New Hampshire Budget: Pro and Con

Two leading New Hampshire Senators debate the merits of the recently approved state budget, in dueling op-ed pieces.

First, Senator Maggie Hassen defends the two-year budget in the pages of the Portsmouth Herald and its sister papers:

On the day we passed the budget, demonstrators with competing messages chanted in front of the Statehouse — some demanding more cuts in spending, others urging us to restore service cuts. The scene was a perfect commentary on this year's intense and unprecedented budget dilemma. While everyone acknowledges that we are in extraordinarily difficult times, living up to the call for shared sacrifice and hard choices is very difficult.

While far from perfect, this compromise budget is balanced, tough and responsible. And, in contrast to the last 10 biennial general fund budgets, which averaged increases of 13.7 percent, the general fund spending in this budget is essentially flat — we are doing more with less.

Secondly, Senator Peter Bragdon blasts the argument that this budget controls spending at Red Hampshire:

Have you heard the latest spin by the tax-and-spenders who control state government these days? The Democrats say the new budget passed by the House and Senate and signed by Governor Lynch is “lean.” They say we are doing more with less. And they say spending is reduced.

Don’t believe a word of it!

At a time when 50,000 Granite Staters are out of work and paring down their home budgets to fit declining incomes, government spending continues to grow at breakneck speed. Total spending in the new budget is up over $1 billion dollars – that’s billion, with a “b” – according to the legislature’s non-partisan Office of Legislative Budget Assistant, a 10.5% increase. I don’t know many families who have increased their spending 10.5% in the last year or two, do you?