by Democrats on the Adequate Education Costing Committee, has been amended and each ‘fix’ has been worse than the previous one,” said Hess.  In referring to the legislation as the “son of ABC,” the first education funding bill passed under Gov. Jeanne Shaheen and quickly declared unconstitutional by the New Hampshire Supreme Court, Hess warned that it would establish nearly 40 new donor towns. The legislation purports to hold the donor town harmless, which is exactly what the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional in Gov. Shaheen’s original bill, and it contains absolutely no mechanism to send money back to the towns from the state.   “The Democrats have added more than $130M in spending with absolutely no idea of where the money is coming from,” concluded Hess.

Calling the bill “Alice in Wonderland” legislation last week on the floor of the House, Rep. Hess concluded that the bill, in its present form, is “even more strange.” 

Unless amended on the floor, the bill will now go to a Committee of Conference.

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From the Laconia Daily Sun (5/3/08 ):

Faith Tobin, one of the people who worked on the April 26 community auction that raised funds for the family of Melanie VanTassell, confessed to being somewhat dismayed about the only story about the event that appeared in the Daily Sun this week.

In yesterday's edition there was a short story about how Selectboard Chairman Andrew Livernois had bought a box of old dinner plates at the auction and confessed to being disappointed when he got it home and discovered that some of the dishes were broken. The twist was that Livernois later went online and discovered that the plates that were still in one piece were worth more to eBay collectors than what he'd spent on the entire box.

Livernois was joking about the outcome of the situation at Wednesday selectmen's meeting in the town office building.

But Tobin sad the event, which rasied almost $5,000 for a family that lost their home in house fire in February, was so much more.

In her role as Sanbornton's Overseer of the Public Welfare, VanTassell has made many friends in the community and last wee, Tobin said, the people of the town had a chance to respond to her personal difficulties – which they did with a passion.

“It was really fun,” she reported “Everyone had a great time”.

Tobin's husband, State Representative Bill Tobin, ran the auction, and “he moved at a really fast pace so people really enjoyed it,” she said

The Tobins worked with Selectmen Steve Ober and his wife Karen, former selectman Patsy Wells and Mona Smith to organize the event held in the Old Town Hall. The Tobins and members of Boy Scout Troop 82 helped display the books and other items that were sold. Wells organized the sale of donated food items.

What especially impressed Tobin was how people gave despite their own financial hard times.

“People were bringing in handmade items like quits or paintings, things that meant a lot to them,” she said. “One man brought in a beautiful handmade inlaid cribbage board. Some people baked great desserts which were auctioned off. They all wanted to do it for Melanie. It was a great community outpouring.

“Everything was given with such love and heart-felt feelings,” she add. “some of the businesses are suffering but they donated gift certificates and items. I wish you could have seen it. Older people were coming in in tears, bringing things were were worth a lot of money and saying, if it doesn't sell, give it to the family.”

The job of a public welfare officer can be a difficult one but VanTassell has always handled it with an enthusiasm and optimism her neighbors appreciate. It was in that spirit of given that Sanborton responded to her family's needs last weekend.

Good people doing good things deserve to be appreiated.  Well done!