Josiah Bartlett Releases Budget by the Numbers

Local Aid down 4%; Government Operations cut 19.5%

The Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy compiled an apples-to-apples comparison showing the House passed budget cut of 11% includes a 4% cut to local aid but a 19% cut to government operations. The 19% cut to state government itself can be divided into a 29% cut for the bulk of state government and a 1% cut to HHS, which can also be considered 12% if you add in one-time stimulus money that went away.
 
The data is contained in two spreadsheets posted on the Center’s website. “We are committed to making the bottom line of the state budget more accessible to the New Hampshire citizen and this is the first step in that process,” Josiah Bartlett Center President Charlie Arlinghaus said. “The data in the state financial reports, because of our fund accounting system, makes some comparisons for FY2010 and FY2011 difficult. Some money that might be thought of as general fund for practical terms is categorized as federal funds but behaves as if it were general fund.”
 
“As an example, a straight comparison of general funds spent on the department of HHS shows flat funding but the stimulus money, funded by a one-time increased Medicaid matching percentage, functioned in most practical ways as if it were general fund money. Although the increased federal grant was a one-time windfall, it was used to fund ongoing programs which to be supported at the same level would require the one-time stimulus money to be replaced with general funds. Our goal is to try and tease out those differences and explain them so citizens can make their own judgments.”
 
The Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy is a independent free market think tank focused on state and local public policy issues that affect the quality of life for New Hampshire's citizens. The Center has as its core beliefs individual freedom and responsibility, limited and accountable government, and an appreciation of the role of the free enterprise system. The Center seeks to promote policy that supports these beliefs by providing information, research, and analysis.

NH Budget Components

Arlinghaus: State Budget by the Numbers

Apples to Apples Spending

Josiah Bartlett Center - Budget Protest Video

Budget Debate heats up inside and outside State House

As the New Hampshire House debated and ultimately approved the state's two-year, $10.2 billion budget, thousands of protesters rallied on the steps of the State House to voice their opposition to the significant budget cuts for most state agencies, and to proposed changes in collective bargaining rules.  New Hampshire Watchdog's Grant Bosse heard first-hand from the protesters about their concerns.  Watch our exclusive video report now.

NH Watchdog covers the State House

But the budget wasn't the only big issue in Concord this week.  The House also sent repeal of the RGGI program to the Senate, and approved a Constitutional Amendment requiring a super-majority vote from both houses to raise taxes, fees, or borrowing, and blocked the use of eminent domain for projects like Northern Pass.  The Senate approved a provision to effectively end teacher tenure in New Hampshire.  Read more about these important issues at New Hampshire Watchdog.

Support The JBC

As New Hampshire's only free market think, the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy has a unique responsibility to push for a smaller, more responsible, and more open government.  Our New Hampshire Watchdog site shines a light into the unexamined corners of New Hampshire government.  Our newest project, NHOpenGov.org, is a powerful tool allowing anyone to dig into how New Hampshire officials spend our money.  But we can't keep the pressure on without your help.  We are entirely dependent your contributions to continue our work.  Please make a tax-deductible contribution to the Josiah Bartlett Center right now.  Don't wait.  You'll forget all about it.  Click the Contribute Button now.

750,000 Lines and Counting!

Earlier this week, we uploaded the remainder of the spending data from 2009 to NHOpenGov.org. Every last dollar spent by the state in Fiscal Year 2009 is now in our search-able database. Looking forward, with the assistance of the Executive Council and the ongoing cooperation of the Department of Administrative Services, we will soon be adding monthly data updates from the current fiscal year, and eventually compiling every state transaction from 2009 onwards.  NHOpenGov.org is a powerful tool to keep New Hampshire government accountable to the people.  Please try it for yourself.

NH Council follows Arlinghaus' advice on health insurance exchange

In his weekly column in the Union Leader, JBC President Charlie Arlinghaus advised the New Hampshire Executive Council to "take it slow" on approving a $666,000 planning grant to set up a Health Insurance Exchange under ObamaCare.

"The concern about setting up an exchange is that we would be creating a program designed around a law that we know will have to be changed. If the whole law isn’t thrown out – and that remains a possibility – enough of it certainly will be that even its most ardent supporters will want to change it to make it work in light of a new reality. Why comply with rules we know won’t be in effect?

We also know we don’t want and can’t afford a Massachusetts-style $29 million exchange. Let’s not set one up. If Utah’s experiment is promising we can import that when the time comes. Let’s give it a chance to operate and then decide.

Another obvious concern is with federal regulation. Utah’s experiment doesn’t in any way resemble the prototype of ObamaCare, the Massachusetts system. The federal statements on it have been noncommittal. It is still likely that federal regulators will eventually force exchanges to comply with all of the federal mandates in a way that make them more or the same as a federally-managed exchange."  Read the whole thing.

On Wednesday, the Council took that advice, and unanimous tabled the health insurance exchange grant.  Arlinghaus gets results!

Inside the Cloakroom- Taxes, Tenure, and Northern Pass

  In this week's episode of The Cloakroom, we take a closer look at CACR 6, which would require a super-majority vote of both the House and Senate to approve any increase in state taxes, fees, or borrowing.  We interview Representative Gary Richardson (D-Hopkinton) about his objections to the constitutional amendment.  We also sit down for an inclusive interview with Senator Jim Forsythe (R-Strafford) on the eve of Senate passage of his proposal to end teacher tenure in New Hampshire schools.  And we capture highlights on the debate over whether utilities projects like Northern Pass should be barred from the use of eminent domain. 

Watch the latest episode of The Cloakroom now.

NH Watchdog Poll Results

Last week, we asked you if Northern Pass should be built.  Our readers overwhelmingly answered no.

This week, we ask if it should be easier for local school officials to get rid of under-performing teachers.  Click the Vote Button to take the NH Watchdog Poll.

Josiah Bartlett Center - Exclusive Footage of NH Union Protests

Unions Protest NH Budget

This week, hundreds of members of state and local labor unions converged on the Legislative Office Building in Concord to protest the House Finance Committee's vote on the state budget, including a controversial provision to ban Evergreen Clauses in all public labor agreements.

Grant Bosse files this exclusive video report capturing the protests, the debate over the Evergreen proposal, and the raucous committee proceedings.  Watch our exclusive video report now.

Support NH Watchdog

As we build our multimedia empire, and provide unmatched coverage of the New Hampshire budget debate, it may seem like New Hampshire Watchdog is an unstoppable public policy juggernaut.  But we can't continue to shine a light on state government without your support.  Please become a member of the Josiah Bartlett Center with a tax deductible contribution today.

Union Leader Praises NHOpenGov.org

March 20, 2011

The Josiah Bartlett Center last week launched a site that allows anyone to view state spending documents online. With a click of the mouse, state government just got vastly more transparent.

On the center’s NHOpenGov.org site, anyone can view any state expenditure. Want to know how much the Department of Education spent on books in 2008? It’s there ($3,667). Want to know how much the state Office of Health Management spent at Walgreen's in West Lebanon? It’s there ($7,499).

The database is searchable by department, vendor and expense category. Or, if you like, you can browse it.

State expenses are now fully open to public scrutiny.

In creating this site, the Bartlett Center has done the people of New Hampshire a tremendous public service.

We all owe center president Charles Arlinghaus (who also is a freelance columnist for the New Hampshire Union Leader) and his crew a big thank you.

Debunking the Myth of the Underpaid State Worker

For years, we've heard that public employees sacrifice higher salaries in the private sector as a trade-off for better health care, retirement benefits, and job security.  But after several years of pay raises that outstripped their colleagues in the marketplace, New Hampshire's state employees now take home a bigger paycheck on average than private sector workers.  Charlie Arlinghaus debunks the myth of the underpaid state worker in his latest Union Leader column:

"Six years ago, state salaries were about 12% below the average of all workers, although total compensation was higher because of benefits. Today, state government employees make about 5% more in salary than the average all workers and enjoy dramatically more generous retirement and health benefits on top of it.

When state employee union president Gary Smith retired last year, it was surprising he didn’t make a bigger deal out of his remarkable success.

It was often said that state employees make much lower salaries than their private sector counterparts and have higher benefits in exchange. That’s no longer the case. State employee make more on average in salary and have more generous health and one of the only defined benefit health plans left.

The data makes it difficult to call the state a miserly employer."

Read the whole thing.

Inside the Cloakroom with Jeb Bradley and PSNH's Martin Murray

The Cloakroom, our new weekly video magazine, takes an in-depth look at the complex issues facing New Hampshire.  This week in The Cloakroom, Grant Bosse interviews Sen. Jeb Bradley about his bill to reform the NH Retirement System and learns more about the controversial Northern Pass project with PSNH spokesman Martin Murray.

Watch the latest episode of The Cloakroom now.


Northern Pass- Take the Poll

Should Hydro-Quebec and PSNH build 180 miles of power lines across New Hampshire to bring cheap, clean hydro power to the New England grid.  Click the Vote Button to take the NH Watchdog Poll.



Josiah Bartlett Center - Let the Sunshine In!

NH state spending is open to the public
 
This week, the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy opened up a new era in government transparency in New Hampshire.  After two years of hard work, we launched NHOpenGov.org, a free searchable online database that  makes all state spending down to the dollar available online.  You can already search nearly half a million state government transactions, and we'll be adding state payroll data and monthly spending updates going forward.  Sunlight is truly the best disinfectant, and from now on, our state officials will know that the public will see how the spend our money.

Read about NH Open Gov in the Nashua Telegraph, or listen on NH Public Radio.

Keep NH Open Gov online!

Our searchable database and the Josiah Bartlett Center https://us1.admin.mailchimp.com/campaigns/wizard/html-template?id=570382are entirely supported by voluntary contributions.  We need your help to keep the spotlight on state government and preserve public access to every dollar of state spending.  Please send a $10 tax deductible contribution to NH Open Gov today.

The Cloakroom- Transparency and Building Aid

In this week's edition of The Cloakroom, host Grant Bosse covers the launch of NHOpenGov.org, and interviews Senator Bob Odell (R-Lempster) about how the Unity School District is trying to rebuild after the State Board of Education shut down its school.  Sen. Odell also addresses the state Building Aid Program and the NH Budget.  Watch New Hampshire's only public policy video magazine in The Cloakroom, every Thursday at NH Watchdog.

Watch all of our past episodes in The Cloakroom Archive.

How much should NH spend on local schools?

This week, the New Hampshire House approved a bill to change the formula defining an “adequate education” and a Constitutional Amendment to give the Legislature broader discretion over state education aid. In our weekly NH Watchdog Poll, we ask a more fundamental question about the proper level of state support for public education in New Hampshire.

Take the NH Watchdog Poll.

Josiah gets Social

Keep up to date with what's really going on in New Hampshire government.  Become friends with Josiah Bartlett on Facebook or follow him on Twitter.

NH Watchdog - NH Parole Law differs from Texas, Kansas

By Grant Bosse

(CONCORD) New Hampshire’s newly enacted mandatory parole law differs from a Texas program that supporters cited as a case study in how prison reform would reduce recidivism and control costs. Under the New Hampshire statute, passed this spring under Senate Bill 500, all inmates must be paroled within nine months of the end of their maximum sentence. But the Texas parole program that Granite State lawmakers used as a guide does not allow for automatic parole for all inmates.

SB 500 was based on the work of legislative study committee tasked with reducing recidivism and the growing budgets at the Department of Corrections. Based on research from the Council of State Governments, the Pew Center on the States, and the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation. Lead sponsor Sen. Sylvia Larsen (D-Concord) cited the CSG’s January 2010 report “Justice Reinvestment in New Hampshire” during a the Senate Judiciary Committee’s public hearing on SB 500 in February.

Marshall Clement represented CSG’s Justice Center at the hearing, testifying mandatory supervision of inmates was based on data from 12 states. He specifically cited programs instituted in 2007 in Texas and Kansas. Corrections Commissioner William Wrenn recently told the Union Leader that the New Hampshire program was based on experiences in Texas, Kansas, and Arizona. But none of those states mandates parole for all inmates, and Texas excludes the most serious sex offenders entirely.

Texas

Mark Levin is the director of the Center for Effective Justice at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and has been the leading advocate for parole reforms in that state. In a January column in the Dallas Morning News, Levin writes that Texas officials reserve the right to withhold parole from the worst inmates.

In Texas, parole is a privilege, not a right. Inmates demonstrate their commitment to change through good behavior and completion of work, education and treatment programs. Each case is reviewed based on individualized factors and the severity of the offense.

Furthermore, the most dangerous Texas sex offenders are ineligible for parole. The most seriously violent inmates serve 87.5 percent of their sentences, with serious sex offenders serving 97.5 percent. Yet two-thirds of offenders enter prison for a nonviolent offense.

This contrasts with the New Hampshire law, which mandates release of nonviolent inmates who have served 120% of their minimum sentences, and all inmates within nine months of their maximum sentences. The only exception to the mandatory outside supervision period are sex offenders subject to pending civil commitment proceedings.

Kansas

Kansas’s parole and probation programs have been held up for years as models for other states to follow in order to reduce recidivism. Unlike New Hampshire law, Kansas does not mandate parole for all inmates. In fact, the Kansas program relies heavily on behavioral incentives.

At the recommendation of the task force, in May 2007, the Kansas Legislature approved a package of criminal justice legislation which included:

* creation of a performance-based grant program for community corrections programs to design local strategies to reduce revocations by 20 percent;
* establishment of a 60-day program credit to increase the number of people who successfully complete educational, vocational, and treatment programs prior to release; and
* restoration of earned time credits for good behavior for nonviolent offenders.

Despite recent success in cutting recidivism rates, Kansas budget writers are cutting back support for the initiative, as reported in April by the Kansas City Star.

The Kansas method of preparing inmates for re-entering society was considered the crown jewel of correctional systems worldwide. Congress in 2008 established “Second Chance” grants to help other states create the kinds of programs launched in Kansas — for drug rehabilitation, education, family reintegration and transitional housing.

Recidivism rates — the percent of ex-convicts committing new crimes — had in 2007 plunged statewide to 2.2 percent, less than half the recidivism of the early part of the decade.

The number of parolees re-convicted for felonies fell 36 percent. The total prison population and new admissions also were on the decline, enabling the Department of Corrections to project that Kansas needn’t worry about expanding its prison capacity for 10 years.

The recession and consecutive budget blowouts have thrown that momentum into reverse.

Arizona

According to the CSG’s Justice Center, Arizona has not yet implemented any prison or parole reforms based on the CSG model.

The CSG’s Justice Center tracks fourteen states, including New Hampshire, that it is working with on prison and parole reform. Eight of these states have not yet enacted laws based on the CSG findings; Arizona, Indiana, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

Four states have implemented CSG recommendations, but include significant incentives for inmates in determining who received parole; Kansas, Rhode Island, Texas, and Vermont. Each of these states has also increased state spending on rehabilitation programs and parole officers.

Only New Hampshire and Connecticut mandate the release of all inmates for a period of supervision before the completion of their maximum sentences.