by Rep. Andrew Renzullo (R - Hills 27)

If you follow state politics at all you’ve probably heard or read about the most recent episode of the madhouse comedy that passes for state government in New Hampshire, the “EMERGENGY” special session of June 4. While the Legislature was already in session Governor John Lynch and the Executive Council, with the connivance of the House Speaker and Senate President, called a special “emergency” session of the Legislature to take place IMMEDIATELY after the regular session ended! The Governor and Council called for the session in the morning and it was held in the afternoon after the regular session finished.

Now what was the emergency? Had the Seabrook Nuclear Power Station had a meltdown? Had Vermont invaded Hanover and occupied Dartmouth? Nope. The emergency was that the Governor “discovered” he had a budget deficit due to the inflated budget he and his party’s legislative leaders had passed last year. If you couple that with the filing date for Governor being the following week, then having a red-ink stained budget on the table while you’re making your filing speech could be considered an “emergency,” a political emergency.

So the Governor’s problem was how to come up with some money fast to mask the state’s real financial dilemma. No problem, borrow it. It’s easy. If you have a car payment due, borrow money on your credit card. Ignore the fact that you’re transferring the cost, plus interest payments, to a future date.

One of the Governor’s ideas was to take the School Building Aid Transfer, which, for years, has always been treated as an expense item, and bond it. That’s good for 40 million dollars. Forget the fact that our children will be paying back the loan, plus interest.

Another idea was to allow the Pease Redevelopment Authority to borrow $10 million to pay back early the $10 million it had previously borrowed from the state. This is a neat way to have $10 million appear on the state’s books but have the debt appear on the books of another state entity.

As an aside, if you are a real government wonk you’re now asking the question, if there is a real financial emergency, why doesn’t Governor Lynch tap into the $87 million “Rainy Day” fund? That’s money set aside for emergencies, isn’t it? Well, the response from the House Democrat Leadership was, to the effect, that this “emergency” wasn’t the kind of emergency for which the rainy day fund should be used. Back to my story.

Now that the Governor had figured a way to finagle the books, he needed to get around the legislature, most notably the House, and its pesky rules. No problem, re-write the rules! But you can’t, the legislature has already adopted rules for this session, especially the inconvenient rule requiring a 2/3rds approval to take up new business. No problem. Call a Special “Emergency” session. Then you can adopt any rules you want. And the rules the majority party adopted made a farce of the legislative process.

First, the House legislators were not supplied with written copies of the new rules, only a sheet listing changes by section. Second, these rules did away with having any hearings for public input or referral to committees who could study the proposals and make intelligent recommendation to the whole House. And finally, the bill itself was handed out to be voted on while the House members were seated in session. Outraged by this travesty, many House Republicans walked out (but later returned out of respect for the institution).

Needless to say, Governor Lynch and the Democrat leadership in the legislature got what it wanted. But at what cost? Over 200 years the legislative process has been developed in New Hampshire. A cornerstone of that process is due deliberation and public openness. To deny the public’s input on a multi-million dollar financial bill is unconscionable. To hide the contents of a multi-million dollar financial bill from legislators until they are in session is unacceptable. The people have a right to expect their legislators to give due diligence to legislation and not be stampeded or coerced. Yet the overwhelming majority of Democrats sat there and did exactly that. They chose party loyalty over loyalty to the institution they swore an oath to serve. What happened inConcord last week helped add to the negative perception the electorate has of government. I hope the Governor and Democrat Leadership felt it was worth it.

by Edward Mosca

This coming week, the House is set to take up a so-called bipartisan constitutional amendment on education funding. But the amendment is bipartisan only in the sense that it is supported by both Democrat and Republican House members. As far as the substance is concerned, the amendment is totally one-sided in the Democrats’ favor.

Essentially, the amendment writes the Supreme Court’s misbegotten Claremont/Londonderry decisions into the State Constitution. More specifically, the Legislature would be required to define an adequate education, determine its cost, and fund the cost exclusively with state taxes. All of this would be done under the highest level of judicial oversight.

What this means is that anybody can go to court at any time and sue the Legislature on the grounds that it hasn’t properly defined an adequate education and/or that it hasn’t set the cost high enough, and it will be the Legislature’s burden to prove otherwise. As a practical matter, unelected judges will have the ultimate say on what is taught in the public schools, how it is taught, and how much we are taxed to pay for it.

According to Republican policy leader Gene Chandler, this amendment “meets our Republican ideals.” If Chandler and other Republican “leaders” really believe that the education mandarins in Concord can make better education policy than local school boards, teachers and parents, and that unelected judges should have the ultimate say on the curriculum and cost of public education, to paraphrase Obi-Wan, “Well then they are truly lost.”

If this amendment passes, say goodbye forever to local control. The education mandarins in Concord would determine what the locals should be paying for public education. And those school districts that did not receive full funding would have to make up the difference through the local property tax.

And say hello to a broad-based tax. Because the amendment envisions the Supreme Court having the final say on the cost of an adequate education, anybody can run into Court and claim that the $1 billion the Legislature has determined an adequate education costs is “inadequate.” If the Court agrees, the amendment requires the Legislature to pay for whatever the Court says the cost is.

The only tweak to Londonderry/Claremont is that the Legislature would not have to distribute funding on a comparable per pupil basis. However, at the insistence of House Republican leadership the amendment also provides “every school district shall receive a meaningful share of these funds.” In other words, no town, no matter how affluent, can be denied a “meaningful” spot at the education funding trough. Let the feeding frenzy begin!

The so-called bipartisan amendment is not just antithetical to “Republican ideals”, it is also really stupid politics.

Republicans are going to lose, not gain, votes in the 2008 election by supporting this amendment. Voters who believe that unelected, elitist judges should be running our public schools aren’t going to suddenly switch their affiliation to Republican. On the other hand, voters who believe in fiscal responsibility and/or local control and/or that the judicial branch has no business setting education policy will have good reasons not to vote Republican.

But it is not just public education where elected Republicans are truly lost. Can you name a single major policy proposal that Republicans have brought forward since John Lynch was elected Governor back in 2004?

Worse still, it’s not just that Republicans are only offering “same-but-less”, rather, some of the most egregious examples of “nanny-state” legislation in the last legislative session have been supported and sponsored by Republicans. For example, it was Republican State Senator Bob Clegg who sponsored legislation mandating that health insurers cover bariatric surgery.

Republicans seem to be staking the entire 2008 campaign on the State’s budget deficit. One problem with this strategy is that voters don’t get all that worked up about deficits. Remember Ross Perot? All he talked about during the 1992 election was the deficit, and all that got him was a distant third place.

The other problem with making the 2008 election all about the deficit is that we won’t really have a handle on the size of the deficit until 2009 because that is when most of the red-ink is projected to occur.

What Rep. Chandler and the other Republican “leaders” don’t seem to understand is that you can’t beat something with nothing. And, aside from carping –albeit quite correctly– about the budget deficit they appear to have no alternative approaches to the issues facing the State.

by Tom Sutliffe

If your child's school observes the homosexual sponsored "Day of Silence, (DOS)" keep your child at home April 25, 2008.

Friday, April 25, several thousand schools across the nation will be observing "Day of Silence (DOS)." DOS is a nationwide push to promote the homosexual lifestyle in public schools. By remaining silent, the intent of the pro-homosexual students is to disrupt the classes while promoting the homosexual lifestyle.

DOS is sponsored by an activist homosexual group, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network. DOS leads the students to believe that every person who identifies as a homosexual, bisexual or cross-dresser is a victim of ongoing, unrelenting harassment and hate. Students are taught that homosexuality is a worthy lifestyle, homosexuality has few or no risks, and individuals are born homosexual and cannot change. Those who oppose such teaching are characterized as ignorant and hateful bigots.

Be sure of the date that DOS is planned for your school. (The national date is April 25, but some schools observe DOS on a different date.)  Call your school and see if they plan to celebrate DOS and if so, on what date. 

These are your schools do as you choose! do as you choose!

Here is a partial list of the schools in New Hampshire which are presently expected to participate in DOS

ALVIRNE HIGH SCHOOL
BREWSTER ACADEMY
CAMPBELL HIGH SCHOOL
COE-BROWN SCHOOL
CONCORD SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
DERRYFIELD SCHOOL
DOVER SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
HILLSBORO-DEERING HIGH SCHOOL
HOPKINTON HIGH SCHOOL
KEENE HIGH SCHOOL
KINGSWOOD REGIONAL HIGH SCHOOL
LEBANON HIGH SCHOOL
LONDONDERRY SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
MANCHESTER CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL
MANCHESTER MEMORIAL HIGH SCHOOL
MASCENIC REGIONAL HIGH SCHOOL
MERRIMACK HIGH SCHOOL
NASHUA HIGH SCHOOL - NORTH
NASHUA HIGH SCHOOL- SOUTH
NEW HAMPTON COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL
NEWMARKET JR-SR HIGH
OYSTER RIVER HIGH SCHOOL
PHILLIPS EXETER ACADEMY
PINKERTON ACADEMY
PLYMOUTH REGIONAL HIGH SCHOOL
PORTSMOUTH HIGH SCHOOL
SALEM HIGH SCHOOL
SOMERSWORTH HIGH SCHOOL
SPAULDING HIGH SCHOOL
ST PAUL'S SCHOOL
TIMBERLANE REGIONAL HIGH SCHOOL
WINNACUNNET HIGH SCHOOL