With the fiscal year drawing to a close, lawmakers scrambled yesterday to pass a package of business tax and communications tax hikes to fill a hole in the budget.
REPRESENTATIVE?S HALL HAS NO AIR CONDITIONING, SO IN YESTERDAY?S WILTING HEAT HOUSE STAFFERS EMPLOYED A PRIMITIVE METHOD OF CLIMATE CONTROL: THEY TURNED OFF THE LIGHTS. STANDING AT THE FRONT OF THE HOT, HALF-DARKENED HALL, REPUBLICAN DAVID ALUKONIS OF HUDSON TOLD HOUSE MEMBERS TO PASS THE TAX BILL SO THEY COULD GET OUT OF CONCORD.
006 456 its time to plant those roses, its time to pick the strawberries. Its time to go fishing. Its time to go home, mr speaker.
THE BILL?S SUPPORTERS ADMITTED THEY WEREN?T EXCITED ABOUT RAISING BUSINESS TAXES. BUT THEY INSISTED THERE WEREMANY THINGS IN THE PLAN TO LIKE, SUCH AS A REDUCTION IN THE STATEWIDE PROPERTY TAX, HARDSHIP RELIEF FOR THOSE HARDEST HIT BY THE PROPERTY TAX, AND MEASURES TO IMPROVE THE WAY TOWNS ASSESS PROPERTY. BESIDES, SUPPORTERS ARGUED, THE ALTERNATIVE WAS CHAOS: MORE LAST-MINUTE TAX PROPOSALS, POTENTIAL DAMAGE TO THE STATE?S BOND RATING, AND THE POSSIBILITY OF ENTERING THE NEW FISCAL YEAR WITHOUT A BUDGET. REPUBLICAN LARRY GUAY OF GORHAM.
15 50 I think it is our obligation today to proceed and not get the govt that we have in the situation that?s implorable. // Sure some of the biznesses may not like it. //Somebody has to pay the taxes
BUT SOME REPUBLICANS, LIKE CONSTANCE JONES OF GRANTHAM, ARGUED THE BILL?S IDEOLOGICAL PRICE TAG WAS SIMPLY TOO HIGH.
this bill imposes an unacceptable tax on large and small biz. It isin direct contradix to basic principles of repub party and is detrimental to our natural constituency, the biz community.
OPPONENTS ARGUED THERE WAS STILL TIME TO COME UP WITH A BETTER SOLUTION. THEY SAID IT?S RISKY TO RAISE BUSINESS TAXES IN A TIME OF ECONOMIC UNCERTAINTY. THEY ALSO CHALLENGED THE BILL?S CLAIM TO LOWER TAXES. REPRESENTATIVES FROM SO-CALLED DONOR TOWNS, WHICH ARE PAYING MORE AS A RESULT OF THE STATEWIDE PROPERTY TAX, ARGUED RISING PROPERTY VALUES WOULD WIPE OUT ANY SAVINGS ACHIEVED BY THE LOWER TAX RATE. REPUBLICAN RAIMOND BOWLES OF PORTSMOUTH.
This reduction for 2003 is in turn just a farce. We will be paying far more from donor towns.
THE PLAN SQUEAKED BY WITH A NINE-VOTE MARGIN. AFTERWARD DEMOCRATS GRUMBLED THAT THE BILL?S OPTIMISTIC REVENUE PROJECTIONS WOULD NOT HOLD UP, AND THE LEGISLATURE WOULD SOON FIND ITSELF SCRAMBLING TO FILL ANOTHER BUDGET HOLE. GOVERNOR JEANNE SHAHEEN DECLARED HERSELF UNHAPPY WITH THE BUSINESS TAX INCREASES. BUT SHE REPEATED HER PROMISE NOT TO VETO THE BILL. AFTER MONTHS OF INTENSE DEBATE ON THE BUDGET, SHAHEEN SAID, IT?S TIME TO MOVE FORWARD ON HER OTHER GOALS SUCH AS STRENGTHENING EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND LOWERING THE COST OF PRESCRIPTION DRUGS. FOR NHPR NEWS I?M.
