The Legislature agrees on 2.7 billion dollar state budget despite a threatened veto from Governor Craig Benson.
Strong majorities in both chambers chose to adopt the budget deal stuck by legislative leaders last week. In the senate, the vote was 20 to 4……with all republicans…..solidly in support……According to Senate Majority leader Bob Clegg….….the budget is the best NH can hope for under the circumstances…… And Clegg urged the senators to stand firm.
“I’ve been up here long enough to realize that the only way to get things done is to compromise…..But I’ve reached the end of my compromising……Any further is a hazard and a danger to the NH citizens.”
Some senate democrats however, said they worry that the budget compromise itself poses a hazard…..They applauded their colleges for not bending to house efforts to strip more money from the budget. But say but say it still underfunds vital state needs including the LCHIP program and heath and human services. New Castle Senator Burt Cohen says that increase the burden on local communities.
“It will inevitably raise local property taxes…..I’m just really concerned…..that this budget is not looking at the long tem enough…..and we may be undercutting the strength and security of NH.”
The strength and security of NH was also very much on the mind of house lawmakers…….For republican leaders…..the trick was convincing conservatives that the budget’s spending would not……as governor Benson claims….. lead to crippling deficits in the next biennium. House Finance committee chairman Neal Kurk says he’s done the numbers and Benson is in error.
“I’m convinced in the best case……we will be able to live without any revenue increases…..And in the worst case….the worst reasonable case we will have to some modest revenue increases within our existing revenue structure……In other words…..the budget is doable.”
Kurk’s words, however, left more than a few unpersuaded. New Hampton republican Fran Wendelboe:
“The good member from Weare just admitted that we are going to have a deficit that can be filled with raising some tax…..so we don’t know what kind of pig in a poke we are buying.”
Wendelboe’s distain was shared by Rochester republican Clif Newton. The freshman lawmaker urged his fellow back benchers to resist the wishes of leadership.
“The puppet masters have been at this for two long…..And are too good at what they do. Those of us who have paid attention have watched revenue appear like magic and watched new number appear like magic and watched budget numbers appear before the ink is dry on the spreadsheet that came before. I think it may be time the revolution act called truth.”
But full scale revolt wasn’t quite the order of the day……Some house democrats did choose to walk out of the hall rather than face what they said was a no win situation…..To vote for a budget they consider wrongheaded…..or vote against it alongside people who wanted something they considered worse…..The house vote was 235 to 124……just below the 2/3rds majority needed to override the governors promised veto……According to Deputy House Speaker Mike Whalley the votes for an override are well in hand.
“If you factor in the members who came to me today who said I voted against it because I was uncomfortable with it….But I will not vote to sustain the veto we’ll pick up some votes we might not have had today. We’ll pick up some democrats that who would like to prevent a government shutdown. And I think the votes are there to override the veto.”
Lawmakers say they could meet early next week for an override vote if the governor vetoes the budget.
