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.

ALG's Daily Grind - Republicans have to be All-In on Cutting Deficit

Jan. 7, 2013

Republicans have to be All-In on Cutting Deficit

While Republican face a classic damned if you do and damned if you don't scenario on the fiscal cliff, their only exit strategy now is to behave like the limited government elected officials who they promised voters they were going to be

Obama's Blunders: The Housing Market

OK, so we're still waiting for housing to recover from the late 2000s collapse. That's what got us into the mess, will it ever get us out?

The EPA's bad sci-fi movie

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli successfully beats back an EPA attempt to regulate water as a "pollutant" under the terms of the Clean Water Act.

Thrush and Epstein: Obama's debt problem

"The staggering national debt - up about 60 percent from the $10 trillion Obama inherited when he took office in January 2009 - is the single biggest blemish on Obama's record, even if the rapid descent into red began under President George W. Bush."

ALG's Daily Grind - Will housing lead the 'recovery?'

Nov. 30, 2012

Will housing lead the 'recovery?'

No one should really expect a robust economic recovery until a commensurate recovery is seen in the housing market and, more broadly, in credit markets.

Cartoon: Inheriting the Mess

Who will Obama blame now?

Congressional Republicans were elected to defend limited government

As pressure mounts on House Republicans from inside the beltway media sources to violate the principles they enumerated in their campaign, it would be wise for them to go back in time a few months and review their campaign websites. 

Brenner: The 1930s All Over Again?

"Then, as today, societies were uncertain about which model of society to strive for and how to repair monetary systems. Societies bet on the wrong ideas; we may be committing similar mistakes now."

ALG - Recession-level housing numbers nothing to applaud

Oct. 24, 2012, Fairfax, VA-Americans for Limited Government Bill Wilson today issued the following statement commenting on today's report by the U.S. Census Bureau showing 389,000 new home sales:

"To call 389,000 of new home sales annualized the 'highest since April 2010' is a lot like saying 7.8 percent unemployment is the lowest since January 2009. It tells you nothing about how such numbers compare to a healthy economy. In September 2003 - when home values were roughly where they are today - new home sales annualized was more than 1.1 million.

"Put another way, new home sales are about 66 percent below what one would consider healthy in a robust recovery. Home values are still 31 percent below their April 2006 highs. All this talk of a housing recovery is like going to a car dealer and saying you got a great deal on a four-wheel drive vehicle that only has first and second gear because two out of five gears ain't bad. Meanwhile, the dealer assures you by saying at least it's not stuck in reverse.

"We're applauding the housing market hitting the recession levels of spring 2010, a time when everyone was saying that the weak market was still a major drag on economic growth. We're scraping the bottom here. Those enthusiastic about today's housing report are grasping at straws. We still have a long way out of this mess."

View online: http://getliberty.org/recession-level-housing-numbers-nothing-to-applaud/

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Americans for Limited Government is a non-partisan, nationwide network committed to advancing free market reforms, private property rights and core American liberties. For more information on ALG please call us at 703-383-0880 or visit our website at www.GetLiberty.org.

NHDP Chairman Raymond Buckley's Statement on President Obama's Call to Help Responsible Homeowners

CONCORD -To help families struggling with their monthly home payments, President Obama today called on Congress to cut red tape and allow responsible homeowners who have paid their mortgages on time to refinance at today's lower interest rates - reducing their payments by hundreds of dollars per month.  Earlier this week the President announced a "To-Do List" of common sense economic proposals for Congress to tackle before breaking for their summer recess.

New Hampshire Democratic Party Chairman Raymond Buckley released the following statement on the President's proposal: 

"The president's mortgage refinancing plan would make a real difference to families nationwide and here in New Hampshire.  This key piece of the President's 'To-Do List' could help families save up to $3,000 a year, reducing foreclosures, boosting the economy, and speeding the recovery of the housing market."

"In contrast, Mitt Romney said we should let the housing market 'hit the bottom' and called for rolling back laws to protect families against the mortgage abuses that helped create the financial crisis. But Mitt Romney's top economic advisor, Glenn Hubbard, is the architect of a proposal similar to a refinancing plan Congressional Democrats have already outlined, and data based on his own analysis shows that as many as 141,759 families in New Hampshire could benefit from greater access to refinancing.  Mitt Romney should explain to New Hampshire families who have paid their mortgages on time why he disagrees with his top economic adviser and believes they shouldn't be able to refinance their loans.  It is time for Republicans in Congress to work together with the President to enact common-sense, bipartisan measures like this proposal."