Live Blogging the "Stop the Spending Summit"- Sherm Packard and Peter Bragdon

House Republican Leader Sherman Packard (R-Londonderry) welcomed a packed room to the "Stop the Spending Summit" at the Grappone Conference Center in Concord. The House Republcian Office is sponsoring the event in response to the Democratic House Leadership's Tax Summit last week.

Packard says the large turnout emphasizes how much people care about spending in New Hampshire.

"We do not have a revenue problem in Concord. We have a spending problem."

He says Democratic leadership planned last week's summit as a step on the road to an income tax, but thinks it backfired as most speakers argued against higher taxes during a recession.

Bragdon quoted Governor Mel Thomson's adage, "Low taxes are the result of low spending." He argues that the state should address spending before it tackles taxes.

Bragdon outlined spending by the State Senate itself. He says inflation for the past two years has totaled 0.5%, but the Senate Budget has gone up 38% over the same time. House spending has gone up 53% over those three years. Bragdon argues that if House and Senate leadership can't control their own spending, we can't expect them to control spending for the rest of the state.