Josiah Bartlett Center - The Budget, CON, School Choice, and Safety's Cut

Weekly Update from the
Josiah Bartlett Center

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

Wishing and Hoping are not the Best Budget Practices

The state budget is a mess. So what’s new? House budget writers are working to make sense of that mess before Friday. Their budget will be different from the governor’s but likely leave a lot of work left to be done.

In New Hampshire, governors present a budget more or less fully formed to the legislature. Then the House of Representatives takes six weeks to develop their own draft, plug any holes in assumptions, and then pass that draft to the state senate for further work... Click here to keep reading.

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House Finance Wants to Revive CON Board

Due to Expire in 2015

The House Finance Committee has voted to bring the state’s Certificate of Need Board back from the brink of extinction. The panel yesterday approved an amendment to the state budget that would undo last year’s repeal of the Health Services Planning and Review Board. Click here to keep reading

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Indiana Supreme Court Upholds School Choice Vouchers

Upheld for Religious Schools as well

The Indiana Supreme Court’s has unanimously upheld that state’s controversial school choice program, defeating a union challenge to the tax-funded scholarships for low-income students... Click here to keep reading.

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Highway Fund Diversion: What Does Safety's Cut Pay For?

Continuing our look at the Highway Fund

As detailed in an earlier piece on the Highway Fund diversion the Department of Safety receives a sizeable portion of the revenue raised by the state Highway Fund. Historically the Department has received roughly between 24% and 32% of the amount collected, net of block grants to the municipalities... Click here to keep reading.

Josiah Bartlett Center - Understanding the Gas Tax, Highway Fund Diversion, and Budget Gimmicks

Weekly Update from the
Josiah Bartlett Center

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

Understanding New Hampshire's Gas Tax

New Hampshire’s gas tax and highway fund are little understood even as the legislature votes today on doubling the state’s gas tax. The state’s highways are paid for with user fees and only with user fees, revenues are stagnant even if costs aren’t, the Department of Transportation is one of the more efficient branches of government, but many gimmicks still surround highway funds and the diversion of resources... 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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Charting the Highway Fund Diversion

Attempts to Protect or Take from the Fund Abound

In New Hampshire, not only is spending on highways paid for entirely with user fees like gas taxes and registration fees but the user fees are often diverted to other uses. The largest recipient is the Department of Safety... Click here to keep reading.

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Watch Out for the Gimmicks!

A look at the Governor's Budget

The New Hampshire House Finance Committee begins its work on the state’s two-year budget this week, and the Governor has already made their job a lot harder. Her budget recommendations are incomplete, violate New Hampshire law, and use a variety of gimmicks to hide increased spending. Click here to keep reading.

The NH Troopers Association cautions legislators when they consider the former Speaker’s floor amendment to HB 617.

It is extremely unfortunate to see Representative Bill O'Brien and his

colleagues continuing to undermine the safety of our communities. The New

Hampshire Constitution explicitly calls for highway funds to be used to put State

Troopers on the roads because it is the responsibility of the Troopers to keep our

highways safe.

Our constitution states the following: [Art.] 6-a. [Use of Certain Revenues

Restricted to Highways.] All revenue in excess of the necessary cost of collection

and administration accruing to the state from registration fees, operators’ licenses,

gasoline road tolls or any other special charges or taxes with respect to the

operation of motor vehicles or the sale or consumption of motor vehicle fuels shall

be appropriated and used exclusively for the construction, reconstruction and

maintenance of public highways within this state, including the supervision of

traffic thereon and payment of the interest and principal of obligations incurred

for said purposes; and no part of such revenues shall, by transfer of funds or

otherwise, be diverted to any other purpose whatsoever.

Representative O'Brien's budget unfunded 40 state trooper positions, which

clearly undermined the safety of our people. While Governor Hassan's budget

makes fiscally responsible choices to put 15 more troopers on the road,

Representative O'Brien and others are putting ideology ahead of safety by

misleading the public. That's the wrong approach for the citizens of New

Hampshire. We encourage Representative O'Brien to stop his assault on public

safety and instead focus on realistic bi-partisan solutions to address our long-term

highway fund challenges. We are intimately familiar with doing more with less,

but Rep. O’Brien’s solution is not a practical one. It attempts to solve one problem

by creating even more problems in other essential areas of our government, which

is clearly not a responsible solution.

As always, the NH Troopers Association stands ready to work with

everybody on real solutions to real problems.

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CEI Today: Labor union Republicans, highway bill, and war on salt

HIGHWAY BILL - MARC SCRIBNER

Openmarket.org: Support the Broun Motion to Instruct; Oppose Future Highway Trust Fund Bailouts

Yesterday, CEI circulated a coalition letter urging the members of the surface transportation reauthorization conference committee to support Rep. Paul Broun’s (R-Ga.) motion. Broun’s MTI [PDF], which is nonbinding, would have the House instruct conferees to restrain highway bill spending to levels at or below the expected Fiscal Year 2013 Highway Trust Fund revenue. The alternative is bailing out the Highway Trust Fund, which is dangerously close to insolvency, with general funds. A vote in the House is expected. > Read the full commentary on Openmarket.org

>Interview transportation policy expert Marc Scribner


 

LABOR UNION REPUBLICANS - IVAN OSORIO Openmarket.org: Union Leaders, Not Members, Determine Union Political Donations Mother Jones blogger Kevin Drum dismisses the fact that 38 percent of Wisconsin union households voted to retain Governor Scott Walker as “exactly the opposite of surprising,” because “[f]or better or worse, about 37% of union members vote for Republicans, both nationwide and in Wisconsin.” That is indeed the case. However, Drum’s acknowledgment that over a third of union households vote for Republicans on a consistent basis highlights a major problem with union political contributions: They go to fund candidates and causes which a large segment of union members do not support.  > View the full commentary on Openmarket.org > Interview Ivan Osorio > Keep up with all labor policy and politics at Workplacechoice.org

WAR ON SALT - HANS BADER Openmarket.org: Government Restrictions on Salt Consumption May Cost Lives FDA officials want to restrict the salt content of food, even though that could indirectly lead to increased obesity rates, more heart attacks, and “higher death rates among some individuals,” by making it harder to market low-fat foods. If salt levels are curbed, people will compensate by eating fattier food, since there seems to be a trade-off between salt and fat. > Read the full commentary on Openmarket.org > Interview Hans Bader

Also featuring... Union of Concerned Scientists Not Very Concerned With Accuracy Seasteading for Enterprise on the High Seas Taxpayers Win as Dulles Rail Drops Pro-Union Contracting Rules CEI Podcast for June 7, 2012: MACT the Knife A new EPA regulation, the Utility MACT, is intended to cut mercury pollution from coal-fired power plants. According to the EPA’s own estimates, the rule is one of the most expensive in history. Are the costs worth it? Policy Analyst David Bier, co-author of a forthcoming CEI study, thinks the answer is no. Ten Thousand Commandments and Growing

New! Ten Thousand Commandments 2012 An Annual Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State By Clyde Wayne Crews May 15, 2012 The scope of federal government spending and deficits is sobering. Yet the government’s reach extends well beyond the taxes Washington collects and its deficit spending and borrowing. Federal environmental, safety and health, and economic regulations cost hundreds of billions—perhaps trillions—of dollars every year over and above the costs of the official federal outlays that dominate the policy debate.

CEI is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government.  For more information about CEI, please visit our website, cei.org, and blogs, Globalwarming.org and OpenMarket.org.  Follow CEI on Twitter! Twitter.com/ceidotorg.

CEI Today: Public sector unions, bailout of Highway Trust Fund, and Tech Policy Summit

WALKER RECALL VICTORY IN WISCONSIN - BILL FREZZA

Forbes.com: Governor Walker’s Victory Spells Doom For Public Sector Unions

Public sector unions have reached their high water mark. Let the cleanup begin as the red ink recedes.

Despite a last-minute smear campaign accusing Scott Walker of fathering an illegitimate love child, the governor’s recall election victory sends a clear message that should resonate around the nation: The fiscal cancer devouring state budgets has a cure, and he has found it. The costly defeat for the entrenched union interests that tried to oust Walker in retribution for challenging their power was marked by President Obama’s refusal to lend his weight to the campaign for fear of being stained by defeat. We’ll see how well this strategy of opportunistic detachment serves in the fall as Obama reaches out to unions for support. > View the full commentary on Forbes.com

> Interview Bill Frezza

See also:

In Confronting Unions, Walker Further than Reagan

Walker's Victory is a Victory for Worker Freedom

After Wisconsin, whither Government Unions ?

Wisconsin Recall FAIL: This is What Democracy Looks Like

> Keep up with all labor policy and politics at Workplacechoice.org

Vincent Vernuccio on Scott Walker's Recall Victory

CEI Coalition Letter Opposing Taxpayer Bailout of Highway Trust Fund CEI organized a coalition letter today to highway bill conferees and House and Senate leadership.  The letter supports Rep. Broun’s motion urging conferees to oppose general revenue bail outs of the Highway Trust Fund. "If Congress enacts a highway bill that fails to meaningfully constrain surface transportation spending, it will effectively leave taxpayers on the hook to bail out the Highway Trust Fund. Such an outcome would be fiscally dangerous and contradict Americans’ shared interest in preserving an efficient and fair surface transportation network." > View the coalition letter >Interview transportation policy expert Marc Scribner

Also featuring... George Will Makes the Case for the REINS Act Bhagwati: How the Multilateral Trade System Is Being Eroded Twisting the Law to Punish Heretics: Elane Photography v. Willock and the Imposition of “Progressive” Orthodoxy by Judicial Fiat Washington’s Ten Thousand Commandments Cut The Budget By Cutting Republican Sacred Space Cows CEI Podcast for May 31, 2012: Ten Thousand Commandments Congress passed 81 bills last year, while agencies passed 3,807 regulations. This, according to Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews, is regulation without representation. Crews discusses this and other findings from the just-released 2012 edition of his annual report, “Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual Snapshot of the Regulatory State.”

New! Ten Thousand Commandments 2012 An Annual Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State By Clyde Wayne Crews May 15, 2012 The scope of federal government spending and deficits is sobering. Yet the government’s reach extends well beyond the taxes Washington collects and its deficit spending and borrowing. Federal environmental, safety and health, and economic regulations cost hundreds of billions—perhaps trillions—of dollars every year over and above the costs of the official federal outlays that dominate the policy debate.

CEI is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government.  For more information about CEI, please visit our website, cei.org, and blogs, Globalwarming.org and OpenMarket.org.  Follow CEI on Twitter! Twitter.com/ceidotorg.