Fosters- "N.H. imagines a bottomless well of cash"

Foster's Daily Democrat editorializes about the state budget, and finds New Hampshire budget writers attempting to shift blame away from their own free-spending ways onto the national economy:

What will it be, a greater amount drawn from the New Hampshire businesses we rely on to provide jobs? Will it be higher taxes on the state's vital tourist industry or will the Legislature and Gov. John Lynch turn to a remake of New Hampshire's way of life with the beginning of a broad expansion of gambling and all that goes with it.

The national recession has become an excuse for political leaders looking to thrust their hands deeper into the taxpayers' pockets and spread the "wealth." To hear some tell it, the implication is that without the recession everything would be rosy.

Don't let our leaders in Concord get away with that dirge. Revenue shortfalls in New Hampshire began well before there were signs of a recession. Overestimating revenues threatens to become a way of life at the Statehouse.