Lawmakers approve spending plan

Update: Tom Fahey has an excellent write-up on the budget in this morning's Union Leader. It doesn't appear to be available online.

Lauren Dorgan summarizes the state of the budget in this morning's Concord Monitor:

House lawmakers last night approved $11.5 billion worth of spending in the next two-year budget. Today, they will vote on how to pay for it.

The House approved by a 193-174 margin the spending plan for 2010 and 2011 recommended by the Democrats on the House Finance Committee - the plan that involves scores of layoffs for state employees, preserves some local aid while suspending other programs and sends more funding to many social and human service programs than Gov. John Lynch recommended.

Democratic leaders said that as the national recession continues and state revenue sinks, they made hard choices to keep down spending; their plan represents about a 2.5 percent increase in general-fund spending.

"We struggled mightily to make sure we provided essential services to those people who had no other opportunity than to turn to the state," said Rep. Marjorie Smith, the Durham Democrat who chairs the Finance Committee.

Republicans said those cuts didn't go far enough and, as a consequence, will make taxes climb too high.

"If this spending spree by the majority party continues, there will never be enough tax and fee increases to fund it," said Minority Leader Sherm Packard, a Londonderry Republican.

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