Critics Line Up Against Budget

In recent days lawmakers have worked overtime to fill an estimated half a billion dollar shortfall.

In true New Hampshire fashion they’ve cobbled together a mix of taxes, fees, new revenue and one time monies.

There are people around the state who don’t like the plan- but given the times- can live with it.

Then there are folks like the campground owners.

Sfx: campground owners rally

They oppose a provision that would ratchet up the rooms and meals tax from 8-9% and include campgrounds.

66 year old Emily LaPlante spends a chunk of her summers in Orford at the Jacob Brook Camp, she’s been going there for 19 years.

TAPE: they are taxing us right to death. It’s not fair, it’s not fair. The state of NH could dig deeper and find some other place to get money. why should I have to pay a room and meals tax....I didn’t ask the state of NH to buy my camper, I bought it so my grandchildren and great grandchildren would have the experience that we’ve had.

LaPlante says she’s also frustrated that the public was never given a chance to weigh in on the proposal.

Typically, provisions enjoy multiple hearings at the statehouse, giving supporters and opponents an opportunity to influence the measure’s outcome.

A handful of attorneys and small business owners are also upset that a proposal to tax dividends from limited liability companies hasn’t seen enough daylight.

The so-called LLC tax would raise an estimated $30 million dollars over the biennium.

Supporters hail the move saying it would treat the entities like corporations.

But attorney Bill Ardinger says there are still basic questions about how this plan would even work.

TAPE: our clients are still trying to understand the scope and what the impact is. In this language...there are terms that have never been used before...they are brand new, we don’t know what those mean.

Ardinger says potentially LLC’s could face such significant levies that many would relocate out of New Hampshire.

Or, little will change and the state’s revenue projections will fall tens of millions of dollars short.

With so little time before the Legislature votes, Ardinger doubts business will work to defeat the plan.

The New Hampshire Municipal Association isn’t trying to kill it either.

That’s despite the fact that the Association estimates the state will be downshifting nearly $90 million dollars in expenses to cities and towns.

The Association’s Judy Silva says losing all that money will hurt.

TAPE: our members will either face the prospect of increasing property taxes...or there will be budget cuts at the local level, which could result in the reduction of services, layoffs of personnel.

For their part, state employees are quite concerned about the budget.

Union officials have called a press conference for later today urging lawmakers to come up with a plan that doesn’t cut services or cost people their jobs.

Last week, budget writers approved a provision to authorize the governor to extract $25 million dollars in personnel savings.

That could be a furlough program, or it could be cuts.

Already there is the potential for hundreds to be laid off.

The SEA’s Diana Lacey says lawmakers need to recognize what this budget will and won’t do.

TAPE: we have seen NH’s population growth rise, prison growth rise, people on public assistance rise, and we have not increased our staffing whatsoever. So we are already operating on three legs. And then go out there and say we can operate on two legs and not impact public service is simply unrealistic.

Lacey says members plan to show up at the statehouse Wednesday to persuade lawmakers to back new revenues- gaming or a capital gains tax- and restore services.

Some of the cuts that worry Lacey and others are cuts to Health and Human Service programs.

Child and Family Serivce’s Cynthia Herman says the budget puts abused and neglected children in danger.

She says the changes raise the bar on what it would takes for the state to intercede in a crisis.

TAPE: these are difficult family situations, often the families have mental health issues, substance abuse problems, just pure ignorance on how to raise children. You have to intervene before you have a child with a lifetime of problems that are never going to get solved and end up in in-patient hospitals or prisons.

Over the next 24 hours or so, these criticisms and many others will make their way to lawmaker’s ears.

Even if elected officials are sympathetic to the budget’s deficiencies, they must still figure out if there is a politically viable alternative.

For NHPR News, I’m DG.