budget trimming starts with State House staff: New Hampshire’s new legislative leaders are getting budget cuts started with their own office staff.
Both Senate President Peter Bragdon (R-Milford) and House Speaker William O’Brien (R-Mont Vernon) have made cutting their chambers’ operating and personnel budgets a priority. And we’re not sure if there’s a chicken-egg effect, but a recent study by a Republican-leaning New Hampshire policy center recommends healthy cuts for the legislative budget for 2011 and beyond.
Titled “Fiscal Management Starts at Home,” the report by the Concord-based Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy said New Hampshire’s total legislative branch spending increased by more than 27 percent over the past four years—from $12.5 million in 2007 to $15.9 million for the 2010 fiscal year budget. The report found that the increase was due mostly to increased personnel costs, which make up 88 percent of the Senate budget and 65 percent of the House budget.
Joshua Elliott-Traficante, who authored the study, said lawmakers should be willing to cut their own budgets next year.
“The Legislative Branch has far more room to pare back its budget than any other department in State Government,” Elliott-Traficante said. “So the decrease should be larger than the 10 to 15 percent expected in every other department.”
The report also finds that spending in the Governor’s Executive Office has remained relatively flat over the past two budgets. While personnel costs have increased, they have been offset with savings in other areas, resulting in an increase of less than $54,000 over the past four years.
The study did not cover why personnel costs increased, what the extra legislative personnel do, and how budget cuts might affect legislative services and efficiency.
Bragdon has begun cutting the Senate budget with a 30 percent ($32,000) pay cut for the Senate chief of staff. O’Brien also will cut his chief of staff’s salary. —Michael McCord

tax talk: Cutting spending was a campaign promise of many Republicans who swept into office this fall. But that’s not stopping some budget hawks from calling for a different approach: raising taxes.
A recent conservative study encouraged spending cuts as the mechanism to resolve New Hampshire’s budget deficit, reportedly estimated at anywhere from $200 million to $800 million. Another recent study—this one by the liberal-leaning New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute—includes other ideas.
The report, “An Overview of New Hampshire’s Tax System,” tries to illustrate the dilemma faced by lawmakers, state agencies, the governor’s office and ordinary folks by describing the state’s web of budget quandaries and revenue options. Regardless of agreeing or not with their recommendations, we find the report to be pretty readable.
It contains more than a few unlikely recommendations, given the new veto-proof Republican majorities who, so far, have shown no indication of changing course from spending cuts and even rolling back tax and fee increases. But, the report says, “Given the state’s comparatively low level of taxation, policymakers should be aware that generating additional revenue will not significantly alter New Hampshire’s relative standing among the states.”
The overview also describes New Hampshire’s current distribution of taxes as “inequitable,” and suggests that New Hampshire should “ask more of affluent residents” by reinstating the capital gains or estate taxes, for example.
Meanwhile, Rep. David Hess (R-Hooksett), a member of the House Ways & Means Committee, has introduced a bill that would theoretically repeal every tax and fee increase since 2007 (not coincidentally, the first session of Democratic control in the State House). —Michael McCord

Front Door Politics is a jargon-free legislative update for all citizens affected by New Hampshire laws. Find more at www.frontdoorpoltics.com.

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