NH House Leaders Comment on Release of Revenue Figures for Last Fiscal Year Being Nearly Identical to Target

CONCORD – House Speaker William O’Brien (R-Mont Vernon) and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Stephen Stepanek (R-Amherst) today offered the following comments in response to the release of the budget results for the fiscal year that ended on June 30, 2012 (FY12).  The figures released by the Department of Administrative Services show that the budgeted revenues were up over projections by $600,000 on a $2.19 billion, or a variance of just 3/100^th of 1%.

House Speaker William O’Brien

“To come so close to revenue projections that we would exceed our estimates by a mere 3/100 of a percent is a stunning, remarkable achievement, and shows what happens when your focus is on delivering accurate figures and not trying to inflate revenues to spend more money.  This is a far cry for the prior fiscal year (FY11) when Maggie Hassan and the Democrats overestimated revenues by $116 million – even including their additional tax and fee hikes in a special session – and Governor Lynch’s estimates for FY12 which would have missed by over $122 million, and would have set the stage for yet another budget crisis.  This is a testament to our Ways and Means Committee’s hard work to get the right numbers, not politically expedient figures.  While it’s great that we ended the year with a surplus, we would have like to have seen more aggressive management of the state agencies by Governor Lynch, as we saw lapse figures – the amount that state agencies do not spend – drop by over $60 million from the prior year.  Hopefully, the next governor will be more attentive to ensuring that state agencies rein in their spending.”

House Ways and Means Chairman Stephen Stepanek

“This Legislature chose to use reasonable, responsible revenue figures to bring integrity and accountability back to the budgeting process. These revenue figures are once again a tremendous compliment to the hard work of the Ways and Means Committee. We chose to use reliable revenue targets, and not inflate estimates as the Democrats did when they were in charge so that they could spend more. Unfortunately, the Democrats’ spending was paid for at the expense of the taxpayer with 100 new taxes and fees. We’ve made clear that this legislature refuses to pass the burden off to the taxpayers by raising taxes. Lower taxes mean less of a burden on our businesses and more new jobs here.”

NH House Republican Leaders Respond to Release of August State Revenue Figures

CONCORD – House Speaker William O’Brien (R-Mont Vernon) and House Majority Leader D.J. Bettencourt (R-Salem) today offered statements in response to the release of the state’s revenue receipts for the month of August.  Figures released by the Department of Administrative Services show that, for the month, the state took in $9.6 million in more than plan, led by business taxes, which were 34% higher than plan.  For the year, the state is now $5.1 million ahead of revenue estimates.  The report also showed that tobacco sales reversed a 5-year trend of falling and have started to increase, after the state passed a tobacco tax reduction in the recent budget.  For the month, tobacco revenues were $1.8 million higher than the state plan.

House Speaker William O’Brien

“While it’s good news that August revenue figures are ahead of the budget plan, we are coming off July figures that fell short.  This validates the legislature’s decision to use responsible revenue estimates well below those proposed by the Governor and House Democrats.  With a national economy that the struggling, as evidenced by today’s national unemployment figures that show that no new jobs were created last month, we need to take a cautious view of the months to come.  We expect that there will continue to be good months and bad months coming.”

House Majority Leader D.J. Bettencourt

“Last month, the Democrats screamed that our efforts to make New Hampshire’s cross boarder sales advantage even more competitive by lowering the tobacco tax would lead to the crashing of our tobacco revenue.  I hope they take a moment today to wipe the egg off their faces and realize that our state always benefits by having lower prices and by seizing on opportunities to further capitalize on the willingness of our high tax neighbors to give their citizens an incentive to shop in New Hampshire. While they are openly disdainful of the idea of the New Hampshire Advantage, because they want to turn the Granite State into ‘Massachusetts-North,’ thankfully Republicans know that having lower taxes gives us a huge advantage over our neighbors, and we are now seeing some results of that hard work.”

NH House Leader Statements on Bills to Cut State Budgets, Prohibit Preferences Becoming Law Without Governor's Signature

CONCORD – House Speaker William O’Brien (R-Mont Vernon) and Majority Leader D.J. Bettencourt (R-Salem) today offered the following statements on two Republican priority bills becoming law without Governor Lynch’s signature.

 HB 623 prohibits the use of preferences based on race, sex, national origin, religion, or sexual orientation for recruiting, hiring, promotion, or admission by state agencies, colleges or universities. 

SB 146 requires state departments to submit budgets that cut spending in addition to the current “maintenance” budgets, in which budgets continually inflate.

 House Speaker William O’Brien

 “New Hampshire should hire and pick the best applicants for jobs and for our schools, regardless of the color of their skin, their gender or other characteristics.  HB 623 makes sure that we focus on the qualities that are truly important in individuals and not give advantages to one group over another.”

 “SB 146 instructs our department heads to find ideas for savings, not simply continuing to do business the same way.  We need to give our leaders the tools to shrink government if we are going to provide the taxpayers the most fiscally responsible government possible.  This important bill is a huge step forward in moving our state towards an affordable, sustainable path that delivers high quality service.”

 “While these bills are huge steps in improving government, I am disappointed that Governor Lynch chose not to show leadership in signing these bills into law.  If he wanted to show our citizens that he is interested in having a small government or ending preferences for certain groups, he missed his chance to be a leader.”

 Majority Leader D.J. Bettencourt

 “Once again, Governor Lynch had a chance to take a stand for New Hampshire values, and once again he has failed to act.  This  troubling pattern of inaction at a time when the people of this state  need demonstrative direction and management should be of major concern to us all.  Instead, we are faced with his lack of leadership and the avoidance of setting a positive direction for the state, in order to protect liberal special interests.  New Hampshire needs the Governor to step to the plate now and start delivering results for our citizens. If he needs a pen in order to sign some of these important bills we will be happy to provide him with one.”

NH House Leaders Respond to Budget Becoming Law at Midnight

CONCORD – House Speaker William O’Brien (R-Mont Vernon) and Majority Leader D.J. Bettencourt (R-Salem) offered the following statements in response to the state budget becoming law at midnight and Governor Lynch’s criticism of the budget, which he refused to veto.

House Speaker William O’Brien

 “This budget shifts how we do business in state government.  Instead of the last two budgets that Governor Lynch signed, which raised over 100 taxes and fees, and blew the lid off state spending, this responsible, affordable budget provides tax relief to help our economy grow and create jobs while tightening our belt, as the working families of New Hampshire are doing right now across New Hampshire.  If Governor Lynch really has a problem with this budget, he should veto it and make a case for an alternative.  He offered his plan in February: more new fees, more taxes more inflated revenues and more fiscal irresponsibility.  His plan would have sent us right back into the fiscal mess we are trying to fix.  The Governor’s plan is to turn New Hampshire into a state just like our neighbors; our budget restores what make the Granite State special.” 

Majority Leader D.J. Bettencourt

 “By his criticism, Governor Lynch has shown his true colors.  He’s a big spending, high taxing partisan who only pays lip service to fiscal responsibility.  However, he does have a veto pen, and my advice to him is this: ‘Lead, Follow or Get out of the Way.’  The Governor was not involved at all after his discredited budget was pushed aside for one that lives within our means, yet now he wants to criticize from afar.  He is simply pushing the Democrats’ playbook of tax, spend and repeat.”

NH House Majority - NH House and Senate Reach Budget Agreement

Represents the largest decrease in spending since World War II

 

Concord--House and Senate conferees on the state budget returned to the table this morning and hammered out a final few points on a budget that represents a 12.8 percent decrease in General Fund and Education Trust Fund spending. In doing so, the legislators were successful in maintaining spending within the limits set forth in House Resolution 11 of $4.422 B.  The previous state budget spent $5.070B in General Fund and Education Trust Fund dollars.

 

"Today we have delivered on a promise that we made to the voters  last November to return fiscal sanity to state government.  It was a very difficult budget to put together and there were many difficult choices that had to be made," said House Majority Leader D.J. Bettencourt.  "But in the end, we have delivered a balanced budget that will serve the interests of our citizens, effectively and efficiently, without tax or fee increases, without any additional bonding, and without the "budget gimmickry" used in the previous budget," added Bettencourt.

 

The budget also included a ten cent decrease in the cigarette tax, from $1.78 to $1.68; reduces the saltwater fishing license while sun setting other license fees; increased funding to the community technical colleges; funded the developmentally disabled wait list; and made the technical changes to the retirement fund that were necessary to hold our cities and towns harmless and protect our property taxpayers."

 

The agreement will now go the House and the Senate for approval before moving to the governor's desk for his signature.