Josiah Bartlett Center - The Incomplete Budget, RGGI, and Housing Data

Weekly Update from the
Josiah Bartlett Center

Keeping you up to date on our latest research
on the issues impacting New Hampshire

The Governor's Budget is Incomplete but Worrisome

The governor’s budget address last week, while surprisingly incomplete, did reveal some troubling trends as well as a few pieces of good news. There are a lot of details we can’t figure out until she finishes the budget detail (which was due last Friday) but we do have a sense of the priorities she has set.

The governor is required by law to present a budget no later than February 15 of her first year in office. The components of that budget are spelled out by law but they boil down to one document which is the numbers – a sort of giant spreadsheet – that becomes House Bill 1 and a second document which includes all the explanations and legal language – a narrative document that explains the spreadsheet – that becomes House Bill 2... Click here to keep reading.

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NHOpenGov

The State's Checkbook Online

Ever wonder how and where New Hampshire spends your tax dollars? Look no further than NHOpenGov.org, an open government project of the Center. We now have more than 3.5 Million transactions detailing how every last dollar was spent from the past 4 1/2 years. Help us find government waste! Click here to start looking.

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Changes in Greenhouse Gas Program are All About Money

Lowering the Cap About Money, not the Environment

Five years in, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative isn’t working out the way its supporters said it would, and they want to make drastic changes to the program in order to get state revenues flowing again... Click here to keep reading.

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The NH Housing Market in January

Slight Uptick in Foreclosures, Sales Fall

According to the foreclosure tracking firm RealtyTrac, 512 New Hampshire residential properties received foreclosure notices in January. While this is an increase from the 405 in December, the number of filings seen last month is substantially lower than the 2012 monthly average. Click here to keep reading.