"Most outrageous budget bill I’ve ever seen in NH"
The New Hampshire Sunday Union Leader, Opinion: Letter to the Editor, June 20, 2021
To the Editor: I have lived in New Hampshire for 54 years and in all that time I don’t recall a more outrageous budget bill.
The school voucher program provides funding for private schools with no accountability to the taxpayers for their curriculum. It also violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution by funding religious education with public money. It is undemocratic because it lacks public support. In the Senate’s public hearings on educational vouchers, over 3,240 signed in against the bill with only 516 in favor. Despite the impact on local school funding, this program has no place in the budget bill. Its inclusion is a political stunt to discourage opponents from voting against it.
I also oppose the ban on discussions of racism and sexism. Not only does this deprive students of important information, but it is censorship that violates the First Amendment’s provision for freedom of speech. This, too, has no place in the budget.
The abortion provision is inhumane. It has no exemption for rape, incest, or the condition of the fetus. It, too, has no place in the budget bill.
I urge our voters to contact the governor at governorsununu@nh.gov and urge him to veto this budget bill.
JANE BOYER
Bedford
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June 23, 2021
Hello Patrick Fennell,
I read that Beacon Hill won't pass the Fiscal Year 2022 Massachusetts State Budget on time before July 1, 2021. Governor Charlie Baker and Beacon Hill Lawmakers have billions of dollars from their slush funds and Biden Buck$, but they are still sitting on their hands while many Massachusetts taxpayers are struggling to stay afloat. What does Governor Charlie Baker and Beacon Hill lawmakers do all day? They cannot say they don't have the money like they did last year when they took an extra 5 months and 11 days to pass the state budget. Where will all of the billions of extra dollars the state government is sitting on go to?
In New Hampshire, the people and taxpayers are protesting the state budget in Concord. NH State lawmakers attached a school voucher bill to the state budget that could cost New Hampshire federal funding for public education, unconstitutional bans of discussions of racism and sexism, and an unconstitutional abortion provision that has no exception for rape, incest, and the condition of the fetus. Governor Chris Sununu said he will still sign the state budget. In New Hampshire state government, the Governor and state lawmakers are willing to turn away federal funding for public education, and pass unconstitutional state laws on free speech and limited abortion rights for women.
In the Swamp, President Joe Biden spent $6 trillion federal dollars in his first hundred days in the Oval Office. Biden and the Democrats on Capitol Hill still want to spend trillions of federal dollars more on their stalled infrastructure and job bills. Biden filed a $6 trillion federal budget proposal for fiscal year 2022 that begins on October 1, 2021. Where does all of the federal dollars come from? Where are the federal dollars going? Why is Wall Street at record highs, while Main Street is at record lows? How high will U.S. inflation rise in 2021 and 2022? Will wages rise with inflation?
Pittsfield's problems have been decades-long, and the current Democrats have not helped matters there. Of course, there are many proverbial "Pittsfields" out there. We live in an age of huge economic inequality. Things have gotten worse for the underclass and working class because the government stopped investing in the people in the 1970s. Instead, the people are only costs to be controlled in big business and big government's billion and trillion dollar budgets. The American Dream of Social Mobility has been killed by class warfare over the past 50 years and counting. The economic system is rigged in favor of Wall Street and the super wealthy. The rest of us are screwed.
PAC Man Richie Neal only represents the well heeled corporate K Street lobbyist firms. Maryland Markey only speaks hot air about saving the world from global warming with his $100 trillion Green New Deal he knows will never pass in the Swamp. Elizabeth Warren says she fights for the underclass and working class, but she also tells us that the economic system is rigged for the top one percent. Kamala Harris called Joe Biden a racist, but now she is his loyal Vice President. She has changed most of her political views to fit her political career ambitions. Joe Biden and his Biden "Crime" Family are all worth tens of millions of dollars each after Hunter Biden went to China, Russia, Ukraine and took home hundreds of millions of dollars that he is being investigated for his alleged money laundering schemes.
Best wishes,
Jonathan Melle
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"GOP legislative majority passes $13.5 billion state budget, controversial policy trailer bill" - "Sununu calls package a 'win for every citizen, family' but Soucy calls it a 'travesty'"
By John DiStaso, Political Reporter, and Adam Sexton, Political Director, WMUR, June 24, 2021
CONCORD, N.H. — The Republican-controlled state Legislature adopted along party lines a controversial policy-laden budget trailer bill Thursday after voting -- also sharply divided by party -- to send a separate $13.5 billion two-year budget bill to the desk of Gov. Chris Sununu.
Sununu immediately hailed the votes adopting the package, which he is fully expected to sign into law.
“Historic tax cuts, property tax relief, and Paid Family Medical Leave delivered all in one sweeping action is a win for every citizen and family in this state,” he said.
Meeting simultaneously in separate sessions in Bedford and at the State House in Concord on Thursday:
-- The state Senate and the House of Representatives both passed the $13.5 billion spending bill that will take effect July 1, after the governor signs it into law, as expected. The Senate vote was 14-10; the House vote was 208-172.
-- The House and Senate then passed House Bill 2, the trailer bill. The legislation includes a ban on abortions after 24 weeks of gestation and a mandatory ultra-sound for all women prior to receiving an abortion; a school voucher program; language banning some aspects of the teaching of critical race theory; and limiting the authority of the governor during future states of emergencies.
The Senate vote was 14-10 in favor.
In the House, a close vote had been anticipated after several conservatives had made it clear they were opposed to the emergency powers provision because they felt the compromise reached between House and Senate conferees for legislative authority over states of emergency was not strong enough and left the governor with too much unilateral power.
But in the end, the House vote was 198-181 in favor, not as close as expected.
Nine Republicans voted against House Bill 2 -- virtually all of them hard line conservatives. No Democrats supported it. With 379 votes being cast, 20 of the 399 members of the House did not vote.
Despite some opposition by conservatives to the watered down version of a plan to limit the governor’s emergency powers, Republican House leaders told WMUR on Wednesday they were confident they had the necessary votes in their caucus to pass the controversial bill.
In the end, they proved to be accurate.
For additional background on the emergency powers issue, see John DiStaso’s New Hampshire Primary Source column, published Thursday morning.
House Majority Leader Jason Osborne, R-Auburn, called the overall trailer bill "a transformational symphony of reforms."
Although the outcome in the Senate had been more predictable, the debate there was no less emotional, focusing on a wide range of issues in the trailer bill.
Senate Democratic Leader Donna Soucy called the package a "travesty."
"As Democrats, we will continue to raise our voices against this ongoing extremist agenda. We leave today with only deeper resolve to fight for our constituents and for the real New Hampshire, which our colleagues on the other side of the aisle have clearly lost sight of,” she said.
Sen. Lou D’Allesandro, D-Manchester, said the hope of many Granite Staters for the future coming out of the pandemic “has been crushed by the budget before us.” He called his opposition “a vote against unanswered needs.”
But Sen. Erin Hennessey, R-Littleton, said the budget provides additional education funding, pays for the construction of a forensic hospital, provides transitional housing beds and allocates $20 million to child welfare behavior health services.
Senate Majority Leader Jeb Bradley, R-Wolfeboro, said Democrats, by opposing the package, opposed $100 million in statewide property tax relief; $50 million in increased Rooms and Meals Tax revenue sharing for cities and towns; and more than $100 million in additional education funding, distributed under a new formula to target more money to property-poor communities.
Bradley said the budget includes additional state aid grants for water projects; and about $83 million in funding for local roads and bridges repairs.
“All told, what you’re voting against in property tax relief is about $400 million,” Bradley said, directing his comments at the Democratic minority.
Bradley said the budget contains $25 million directed at providing affordable housing; and funding for a new secure psychiatric unit “when we know how bad our mental health crisis is.” He said the budget also includes funding for transition beds, a mobile crisis unit and new positions at the Division of Child, Youth and Families.
Bradley said funds have been provided to end the developmental disability waiting list; for a program to help keep seniors out of nursing homes; a $20 million increase for private nursing homes; a $29 million increase for county nursing homes; as well as funding for the Granite Shield anti-drug program, for police body cameras, for a program to combat Internet crimes against children, for a $4 million increase for homeless services and funds to allow the closure of the Sununu Youth Services Center.
He noted the bill cuts business taxes and begins to phase out the Interest and Dividends Tax.
Voucher program
Sen. Jay Kahn, D-Keene, said the voucher program is largely unregulated, potentially allowing families with more than one child to obtain up to $6,000 in what the Republicans are calling “education freedom accounts” per child.
Although the program is limited to families with maximum incomes of three times the federal poverty level, Kahn said there is no means testing for the program.
Families must file one statement of income, he said, “and after that, a second income earner can return to the workforce, push family earnings over three times the poverty level and continue to have the public pay for private schools for their children.”
“You’ll hear this called school choice,” he said. “There was never any hearing on this version of the bill and this is the broadest government handout for K through 12 education of any state that I’ve seen – and I’ve reviewed the education choice data.”
“It’s going to draw on the same funding source as public schools – the education trust fund,” Kahn said. He noted that the state Department of Education reported the fiscal impact on the budget would be only $3 million, but the progressive Reaching Higher New Hampshire group found the impact to be closer to $25 million.
“It will compete for education trust fund dollars needed to make local property tax reductions,” Kahn said.
24-week abortion ban
In the House, Rep. Marjorie Smith, D-Durham, said that in the past in New Hampshire, “I knew that personal privacy would be respected, the government stayed out of New Hampshire’s bedrooms and left it to the individuals to work out the decisions and bear the responsibility of matters best left to individuals and their families.”
“I have never understood how a 424-member Legislature could fit in a doctor’s office and insert themselves between doctor and patient, ordering medical procedures, such as ultra-sound, without regard to medical necessity, patient safety or cost.
“I cannot imagine holding pregnant women and their physicians criminally liable for acting in the best medical interest of the patient,” Smith said.
In the Senate, Sen. Rebecca Perkins Kwoka, D-Portsmouth, asked, “Why, when it comes to women, do we still feel it is acceptable to diminish our rights, to interfere with our own medical decisions? It is inappropriate and invasive.”
Republican Sen. Regina Birdsell of Hampstead pushed back.
“There are 18 states that have decided to get between a woman and her doctor for a 20-week abortion ban,” Birdsell said. “There are 20 states, including our dear president’s state of Delaware, our vice president’s state of California, that have a viability limit of 22 to 24 weeks.
“There are also four states that have a 24-week abortion ban, including Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Florida and Nevada,” she said. “The Supreme Court has reiterated that although a woman has a constitutional right to obtain an abortion, the state does have a legitimate interest in protecting that fetal life and may even proscribe abortion viability, which is exactly what these states have done.”
Sen. Becky Whitley, D-Concord said the ultra-sound requirement is “an incredible and outrageous overreach by the government,” which in addition to being invasive will also be expensive for women, creating a “financial burden” especially for low-income women.
She called it “a direct attack on women’s reproductive health and freedom and will align New Hampshire with the national effort to take down Roe v. Wade.
“That actually seems to be the agenda here with this ultra-sound requirement – to make the abortion itself more intrusive, more medically complex, more expensive, and more burdensome after a year when the women of New Hampshire have been powering this state through the pandemic,” Whitley said.
Sen. Sharon Carson, R-Hudson, responded, “We are one of only seven states in this country that does not put any kind of a limit on abortions. Forty-three states have agreed that at some point, you have to consider the life of the infant.”
Under the 24-week provision, she said, “A woman has six months to decide whether or not she wants this child. That is reasonable and should not place a burden on any woman anywhere.”
Carson said that if a woman cannot afford an ultra-sound, they are free to take a so-called “morning-after pill” in New Hampshire without a prescription.
Sen. Tom Sherman, D-Rye, a physician, said, "It is appalling to think that the Legislature in New Hampshire believes that they know better than a mother and her provider that they know what is best for her health and that of her fetus.”
Sherman held up an ultra-sound probe to show the senators that a trans-vaginal ultra-sound, which is used early in pregnancies, is -- in his words --- invasive, uncomfortable, and embarrassing.
“This is not a benign bill,” Sherman said, calling it “a breathtaking invasion of privacy” and “a fundamental violation of medical ethics.”
In the House, Rep. Katherine Rogers, D-Concord, said, “In this House 66 percent of the members are men. Is it right that they get to play God with the women of New Hampshire?”
Critical Race Theory
The trailer bill also contains language regulating the teaching of critical race theory and basing employment on race, religion, sexual orientation and other characteristics.
While Republican characterized it as an anti-discrimination provision, Democrats said it has racial connotations.
“Create a budget that envisions a more perfect union with liberty and justice for all? That might be a divisive concept,” Sen. David Watters, D-Dover, said.
Whitley said the budget “shows the New Hampshire State House has fallen prey to polarizing national politics and culture wars meant to divide us at a time when we should be coming together to heal and recover.”
She called the ban on teaching discrimination "political doublespeak."
"Since when did the 'Live-Free-or-Die' state become a place where policing topics of conversation was considered OK?" Whitley asked.
In the House, Rep. Linda Harriott-Gathright, D-Nashua, said: “These bills don’t just set back progress on addressing systemic issues, they also rob young people of an inclusive education and blatantly depress speech about race.
“This bans teaching divisive concepts in public schools, public colleges and public universities. The bill targets efforts to provide education about gender and race discrimination,” she said. “It is well-known across the country, fully acknowledged, that realities of systemic racism are still alive and well.
She said the bill’s supporters are joining those across the country who want to “impose an alternate version of American history. Our country needs to acknowledge – New Hampshire needs to acknowledge – its history of systemic racism and reckon with present day impacts of racial discrimination.”
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June 26, 2021
Did the New Hampshire State Legislature and Governor Chris Sununu's new state budget turn away federal funds for public education with its budget rider school voucher program? Did they violate the U.S. Constitution's right to free speech and turn away federal funds with its budget rider ban on student discussions on racism and sexism? Did they violate the U.S. Constitution's case law for limited abortion rights for women with its budget rider, including making no exemption for rape, incest, and the medical condition of the fetus? Why do state lawmakers use budget riders instead of holding public hearings and public input on legislation? What happened to democracy? Did budget riders take it away?
- Jonathan Melle
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June 26, 2021
Hello Patrick Fennell,
On the Governor of New Hampshire – Chris Sununu – signing the new state budget with controversial budget riders, I totally disagree with you today. I still respect you, and I enjoy reading your email letters about politics, but New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu should not pass controversial laws via budget riders. Instead, the Governor should be telling the State Legislature in Concord, New Hampshire to hold public hearings and seek public input from their constituents. Also, as New Hampshire’s Governor, Chris Sununu should be ensuring that the state government is in legal compliance with the state and federal Constitutions, as well as remaining eligible to receive federal funding for public education.
In Massachusetts, Governor Charlie Baker and the Boston-based state lawmakers purposefully underfund public education by one billion dollars per year. In your hometown of Great Barrington, your public middle school is named after a registered Communist who was friends and ally with Stalin, who killed millions of more innocent people than Hitler. I don’t understand how any town could honor someone who openly supported a mass murderer of at least 20 million innocent human beings!
In closing, politicians don’t give a damn about public education. It is all about the federal funds and their political ambitions. Governors Chris Sununu and Charlie Baker are no different.
Best wishes,
Jonathan Melle
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June 26, 2021
Hello Patrick Fennell,
The U.S. Government and state governments should protect free speech, including free speech that hates America. Personally, I love America, but I fear my government. If you go through U.S. History, the government has had many injustices, including the genocide of 50 million native American Indigenous Peoples. Hitler killed between 12 to 15 million innocent or persecuted Peoples, especially the Jewish People, in the Holocaust. The U.S. colonial and federal government and colonial and state governments killed between 3 to 4 times the number of Peoples in U.S. genocides than Hitler's horrible Holocaust genocides. The Founding Fathers were mostly Slave owners. How could they rationally fight a Revolutionary War against the British Empire and Crown in the name of Classical Liberty, but they themselves owned Slaves? President Abraham Lincoln freed the Slaves, but if he was not assassinated, Abe Lincoln wanted to remove black people from the U.S.A. and relocated them to Africa. Abe Lincoln said that he did not see the U.S.A. being able to stay united if black people stayed here with white people. Abe Lincoln was really a racist against black people and just 4 days before he was assassinated, he spoke of removing black people from the country he led through the U.S. Civil War. In the 1920s, the U.S. Government passed racist immigration laws that openly discriminated against the Jewish People and Italian People from immigrating to our country. Also during that time, the U.S. Government and state government had racist eugenic laws whose aim was to reduce or eliminate minorities and disabled people from society so that white people would ultimately live in white only communities. In the 1920s, Adolf Hitler openly praised the U.S. Government for its systemic racist laws, especially against the Jews. World War 2 was the U.S. Government and Allied Powers finest hours because we took down Hitler's evil Nazi Germany regime. But post World War 2, the U.S. Government's armed forces and other agencies fought endless wars where the U.S. Government killed millions upon millions of foreign Peoples. In 2003, the U.S. Government invaded Iraq and through present day controls 85 to 90 percent of Iraq's second largest oil reserves in the world; Saudi Arabia - the U.S. Government's close ally - has the largest oil reserves in the world. The U.S. Government's number one non-farm export are military weapons. The U.S. Government makes its money off of its war machine or military industrial complex. So long as the U.S. Government sells arms to the world, it doesn't matter how high the U.S. national debt gets. In 2021, the U.S.A. is at its most economically unequal status in 100 years. The U.S.A. is the land of class warfare where only the top 1 percent and underclass grow in the current K-shaped recovery for Wall Street and recession for Main Street. The U.S. middle class is shrinking, while economic inequality is growing. I don't have children, but if I did, I would tell them that my grandparents and parents had better odd of living in the middle class from 1945 - 1975 than I had from 1975 - 2021 and they have from their birth year though their mid-60s. In 2008, Wall Street's financial system collapsed because the wealthy gambled and lost trillions of dollars, and then the U.S. Government spent trillions of federal tax dollars bailing them out for causing the worse economic recession since the Great Depression in the 1930s, which was when Hitler rose to power in Germany. Ever since the U.S. Government bailed out Wall Street, the U.S. Government has been mortgaging our country's future for the benefit of Wall Street. Guess who is paying for the Wall Street's bailouts and the U.S. Government's huge national debt? The people at the bottom of the K-shaped recovery/recession. Politicians always say that only a percentage of American people, along with businesses, pay federal taxes, but what politicians don't say is that we all pay one way or another for the U.S. Government's huge national debt that benefits Wall Street. In closing, let us put it all together. So-called religious fundamentalists who were of course white and came from Europe arrived in the U.S. over 400 years ago, committed the worst genocide in world history, and wiped out native cultures; our country was founded by white men who mostly owned slaves but did so in the name of classical liberty; we celebrate Abe Lincoln freeing the slaves while not saying the he wanted to deport the black population but was assassinated before he could do it; we passed racist immigration laws against Jews and others and practiced racist eugenic programs that Hitler openly praised; thankfully, we fought and defeated Hitler in World War 2, but then built our own war machine or military industrial complex that killed millions upon millions of foreign Peoples; we invaded Iraq for its second largest oil reserves in the world; we sell arms to the world for billions of dollars in business profits and tax revenues every year; and we exploit the masses by practicing class warfare for the benefit of Wall Street. I love my country, but I fear my government.
Best wishes,
Jonathan Melle
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June 27, 2021
Hello Editor of the NH Union Leader, et al,
New Hampshire doesn't have a sales tax like Massachusetts does, but it is a known fact that New Hampshire has the highest property taxes in the nation. New Hampshire should be known as the state of regressive taxation. Talk about screwing over the peasants, New Hampshire takes the cake!
Governor Charlie Baker is the WORST Governor in the over 400 year history of Massachusetts because 76 of our nation's heroes - our Veterans - died of Covid-19 in the Holyoke Soldiers Home under his watch, including Veterans from New Hampshire. Governor Charlie Baker should have taken full responsibility for this tragedy, and then apologized to all of the families of all of the dead Veterans, but he has no decency to do so.
Talking about having no decency, Governor Charlie Baker is sitting on billions of stimulus funds, along with state slush funds, while the peasants in Massachusetts are struggling to survive in the K-shaped economic recession for the hard hit working class families - while Wall Street is at record highs in the K-shaped economic recovery. It is disingenuous of him to sit on all of the billions in state taxpayer dollars, and then propose a 2 month sales tax holiday to help the peasants save a few hundred dollars. I believe it is really a campaign strategy to boost his image for the 2022 gubernatorial election.
In Truth!
Jonathan A. Melle
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"Baker’s sale: It’s still not NH, Charlie"
The NH Sunday Union Leader, Opinion: Editorial, June 27, 2021
Gov. Charlie Baker proposes giving Massachusetts consumers two whole months of freedom from that state’s 6.5 percent sales tax. Atta boy, Charlie. Only 10 more months and you will be where New Hampshire is (and always has been): sales-tax free.
The liberals who run the Bay State legislature were aghast at the Republican governor’s modest proposal. Some fainted dead away at the thought of returning taxpayer revenue (of which the state has a surplus) to the taxpayers. They called it a “political gimmick” that merely extends the two-day tax-free holiday that Massachusetts has been granting its peasants for several years. Either option reminds those consumers that for a few gallons of highly-taxed gasoline, they can shop in tax-free New Hampshire the year round.
Baker may be hoping that spiking the tax for two whole months would give real relief to businesses that lose significant revenue from that border-hopping. It might. But consumers are unlikely to compress a year’s worth of shopping into just two months.
We hope Gov. Chris Sununu will follow former Gov. John Lynch’s example and promote the New Hampshire Advantage during these tax “holidays” whatever their length. We would suggest Sununu do so through some Massachusetts media advertising. This would have the added benefit of irritating his New Hampshire foes. Every time the governor makes an effective pitch for the Granite State, they cringe.
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Letter: "Most empowering state budget in New Hampshire history"
The New Hampshire Union Leader, July 12, 2021
To the Editor: Our Republican House majority worked with the Republican Senate and Governor Chris Sununu to implement the most empowering state budget in New Hampshire history.
We provided over $100 million to New Hampshire small businesses in Paycheck Protection Plan tax relief.
We expanded the exemptions on employer taxes, exempting an additional 30,000 Granite State small businesses from having to even file taxes after we raised the minimum business tax thresholds.
We reduced the business enterprise tax by 8.33% and the business profit tax by 1.30%.
We cut $100 million in the statewide property tax, putting more money directly into people’s pockets.
Following the devastating economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Republicans in New Hampshire recognized the need for real economic relief and we delivered for all Granite Staters. Our budget truly has a tax cut for everyone, and successful Republican management of our state going forward will enable even further tax reductions and eliminations.
Over the course of the next five years, we are fully eliminating the interest and dividends tax — making New Hampshire a truly income tax free state.
Republicans will continue to fight for Granite Staters and do what we can to reduce the burden of government and allow our economy to thrive. I’m proud of our Republican budget and I’m happy we could deliver such a victory for New Hampshire.
REP. DEB HOBSON
East Kingston, New Hampshire
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Letter: "Budget passes the buck and will increase property taxes"
NH Union Leader, July 13, 2021
To the Editor: Many Republicans in the state House and Senate are playing games with tax laws. They cut state support for public education and they try to pass vouchers for private schools. This is a gift to those who can afford private schools and who are likely to vote Republican. But this will have one of two effects:
Public schools in poor towns will have to cut their budget and hamstring teachers who need good materials to be able to give a strong education. Examples: The biology teacher may not be able to replace or repair old microscopes. Old text books that are out of date will not be replaced.
Public schools in well-to-do towns will have to raise the property taxes to keep the schools up to realistic quality standards.
So, Republicans will brag that they cut state taxes. They will be careful not to let you know why your school is underfunded, or why your property tax went up so much. Please think about this next time you vote.
PATRICK M. EGGLESTON
Amherst, New Hampshire
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