By Rep. DAVID HESS
For the Monitor
July 13, 2008 - 12:00 am

No matter how hard they try, Democrats in Concord just can't sugarcoat their tax, borrow and spend policies of the last two years. A case in point is the recent opinion piece authored by House Speaker Terie Norelli ("Republicans left costly problems for us to solve," Monitor Forum, June 25).

Despite the harsh accusations, half-truths and just plain misstatements, she can't turn this year's budget disaster into an M&M chocolate.

Let's look at the facts. First, state spending. In the 2006-07 biennium, general fund appropriations totaled $2.71 billion. Under the leadership of the Democrats this session, that figure jumped to $3.19 billion; that's an increase of $475 million, or 17.5 percent. This money is raised from taxes and fees paid by you, the taxpayers of New Hampshire.

So how are the Democrats planning to pay for this? First they raised no less than 15 taxes and fees, including a second increase in the cigarette tax in two years. They also found new things to tax, such as charitable games of chance, cigars, registry of deed filings, court filings and many more.

But that wasn't enough to correct the deficit, so they decided to bond $90.5 million to pay the state's current expenses. They did that in a single, hurry up "special" legislative session that ended at midnight June 5 - all without referral to a committee, without a public hearing and with inaccurate information and misrepresentations
on the House floor.

Bonding school building aid

The history of this issue is particularly disturbing. In early May, the governor proposed bonding $80 million in school construction aid to help pay for the budget deficit. After a hearing before a joint House-Senate committee, this proposal was unanimously rejected - with the House Democratic leadership leading the charge. Then, barely three weeks later, during our midnight special session, and without a word of explanation or justification, the Democratic leadership did a 180-degree turnaround and passed this bonding on a straight party- line vote.

Not only that, but they threw in another $20 million in bonding to boot, all with no public hearing or any public input whatsoever. So much for the democratic process.

And what about some of the other misleading comments in Speaker Norelli's piece? Yes, indeed, the State House roof was leaking in the spring of 2007, but it was the previous Republican House that passed the appropriations to fix it.

As for the vaunted retirement plan fix, the House did - unanimously, and on a voice vote - pass an excellent bill that was fair to retirees, current employees, employers and taxpayers alike, only to see the big public employees' unions dismantle it in the Senate. In the face of extreme union pressure during the committee of conference, the House Democratic leadership backed down on virtually every major point. So we will be back trying to fix this again next year.

10-year highway plan

Finally, the 10-year highway plan. The Democrats didn't fully fund that either. In fact, when Commissioner Charles O'Leary presented the plan, he realistically asked for a six-year plan, which was unanimously endorsed by committee Republicans because it was fully funded, honest and straightforward in its design. Again, the Democrats chose smoke-and-mirrors legislation.

Maybe if Speaker Norelli and House Democrats were less concerned with blaming Republicans and appeasing the governor, but instead concentrated on doing the work of the people, we wouldn't be in the mess we are in today.

(Rep. David Hess of Hooksett is the deputy House Republican leader.)

pending cap initiative

A conservative group is coordinating efforts in four cities to cap municipal spending at the rate of the consumer price index beginning in 2010.

The New Hampshire Advantage Coalition is working with activists in Manchester, Concord, Merrimack and Rochester to put proposed changes to those communities' municipal charters on the ballot in November.

Coalition chairman Mike Biundo said the effort was sparked by "legislative overspending" last year and by the recent initiative by the Granite State Fair Tax Coalition "to strip away our (anti-broad base tax) pledge and strip away what New Hampshire is, a low-tax, low-spending state."

Biundo said that by tomorrow, language for charter amendments will be filed in the four municipalities. He said plans call for similar filings shortly in Londonderry, Conway, Portsmouth, Keene, Somersworth, Lebanon and Bedford.

"When you add up the 11 communities, this is over 30 percent of the electorate in the state," he said.

Biundo said state law requires the proposed petitions for the charter amendments to be reviewed by the Attorney General's Office and Department of Revenue Administration. He said that when the language is approved, organizers will have 60 days to gather petitions signed by at least 20 percent of the number of local residents who voted in the last municipal elections.

Biundo said his coalition has hired former Ron Paul field director Jared Chicoine and brought back former coalition executive director Tammy Simmons. He claims that such an effort "has never been done before on this scale in this state."

Sure, LET'S use the taxpayers as an ATM machine!  After all, it's THEIR money (ha! not ours!)!  NH Advantage, what's that?

It is becoming quite clear that the NH Democrats have seriously overreached in this year's State budget, especially in the area of revenue forcasting.  They decry that the national and local economies are to blame: "that's why revenues are down!".

Er, not so fast.  While revenues have not met expections, actual revenues are up year over year.  Hear that?  Actual revenues are up.  This small, simple fact gives lie to the Democrats claim that the NH economy has tanked; the only thing that has tanked is their revenue projections!

So, do they admit that overreach?  Do they admit that perhaps the glasses they wore at the time had a tad more tinge of rose in them than warranted?  Of COURSE not!

So, what is their sole way to fix their self-induced problem?  Of COURSE - let's raise taxes and fees (never "how do we protect the taxpayers" and perhaps ramp down the cost of government).  Here's a prelim list:

Increased Taxes and Fees this Session:

• HB 1309—A new tax on cigars that will adversely affect sales along the NH border.
  

• HB 1426—Motor fuel imported into NH will be taxed higher and dedicated to a cleanup fund that DES testified, “does not need money right now.”
  

• HB 1594—Establishes new fees that will be levied on the backs of small business owners in NH.
  

• HB 1286—Requires mortgage originators to pay a $100 licensing fee and a $100 renewal fee.
  

• HB 1414—Increases the bail commissioners fee by $15 per day.
  

• HB 1360—House Democrats defeated a bill that would have repealed the civil court filing fee that they adopted last year. Adding a fee of $25 for filing any civil case is just another step in preventing our citizens from seeking redress and is yet another example of the mismanagement of the budget.
  

• HB 1547—House Democrats refused another attempt to repeal the fee charged to the Register of Deeds in an attempt to fund LCHIP by using a method that is harmful to citizens experiencing an already fledging real estate market.
  

• SB 528—Created a $5 incentive for recycling mercury thermostats that would be paid by manufacturers and passed along to the consumer.
  

• SB 519—Imposes a per diem fine on dam owners and operators for failure to repair damage.
  

• SB 317—Raises the tobacco license fee—once again hurting small business and chipping away at the New Hampshire Advantage.

Notice the pattern - a death by a THOUSAND cuts (or pennies, or dollar bills in this case)....just to show that NONE of it will be sufficient to put in a broad based tax.  Yup, we created a crisis for which the only answer is MORE of YOUR money!