Republican Report: April 2008 Archives
I hope that you all had the opportunity to read the op-ed piece published this week in the Union Leader (Wed., 4/23). (see it after the jump) It was written by Charles Arlinghaus, president of the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy in Concord. The essay titled, “Some thoughts on being an island in a sea of socialism,” clearly captures what we as Republicans have been confronted with since the Democrats took control of the legislature less than two years ago. Since that time, we have not only witnessed the state’s first $10 Billion budget—thanks to a 17.5% increase in spending—but we have also seen the further erosion of the New Hampshire Advantage that we have enjoyed within the region through inceased taxes and fees. As Mr. Arlinghaus pointed out, “government is getting larger but it’s also getting more intrusive.” If you have not yet read his piece, I urge you to do so.
It will be our job, over the weeks and months leading up to the fall election, to educate the voters of our state as to exactly what has been going on at the State House in Concord. We need to point out exactly why their taxes have increased, why fees have gone up, and why we are facing a potential $260M deficit in state government!
In order to regain control of the New Hampshire House, and begin the task of repairing the damage done by the Democrats, we must:
You will also notice an announcement in this newsletter about a Republican Campaign School that will be held in Nashua on May 17th. Over the next few months we will try and keep you informed of any program that may be helpful to candidates planning their campaign. To that end, we have recently been including campaign tips along with our Republican Report and we plan to continue this practice. I would like to thank Rep. Ken Weyler for helping to compile much of the information that we are sending out. If you have any thoughts or suggestions, please let us know and we will share them with the entire caucus.
Finally, I would like to thank the members of our caucus for supporting the motion to withdraw, without debate, the Bill of Address to remove Superior Court justice Patricia Coffee from office. With the resignation of Judge Coffey this week, the committee felt that a motion
to withdraw was in the best interest of the State of New Hampshire. It has been tabled, however should it be necessary it could be brought back again this session, but that is highly unlikely.
Our Republican caucus will be held at 11:30 AM on Wednesday in Rooms 305-307 of the LOB. This will give us a chance to go over the issues prior to lunch. If you have any concerns with legislation coming to the floor on Wednesday, please bring them to the caucus. We also invite all of you to join us for our Republican Caucus Spring Social following the House session on Wednesday at the Upham-Walker House. Food and beverages will be served and it will be a great opportunity for us to get together in a relaxed atmosphere following a long winter. I hope to see you all there!
It will be our job, over the weeks and months leading up to the fall election, to educate the voters of our state as to exactly what has been going on at the State House in Concord. We need to point out exactly why their taxes have increased, why fees have gone up, and why we are facing a potential $260M deficit in state government!
In order to regain control of the New Hampshire House, and begin the task of repairing the damage done by the Democrats, we must:
(1) present qualified candidates to the voter; andIf you know of someone in your district who would make a strong candidate, please have them contact both our office and the State Republican Party headquarters. If you are an incumbent and have made a decision as to whether nor not you intend to run for office again, please let us know. Paul Smith in our office has been compiling a list so we know in which districts we need to recruit additional candidates.
(2) make sure those candidates candidates are well versed on the facts.
You will also notice an announcement in this newsletter about a Republican Campaign School that will be held in Nashua on May 17th. Over the next few months we will try and keep you informed of any program that may be helpful to candidates planning their campaign. To that end, we have recently been including campaign tips along with our Republican Report and we plan to continue this practice. I would like to thank Rep. Ken Weyler for helping to compile much of the information that we are sending out. If you have any thoughts or suggestions, please let us know and we will share them with the entire caucus.
Finally, I would like to thank the members of our caucus for supporting the motion to withdraw, without debate, the Bill of Address to remove Superior Court justice Patricia Coffee from office. With the resignation of Judge Coffey this week, the committee felt that a motion
to withdraw was in the best interest of the State of New Hampshire. It has been tabled, however should it be necessary it could be brought back again this session, but that is highly unlikely.
Our Republican caucus will be held at 11:30 AM on Wednesday in Rooms 305-307 of the LOB. This will give us a chance to go over the issues prior to lunch. If you have any concerns with legislation coming to the floor on Wednesday, please bring them to the caucus. We also invite all of you to join us for our Republican Caucus Spring Social following the House session on Wednesday at the Upham-Walker House. Food and beverages will be served and it will be a great opportunity for us to get together in a relaxed atmosphere following a long winter. I hope to see you all there!
Continue reading Republican Report - Message from Dave - 4/25/08.
A message from the Deputy Republican Leader.....
Democrats in the House are slowly discovering that artificially increasing revenue projections to accommodate their 17.5% spending increase in the budget has been a recipe for the largest financial crisis in state history. Their “spend like crazy and then inflate the revenue projections” method has put us on the doorstep of a $260M shortfall and brought us closer to what Democrats have been angling for all along, a broad based tax.
In fact, less than a week after the governor’s agency heads told the House Ways & Means committee that they were finally in agreement with Rep. Norm Major’s revenue projections, House Democrats ignored the warnings, and passed two education bills that will undoubtedly increase spending even further.
SB530, the kindergarten aid bill, is going to increase education spending by an additional $20M, with no projected increase in kindergarten attendance in the state. It also mandates that the 12 communities which do not currently offer kindergarten submit detailed plans by September, 2009, regardless of whether the taxpayers in those communities have agreed to implement the programs. Then they passed SB 539, relative to costing an adequate education that will cost the state nearly $1 Billion a year over the next biennium, and will bind the hands of future legislatures. The bill adds unreasonable levels to the costing formula, including increased teacher and staff salaries, materials, technology, transportation, and arbitrarily inflated additional aid based upon free and reduced lunch students—all factors that increase the average costs by more than $100 Million!
And, despite the fact that this Democrat-controlled House passed the largest spending increase in twenty years, they continue to refer to this crisis as a “revenue” problem when in fact it is clearly a “spending” problem. In fact, revenues have actually increased by more than $40M over last year, through March 31. Unfortunately, however, they were quickly gobbled up by an overexuberant spending spree in the very first year of the biennium.
But instead of cutting spending, Democrats have chosen an alternative: balance the budget by passing additional taxes and fees onto the citizens of New Hampshire—and the voters are finally starting to take notice. For your use in writing letters and op-eds, we have listed just a few of the increased taxes and fees that they have passed during this session alone.
What will be their solution? The hole is certainly far too deep to make up the deficit with spending cuts alone
during the second year of the biennium. The damage has already been done. House Democrats who insisted a year ago that Rep. Major was “crying wolf” when he talked of the Perfect Storm and warned of “overexuberant” revenues, are finally waking up to the grim reality that they should have paid attention.
And now, while Democrats are scrambling, in search of a revenue source that will handle such a large deficit, the hole gets deeper and the road to a broad based tax gets closer.
Over the final few weeks of the session, we as Republicans must stick together in waging the fight against further taxing and spending. I urge you to attend our
Republican caucuses held prior to each Session and as, always, we in leadership welcome your thoughts and comments about any issue that is important to you and your constituents.
-Dave
Democrats in the House are slowly discovering that artificially increasing revenue projections to accommodate their 17.5% spending increase in the budget has been a recipe for the largest financial crisis in state history. Their “spend like crazy and then inflate the revenue projections” method has put us on the doorstep of a $260M shortfall and brought us closer to what Democrats have been angling for all along, a broad based tax.
In fact, less than a week after the governor’s agency heads told the House Ways & Means committee that they were finally in agreement with Rep. Norm Major’s revenue projections, House Democrats ignored the warnings, and passed two education bills that will undoubtedly increase spending even further.
SB530, the kindergarten aid bill, is going to increase education spending by an additional $20M, with no projected increase in kindergarten attendance in the state. It also mandates that the 12 communities which do not currently offer kindergarten submit detailed plans by September, 2009, regardless of whether the taxpayers in those communities have agreed to implement the programs. Then they passed SB 539, relative to costing an adequate education that will cost the state nearly $1 Billion a year over the next biennium, and will bind the hands of future legislatures. The bill adds unreasonable levels to the costing formula, including increased teacher and staff salaries, materials, technology, transportation, and arbitrarily inflated additional aid based upon free and reduced lunch students—all factors that increase the average costs by more than $100 Million!
And, despite the fact that this Democrat-controlled House passed the largest spending increase in twenty years, they continue to refer to this crisis as a “revenue” problem when in fact it is clearly a “spending” problem. In fact, revenues have actually increased by more than $40M over last year, through March 31. Unfortunately, however, they were quickly gobbled up by an overexuberant spending spree in the very first year of the biennium.
But instead of cutting spending, Democrats have chosen an alternative: balance the budget by passing additional taxes and fees onto the citizens of New Hampshire—and the voters are finally starting to take notice. For your use in writing letters and op-eds, we have listed just a few of the increased taxes and fees that they have passed during this session alone.
What will be their solution? The hole is certainly far too deep to make up the deficit with spending cuts alone
during the second year of the biennium. The damage has already been done. House Democrats who insisted a year ago that Rep. Major was “crying wolf” when he talked of the Perfect Storm and warned of “overexuberant” revenues, are finally waking up to the grim reality that they should have paid attention.
And now, while Democrats are scrambling, in search of a revenue source that will handle such a large deficit, the hole gets deeper and the road to a broad based tax gets closer.
Over the final few weeks of the session, we as Republicans must stick together in waging the fight against further taxing and spending. I urge you to attend our
Republican caucuses held prior to each Session and as, always, we in leadership welcome your thoughts and comments about any issue that is important to you and your constituents.
-Dave
A message from the Deputy Republican Leader.....
At a press availability following his meeting with the Executive Council this week, Gov. John Lynch was asked if any new revenue or taxes could be in the offing considering the financial crisis (i.e. Perfect Storm) that the state is currently facing. His response certainly lent credence to the what Republican leadership have been saying all along—that the Democrats are leading New Hampshire down the path toward a broad based tax with their excessive spending, regardless of any pledge that their governor may have taken.
The governor’s response to the media was clear, “Well, I am going to be looking at everything.” Leaving “everything on the table” in dealing with the state’s huge deficit is a complete turnaround from the governor’s inaugural address in January of 2007 when he said, “the state should meet that responsibility without fundamentally changing our tax structure, particularly without a sales or income tax.” This latest flip-flop is reminiscent of the one taken by former Governor Shaheen in 1999 when she signed into law a statewide property tax—the first statewide tax in New Hampshire! If you recall, she also took the pledge against a broad based tax and then turned around and supported a state sales tax. Deja vu?
Speaking in a report aired on NHPR, our Republican Policy Leader, Gene Chandler, said, “The last thing we need anytime, but especially in this economy, is taxing our citizens more and increasing the fees that they pay. We’ve done that enough in the last year and we don’t need to do it anymore.” I wholeheartedly agree with Rep. Chandler..
The governor’s agency heads, appearing again this week before House Ways & Means to update revenue estimates, conveyed numbers that were not much different from what Rep. Norm Major had projected a week ago when he warned that the state was facing a shortfall of as much as $240 million over the biennium. Just a month ago, those same agency heads projected a deficit of somewhere between $151M and $204M. This week they increased those projections to between $222M and $267M, which also concurs with Rep. Major’s revised anticipated deficit of $262M—more than a quarter billion dollars!! Even worse, those numbers could grow larger depending upon the April revenue numbers—primarily the Interest & Dividend taxes and the state’s Business taxes. Despite holding this information, and despite the request of the speaker to bring them to the floor of the House, the chair of Ways & Means, Rep. Susan Almy, has chosen not to present the revenue figures to the House this month. Needless to say, we want to make sure that our caucus is aware of the growing problem.
To compound our financial crisis, this week the House Education committee approved the new school funding formula and added nearly $2 million, raising the price tag to approximately $916M. SB 539, in its current form, is patchwork—first, costing an adequate education, then targeting fiscal disparity aid to correct the original bill’s effect of sending far less aid to our poorer towns than they currently receive, and then again amending the bill to send a halfhearted, short term, inadequate “transition aid” to those working class towns that unreasonably lose money under this legislation. SB 539, as voted out by the Education committee, will increase state grants for education from $527M per year this biennium to $625M per year over the next biennium.
The Education committee also passed HB 530, a heavy-handed, “Big Brother” approach to implement mandated public kindergarten in twelve NH communities. Full state funding for kindergarten is necessary, both because it is a new mandate under Article 28-A and because it is now part of the definition of an adequate education. This bill only funds 75% of the construction costs for new standard classrooms and less than full operating costs of the estimated 41 new classrooms needed to satisfy the mandate. As a result, this bill would increase education spending by more than $20 million with no anticipated increase in kindergarten attendance in either these towns or across the state. Both of these Education bills will be coming to the floor of the House on the 16th.
This week the Senate will be hearing a couple of bills that we would like Republicans to oppose in committee. HB 1472, a Work Force Housing bill that usurps local planning and zoning prerogatives, will have a public hearing before Public & Municipal Affairs (Apr. 18th-2PM, Rm. 101, LOB). This “one-size fits all” legislation does not take into consideration the fact that many of our smaller communities do not have the infrastructure to accommodate multifamily and/or high density single family work force housing. Rural communities without the funds to fight this measure, would be forced to give in.
The House Commerce committee will hold a public hearing on SB 301 (Apr. 15, 11AM, Rm 302 LOB). This legislation would require insurers to cover prescriptions for durable medical equipment filled near the patients residence. This is yet another insurance mandate passed by Democrats! We would ask Republicans to sign-in opposing both bills at their Senate hearings.
SB 528 will also be coming to the floor of the House next week. The majority of the Environment & Agriculture committee took a pretty good bill from the Senate, rejected an amendment that cleaned up some language and ensured that there would be no incentive and then passed their own amendment which added a bounty of $5 per recycled mercury thermostat to increase recycling rates. This “bounty” will be paid by the manufacturers but ultimately borne by the consumers who purchase thermostats. We ask that you oppose the amendment, but support the bill on April 16.
We will be holding a Republican Caucus prior to the House Session at 9 a.m. on April 16th in LOB Rooms 305-307. If you have any concerns with regard to legislation that will be coming to the floor of the House that day, please bring them to the caucus. As always, our office is always open should you need to discuss any issue with our leadership team.
-Dave
At a press availability following his meeting with the Executive Council this week, Gov. John Lynch was asked if any new revenue or taxes could be in the offing considering the financial crisis (i.e. Perfect Storm) that the state is currently facing. His response certainly lent credence to the what Republican leadership have been saying all along—that the Democrats are leading New Hampshire down the path toward a broad based tax with their excessive spending, regardless of any pledge that their governor may have taken.
The governor’s response to the media was clear, “Well, I am going to be looking at everything.” Leaving “everything on the table” in dealing with the state’s huge deficit is a complete turnaround from the governor’s inaugural address in January of 2007 when he said, “the state should meet that responsibility without fundamentally changing our tax structure, particularly without a sales or income tax.” This latest flip-flop is reminiscent of the one taken by former Governor Shaheen in 1999 when she signed into law a statewide property tax—the first statewide tax in New Hampshire! If you recall, she also took the pledge against a broad based tax and then turned around and supported a state sales tax. Deja vu?
Speaking in a report aired on NHPR, our Republican Policy Leader, Gene Chandler, said, “The last thing we need anytime, but especially in this economy, is taxing our citizens more and increasing the fees that they pay. We’ve done that enough in the last year and we don’t need to do it anymore.” I wholeheartedly agree with Rep. Chandler..
The governor’s agency heads, appearing again this week before House Ways & Means to update revenue estimates, conveyed numbers that were not much different from what Rep. Norm Major had projected a week ago when he warned that the state was facing a shortfall of as much as $240 million over the biennium. Just a month ago, those same agency heads projected a deficit of somewhere between $151M and $204M. This week they increased those projections to between $222M and $267M, which also concurs with Rep. Major’s revised anticipated deficit of $262M—more than a quarter billion dollars!! Even worse, those numbers could grow larger depending upon the April revenue numbers—primarily the Interest & Dividend taxes and the state’s Business taxes. Despite holding this information, and despite the request of the speaker to bring them to the floor of the House, the chair of Ways & Means, Rep. Susan Almy, has chosen not to present the revenue figures to the House this month. Needless to say, we want to make sure that our caucus is aware of the growing problem.
To compound our financial crisis, this week the House Education committee approved the new school funding formula and added nearly $2 million, raising the price tag to approximately $916M. SB 539, in its current form, is patchwork—first, costing an adequate education, then targeting fiscal disparity aid to correct the original bill’s effect of sending far less aid to our poorer towns than they currently receive, and then again amending the bill to send a halfhearted, short term, inadequate “transition aid” to those working class towns that unreasonably lose money under this legislation. SB 539, as voted out by the Education committee, will increase state grants for education from $527M per year this biennium to $625M per year over the next biennium.
The Education committee also passed HB 530, a heavy-handed, “Big Brother” approach to implement mandated public kindergarten in twelve NH communities. Full state funding for kindergarten is necessary, both because it is a new mandate under Article 28-A and because it is now part of the definition of an adequate education. This bill only funds 75% of the construction costs for new standard classrooms and less than full operating costs of the estimated 41 new classrooms needed to satisfy the mandate. As a result, this bill would increase education spending by more than $20 million with no anticipated increase in kindergarten attendance in either these towns or across the state. Both of these Education bills will be coming to the floor of the House on the 16th.
This week the Senate will be hearing a couple of bills that we would like Republicans to oppose in committee. HB 1472, a Work Force Housing bill that usurps local planning and zoning prerogatives, will have a public hearing before Public & Municipal Affairs (Apr. 18th-2PM, Rm. 101, LOB). This “one-size fits all” legislation does not take into consideration the fact that many of our smaller communities do not have the infrastructure to accommodate multifamily and/or high density single family work force housing. Rural communities without the funds to fight this measure, would be forced to give in.
The House Commerce committee will hold a public hearing on SB 301 (Apr. 15, 11AM, Rm 302 LOB). This legislation would require insurers to cover prescriptions for durable medical equipment filled near the patients residence. This is yet another insurance mandate passed by Democrats! We would ask Republicans to sign-in opposing both bills at their Senate hearings.
SB 528 will also be coming to the floor of the House next week. The majority of the Environment & Agriculture committee took a pretty good bill from the Senate, rejected an amendment that cleaned up some language and ensured that there would be no incentive and then passed their own amendment which added a bounty of $5 per recycled mercury thermostat to increase recycling rates. This “bounty” will be paid by the manufacturers but ultimately borne by the consumers who purchase thermostats. We ask that you oppose the amendment, but support the bill on April 16.
We will be holding a Republican Caucus prior to the House Session at 9 a.m. on April 16th in LOB Rooms 305-307. If you have any concerns with regard to legislation that will be coming to the floor of the House that day, please bring them to the caucus. As always, our office is always open should you need to discuss any issue with our leadership team.
-Dave
