Dems spending more money the State doesn't have

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.