RAYMOND – The House Session on Jan. 21st, was actually a Joint Convention with the Senate to hear Governor Lynch’s annual State of the State Address. The speech reminded me of the 2008 one that was loaded with a lot of “feel good” new programs and initiatives that look great on paper, make good news media fodder, but really don’t address the real problems of our state. This time, his initiatives were: the New Hampshire Working plan, the Green Launching Pad, and New Hampshire Health First. All three will cost more money.

Nowhere in his address did I hear him say anything about the: pending JUA court decision, and how it could impact the budget; the LLC tax controversy, and how it will cost small businesses and job loss, the downshifting of millions of dollars on the state from the federal government, or what we are going to do about the over spending, and overestimating of revenue figures, that have our budget so unbalanced. During that same 2008 address, the governor said, “I will not support any bills that require additional spending this year”. But since then, spending was increased about 25% by the signing of over 50 bills that created or increased taxes or fees, and used more than $400M in one-time money while downshifting millions of dollars to the local property taxpayer.

This year, the Governor says “Our state’s unemployment rate is one of the lowest in the country”, sounds good, but it’s a small consolation to the more than 51,000 New Hampshire citizens currently out of work. Since his “jobs initiative” presented in 2008, over 20,000 people have lost their jobs. His approach just isn’t working and he needs to change his focus to creating jobs by assisting small business, not by over taxing them.

Gov. Lynch continued, “Today I am proposing New Hampshire Working. This 3-part initiative will give companies new tools to maintain their businesses during this downturn, make it easier for them to recover, and help them be more competitive for the future”. This initiative would increase the state’s unemployment insurance tax. According to the U.S. Dept. of Labor, the average NH business owner pays $332.00 per employee to finance unemployment benefits now - a 71% increase to NH businesses in the last year. The job training fund increase would also require a further increase in their tax, making hiring new employees more difficult and will stunt recovery as we come out of the recession. While the plan may avoid some layoffs, it will come at the price of creating new jobs. Along this line, in 2008 the proposed “North Country Jobs Initiative” program also looked good on paper, but as of yet, the best estimate is that from the program not a single job has been created.

The Governor went on to say, “I am announcing the creation of the Green Launching Pad. With $750,000 in stimulus funds, the University of New Hampshire will put its vast expertise and resources to work helping promising and innovative companies succeed”. The question here is, “once the stimulus money is gone, how do we fund the program”? Wouldn’t the money be better spent dealing with the deficit”?

He continued, “ In 2009, the worst year of the recession, we balanced the budget. And we will do the same this year”. I won’t even touch this one. JUA? Rainy Day Fund? One time money? $100M deficit?

“To keep taxes low, we cut spending in nearly every state agency”. The fact of the matter is, that while state budgets across the country saw an average 2% decrease in their state spending. Gov. Lynch and the Democrats increased NH state spending by more than 7%.

“We have shared goals in New Hampshire: lower health care costs, better health care quality; and more insured citizens. Here in New Hampshire, we aren’t waiting for Washington to act”. Why then did the Governor refuse to join with State House Republican leadership in signing a letter to our NH congressional delegation, asking them to oppose the Obama Health Care Plan because of its disastrous impact on our future budgets, currently estimated at adding $177M to our states financial commitments over the first 6 years.

Then there’s the question about the 50% drop in school drop-outs this past year. They raised the drop-out age from 16 to 18; would that alone not account for a drop, at least for the first year or two?

By the way, I applaud the Supreme Court’s recent decision regarding the JUA funds which the State wanted to use. I am not surprised that the Court affirmed the fact that the state government should not be raiding private accounts to balance the state budget.

(Editor’s Note: NH State Representative Mike Kappler can be reached at l.mikekappler@comcast.net)