Time for the Reign to End

Portsmouth Herald columnist Lily Robertson looks at New Hampshire's unemployment statistics and its budget, and finds both wanting:

Taxes are being raised left, right and center on anything and everything Lynch can think of. When you’re a small business owner, and most of New Hampshire businesses are small, how on earth can you expect to pay ever increasing taxes and still have money left over to offer a living wage to an employee? Yet, they’re supposed to be out there hiring new workers, paying for health care for them, and keep their own heads above water all at the same time.

It’s time Lynch stopped running the state like a philanthropic society of do-gooders and started running it like a business. When he ran Knoll, Inc., he raised revenue from 50 million in the red to 240 million in the black. Did he suddenly forget how he did it, or is he just using his office as a sweepstake seat?

Oh, he cares about us. He wants to fund charity organizations that should be operating with privately donated money. He wants to save all the children. Who doesn’t? Unfortunately, he’s saving children at the cost of destroying entire families. Well, lucky families can take comfort knowing once they’ve been reduced to living on the streets, they can get assistance faster than they can get a job.

Smoke, mirrors and shiny objects or a balanced budget

Lily Robertson has some advice for state budget writers at Seacoast Online:

Here’s a wild thought. How about acting like a responsible family? If you can’t afford something, don’t spend money on it. Maybe the new X-Box will have to wait another five months. Maybe the bridge restoration project will have to wait until next spring. When things get tight for a family, the parents don’t make the kids start forking over their Birthday money from Grandma. They just don’t go to the movie on Friday because they can’t afford it right now. The kids didn’t get the family into debt. The adults who didn’t spend the family budget responsibly got the family into debt.