This week lawmakers agreed on a 2-point-8 Billion dollar budget
Tucked into those negotiations was one small decision involving 12 million dollars that seems quintessentially New Hampshire.
New Hampshire Public Radio's Dan Gorenstein has this story.
This week lawmakers agreed on a 2-point-8 Billion dollar budget
Tucked into those negotiations was one small decision involving 12 million dollars that seems quintessentially New Hampshire.
New Hampshire Public Radio's Dan Gorenstein has this story.
Well after dark Tuesday night, state budget writers found the unthinkable: extra cash.
It turns out the Department of Health and Human Services had over-budgeted by about 12 million dollars.
All of a sudden, Democratic budget Committee of Conference member Margie Smith says, lawmakers had to figure out what to do with the windfall.
1:04 aid for developmentally disabled, the ability for the Dartmouth research center doing the work they do, giving small but essential rate increases to people who care for people that no one else is willing ot care for. If we had spent those dollars, the federal government would add a dollar.
Plugging the money into programs such as mental health centers and aid for the developmentally disabled and leveraging in additional federal dollars was just one option.
But it turns out the 'found' money was nearly equal to the amount raised by a new tax on telephone service.
Earlier this spring, to help balance the budget, the Senate approved a plan that added 84 cents a month to the cost of phone land lines, not cell phone numbers.
Essentially the Committee faced two choices.
Pour the funds back into HHS programs and capture about 12 million dollars in federal money, or cut the 84 cents a month tax.
Budget writers decided to scrap the tax.
Republican Senator Bob Clegg says the choice was easy.
1:03 when we found out we didn't need to do that, we said, why are we doing it. there is no sense in increasing a tax to anyone, no matter what it was, we obviously couldn't take out the tobacco tax. So let's take out this tax, why burden the people anymore than we have to.
To many, the decision to do-away with a tax is the New Hampshire way.
It's a decision completely in line with the spirit of small government.
For House Speaker Doug Scamman, another budget negotiator, the choice was also grounded in equity.
8:20 ... the old people, are the ones that I think are affected the most and a few very poor people, have to pay more telephone tax, as little as it is, it seems to you and me, and put money in the budget that isn't needed. That was the equation.
In addition to conservative principles and concern for the elderly, other angles seemed to play into Republicans thinking.
Republican leaders had endorsed several items that would hit taxpayers' wallets -- most visibly, higher tobacco taxes and changes connected to the EZ Pass toll system.
Eliminating the telephone tax could be seen as a political antidote to those tax increases.
Democrat Margie Smith says there was open discussion about the GOP's public image.
4:35 one of the conferees said, specifically that this is what he wanted to do b/c he didn't want anyone to think that he, or any member of the Republican Party was a tax and spender. So in order to be able to use that phrase, they paid 11.5 million dollars to say they were not tax and spenders.
There was yet another possible reason that lawmakers acted as they did.
Republican leaders heard grumblings that the telephone tax could sink the budget in the House.
Some of the most ardent anti-taxers in the Republican ranks might have thrown in with enough Democrats who could have their own reasons to oppose the plan.
But one of those conservatives, Representative Tony Soltani, a member of the House Republican Alliance, says those rumblings might have been exaggerated.
4:31 I'm very fiscally conservative. I would love to repeal taxes...I have to look at the consequences of repealing a tax...in this case, repealing a tax of 10 million cost the state 20 million. Something like that doesn't make sense.
Soltani puts forth his own theory of why the tax cut won out over the federal dollars.
He says lobbyists for Verizon and other telecommunications companies had pushed hard to defeat the tax.
1:42 there are some very strong lobbying efforts in Concord. They could talk a starving dog off a meat truck. Some of these lobbyists. They have a selling point for every person they talk to. For a conservative Republican they tell you, it's a tax, didn't you get elected to knock out the tax. If it's a Democrat they would say this is a regressive tax...this is a flim flam, it doesn't work, but some people buy it.
The explanation for the decision could ultimately be in the eye of the beholder.
Was it a belief in small government, concern for the elderly, a political move, or a favor to an industry group?
The right answer might be yes to all four.
For NHPR News, I'm DG.
