Hassan Vetoes FY16-17 Budget

Gov. Maggie Hassan, D-Exeter, made good on her promise to veto the $11.3 billion fiscal year 2016-2017 today but also signed the continuing resolution approved by both the House and the Senate to keep state government running for the next six months.

Hassan issued at 760-word press statement about the veto stating that her $11.5 billion proposal was “a fiscally responsible, balanced budget that was transparent and honest about how we would support critical economic priorities without an income or a sales tax.” She added that she was vetoing the House and Senate approved budgets because they were unbalanced, double counted carry forward funds, and took money that had already been designated for 2015.

Hassan also added that the budget would not provide an increase to the university system, inadequately funded substance abuse prevention, and underfunded the snow removal budget by $5 million. She also attacked the removal of Medicaid Expansion from the budget and business tax cuts.

“Compounding the danger to our state’s future, the legislature used more than $65 million in ‘one-time’ sources of revenue in this budget,” she noted. “When combined with the impact of the unpaid-for corporate tax cut, the gap that would need to be filled in the very next budget would exceed $100 million. This gap would force the next legislature to make even deeper cuts to a budget that is already under-funded in critical areas.”

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Signing the Continuing Resolution

The governor, however, did sign the Continuing Resolution to ensure that state government will be open for months after the July 1, 2015, budget deadline.

“Despite our disagreement on the budget and its inclusion of unpaid-for corporate tax cuts that will create a more than $90 million hole in future budgets, I appreciate the Legislature’s work to pass a continuing resolution to keep state government open,” she said. “With the continuing resolution set to go into law on July 1, I continue to encourage legislative leadership to return to the table and negotiate in good faith to develop a fiscally responsible, balanced budget. I remain ready, willing and able to sit down with them at any time to reach a true compromise budget that doesn’t create a hole in our budget now and into the future and builds on our progress of the last two years to keep our economy moving forward.”

Veto action panned by GOP

Republicans, not surprisingly, pounced on the governor’s veto.

House Speaker Shawn N. Jasper, R-Hudson, said it came as no surprise that the governor vetoed the budget since she had been threatening to do so even before the process was finished. What irked him, he said, was that she was choosing “her own political agenda ahead of the people of New Hampshire who are in most need of our help, as well as the future economy of our state.”

The approved budget, he added, reduces business taxes across the next five years for companies that provide 95 percent of the private sector jobs in the state while also vetoing much needed funding to fight against substance abuse, increased funding for local and higher education, infrastructure, and public safety.

“(This budget) appropriates more money for health and human services than we have ever budgeted before,” Jasper noted. “In short, this governor has chosen to turn her back on the real people of New Hampshire. I am concerned that her decision today will create a hardship for the men and women of our state who are most in need of our services.”

His counterpart in the state Senate, President Chuck Morse, R-Salem, said he was “extremely disappointed” that Hassan vetoed the budget since she was blocking important funding increases, the state’s neediest citizens, and was creating uncertainty within these organizations.

“The governor’s budget veto shows that her priorities continue to be centered on narrow-minded special interests and not the good of New Hampshire citizens,” he said. “Although I still believe that a veto is unnecessary, the Continuing Resolution will keep State Government operating while we resume our work in order to produce a budget we can all agree on.”

Also taking a shot at the governor’s budget veto was New Hampshire Republican State Committee Chairman Jennifer Horn who stated that it was politically motivated, reckless and irresponsible.

“The budget passed by the Legislature would have kept taxes low, funded critical state services and lived within our means,” she said. “Governor Hassan has ignored the clear warnings of serious concerns voiced by business leaders and health advocates about the consequences of her actions. The governor’s irresponsible veto deprives important programs of crucial funding increases and jeopardizes job growth in New Hampshire.”

Texas guv: We’re wide open for business

While one of the reasons Hassan vetoed the budget was because of small business tax cuts offered by Republicans, another of the nation’s governors, Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, to the opportunity to suggest that New Hampshire businesses should come check out his state.

“Texas is wide open for New Hampshire businesses looking to escape the restrictive tax burdens solidified by Governor Hassan’s unfortunate veto of the state budget,” he said in a statement. “Fortunately for those businesses, the Lone Star State offers a chance to thrive in an economic environment free of overregulation and over-taxation that limits their success.”

Abbott added that his state was cutting its business franchise tax by 25 percent, in order to free “businesses to invest more in new jobs, higher wages and stimulating the Texas economy,” and also had the lowest overall tax burdens in the nation, with no corporate income tax, no individual income tax and no property tax at the state level.

“I welcome the opportunity to meet with any company considering a move to our great state to explore all that Texas offers,” he said.