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| Budget has something for everyone |
| By Lauren R. Dorgan |
| Published: 04/08/2009 |
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Everyone found something to hate yesterday as lawmakers hashed over the state budget proposed by the House Finance Committee, a plan that contains program cuts, tax increases, layoffs, and increases in benefit costs paid by state employees and retirees. The whole House is expected to vote on the package tomorrow. In a tough year, with needs up and revenue streams sharply down, budget writers said they hoped their $11.5 billion plan for 2010 and 2011 would "spread the pain" among all. "These are dark days," said House Finance Chairwoman Marjorie Smith, a Durham Democrat. "No one is happy, except for the fact we did the best that we could do." Liberal critics said that budget writers cut too much from the needy and from state employees and should have turned to income taxes or taxes on the rich to fund state operations fairly. Conservatives contended that the taxes contained in the budget were excessive and that one of the taxes - a 5 percent levy on capital gains - is an income tax. Others balked at cuts to local aid, which they said would drive up property tax bills. For their part, House Republicans unveiled a budget plan of their own that they heralded as "truly balanced," which they said would increase no taxes and maintain $123 million worth of aid to cities and towns not included in the Democratic budget, $83 million of which is school building aid. There was just one catch: Republicans called for more than $300 million worth of cuts to the budget without specifying what should go, instead calling on the leaders of most state agencies to figure out how to institute 13.5 percent across-the-board spending reductions. "Republicans as a matter of policy believe that in a recession, you don't raise taxes," said Rep. Neal Kurk, a Weare Republican and the senior GOP member of the committee. Kurk denounced what he called the "capital gains income tax" and said that between that and the pre-existing interest and dividends tax, the only income that remains untaxed is "your salaries." Kurk had checked the history books to find the last time lawmakers backed a comparably large across-the-board cut; the biggest he found was in the late 1980s, when lawmakers had pitched a 7.4 percent cut. He said that the budget process is far from over - after the House passes a budget, it heads to the Senate for further reworking - and that the Democratic majority on the House Finance Committee had also passed an across-the-board cut, calling for agency heads to trim 1.25 percent from the budget. House budget writers had a difficult job, Smith said. When Gov. John Lynch laid out his budget proposal, which included laying off as many as 300 state workers and shuttering the Laconia prison, he was relying on significantly sunnier projections of state revenue than House members did. While Lynch expected revenue to stay flat for the next two years, House lawmakers expected a $140 million decline. Lynch also expected $40 million in additional Medicaid money from the federal government that hasn't materialized. On the whole, House budget writers maintained Lynch's proposal, including closing the Laconia prison and shuttering several state courts. But they made some big changes, including halving the corrections overtime budget to save 20 jobs and leaving open for one year the Tobey School in Concord for children with severe behavioral issues - which Lynch had recommended closing - while studying what to do. The budget plan took many shots from the Democratic side of the aisle. Concord Rep. Jessie Osborne, who sponsored an income tax bill this year, said budget writers had overlooked the fact that the state's real problem is insufficient revenue. She criticized the budget's cuts to money the state sets aside for burials of the indigent and its plan to close four courts in the state, which she said would cost the counties in extra expenses to transport inmates. Osborne said lawmakers should not "balance this budget on the backs of the retirees, the policemen and the firemen. They are the backbone of this state." Read more. If link has expired, check the website of the article's original news source. |
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