Governor's Speech Divides Dems

Lawmakers listen as Governor John Lynch gives his inaugural address. (Cheryl Senter, NHPR) See more photos of Inauguration 2007

More than once, Governor Lynch's list of initiatives roused Republicans from their seats.

A tax credit for research and development.

Keeping seniors out of nursing homes.

A pledge to veto any new broad-based tax.

Even plans considered "Democratic" like expanding healthcare for kids, helping those on welfare and funding the state conservation program known as LCHIP drew strong applause.

But afterward most prominent Republicans, like out-going House Finance Chair Representative Fred King found Lynch's proposals- in a word- expensive.

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1:13 I think they are all necessary. I think everything the governor said today is important. But I think we have to look at the fact that the issue of taxes is going to be the underlying issue, and I don't see the money to pay the bills. I support what the governor said, it's a great speech, but I've heard that before.

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:32 I can't remember a time around this legislature, and I have been here since '72 that it was tight financial times.

That's in-coming Senate Finance Chair Democratic Senator Lou D'Allesandro.

:48 obviously the real estate transfer tax is not doing as well as we anticipated. That's really clear. On the other side, the business taxes are doing better than we anticipated. That's a real plus for us. he other thing that has affected us in a negative fashion is that we don't have any snow. Now that represents, in many, many businesses, that's 25% of their income. No snow...no green. We have to deal with that.

D'Allesandro, like most Democrats were willing to give the governor the benefit of the doubt.

They believe he will be able to squeeze his various initiatives into a budget that is balanced.

But many Democrats didn't give Lynch the benefit of the doubt on his proposal to draft a constitutional amendment to solve education funding.

Portsmouth Representative Jim Splaine was one of many, many House Democrats who sat on their hands when the governor spoke about his plan.

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1:57 any kind of amendment that allows for targeted aid means that one city or town would get financial support from the state, while another would not. b/c supposedly, the taxpayers of that town can pay for some level of education that the state defines as adequate.

Splaine says the only reason people support targeted aid is because it would allow the state to pay significantly less for education.

The Portsmouth Representative and others believe the sate has an obligation to all communities to help support education.

State Senate Majority Leader Joe Foster was arguably the first Democrat to stand and applaud after Governor Lynch announced his support for a constitutional amendment.

Foster suggests others in his party didn't follow suit because maybe they haven't seen the language, or know exactly what the governor is talking about.

But Foster says targeting aid is just good public policy.

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1:08 if you have a per pupil grant in every community, what you are doing is creating greater disparity among the communities, b/c the wealthy communities will take that, and perhaps send their children to Switzerland to train for skiing. That's an extreme example. What we really want to have is plan that allows our children to move forward. And I think with targeting we will be able to achieve that.

By the end of the speech, you didn't have to be a political scientist to realize there is somewhat of a split among Democratic lawmakers...at least on education funding.

Hudson Republican Representative Andy Renzullo.

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3:07 he pledged about the sales and income tax. You know who stood up? All the Republicans stood up and applauded that. A lot of Democrats who didn't move. I gotta give him credit, it's going to be an interesting year, it's going to be the Democrats, led by Lynch against the extreme-ocrats led by whoever is in the Legislature.

One wild card for Democrats over the next six months is how freshman lawmakers will respond to the directives from the governor and leadership.

Self-described newbie Representative Ron Mack of Hancock says every time he's entered Representative's Hall the past three weeks he's been overcome by a feeling he can solve something.

Most notably, for him, education funding.

But he too found Lynch's position on education funding troubling.

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4:02 he's created an arena where he's taken away some options, like a sales tax, or an income tax, he won't approve them, and I'm new at this, but I would like the opportunity to explore those options, and see where they take us income-wise. And how they can affect decreasing the property-tax....when he takes that off the table, he makes our job tougher.

Judging from who applauded and who didn't Mack says he didn't realize so many people seemed to share his sentiment.

For NHPR News, I'm DG.