Governor Craig Benson has promised a leaner budget for New Hampshire.
And New Hampshire lawmakers appear eager to help the governor achieve more balanced spending.
Still, the details of state finances may give lawmakers headaches as they try to balance the books.
NHPR's David Darman has more.
The state budget is running a deficit, potentially reaching 80 million dollars.
And threats of even bigger deficits loom in the future.
In his inaugural speech, Governor Craig Benson called on lawmakers to balance the books immediately.
He told them to follow the examples set by ordinary families.
They expect us to sit at the government?s kitchen table and make tough choices just like they have to do. They expect us to determine our wants versus our needs and not to throw money at our problems any more, without the benefit of a return on that investment. :15 clapping :10
@25 in the words of Winston Churchill, we?ve run out of money, now it's time to think. :32 clapping :11
Legislative leaders say they support the Governor?s promise to bring revenues and spending in line.
Senate president Tom Eaton recently told business people he knew it wouldn?t be easy to balance the books.
04 414 overall, we really have our work cut out for us. And let me share the following with you. With business tax revenues currently 12 million dollars off target, I, for one, do not support raising business taxes further. 04 428
Governor Benson also opposes raising business taxes, and he is dead set against adopting a sales or income tax.
But the Governor faces a slightly changed tax landscape this year.
Doug Hall is co-director of the New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Studies.
He says New Hampshire can?t rely on two sources of revenue that were available last year.
23 28 ?One is that the legislature, the past legislature, repealed the estate and legacy tax which would top about, say, 40 million dollars a year, that will not be coming in future years. 23 47
The second source of revenue dried up when the legislature passed a law allowing businesses to carry forward past losses.
which means that when businesses become profitable again, they won?t pay taxes in that year, perhaps this year, 2003, if their profits were less than the losses they incurred in prior years. 23 108
Some Democrats worry revenues won?t recover enough to pay for spending they believe is vital.
The governor has already asked department heads to cut the coming year?s spending to 95 percent of last year?s.
Representative Susan Almy is a member of the House Ways & Means committee.
Almy says she believes the governor will be forced to cut spending even further to balance the budget.
And she says she fears the cuts won?t come in fast growing areas like prison spending.
16 114 and what that really leaves is the services to the people who can?t afford their medical care, for the people who have lost their jobs, and the people that need retraining the people who need some help getting through until they find that next job. 16 137
Another Democrat who is a key player in budget negotiations is Senate Ways & Means chairman Lou D'Allesandro.
D'Allesandro says he?s concerned about revenue shortfalls in future years.
He says he?s ready to offer gambling as a budget solution, even though the governor currently opposes it.
D?Allesandro says gambling could raise more than 200 million dollars a year for the state.
02 258 that?s the only thing that I can see in terms of our overall picture, that will produce the kind of revenues that are required to do the things he wants to do. 02 310
The governor is scheduled to submit his budget to the Legislature by February 15th.
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