Morse: NH Finally Has the Budget It Needs

By state Sen. Chuck Morse

After a needless three-month wait, New Hampshire finally has the budget it needs.

The budget the Legislature passed fully funded our state’s top priorities, including vital social services such as Meals on Wheels, the Developmentally Disabled Waitlist, and Service Link. It increased state support for charter schools, lifted the cap on education funding to local school districts, and provided an increase to the Community College System sufficient to freeze tuition for the next two years.

Another key priority was addressing the growing substance abuse epidemic plaguing New Hampshire. We not only increased funding for alcohol and drug treatment programs by 75 percent, but finally assured that money will come from a new dedicated fund set up for that purpose.

We also passed tax relief for New Hampshire businesses, phasing in a series of modest rate reductions over the next five years in order to restore our state’s economic competitiveness.

Taxes on New Hampshire’s businesses have left our employers in an increasingly uncompetitive position with neighboring states, ranking New Hampshire 48th worst in the country. The modest, phased-in business tax cuts now in place result in our employers bearing lower business taxes than Massachusetts, and send a signal nationwide that the Granite State is once again open for job creation. They will also provide tax relief for companies employing 95% of private sector workers, encouraging them to invest in new jobs.

Lowering business taxes is an important piece of our overall economic development strategy. We’ve also taken big steps to lower workers compensation costs, bring down electric rates for residential and commercial customers, and address rising health insurance premiums. These are the four primary financial obstacles to job creation in New Hampshire.

To aid this further, the budget trailer bill that Gov. Maggie Hassan, D-Exeter, signed actually accelerates the tax cuts so that they will be fully phased in by 2018. The legislature, in exchange, agreed to a revenue trigger that would delay the second rate cut if revenue performance is below a certain rate. We remain confident that state revenues will exceed the conservative estimates built into the budget.

These priorities were addressed all while rebuilding New Hampshire’s Rainy Day Fund, without raising taxes on our citizens.

All of this good work was jeopardized by Hassan’s unfortunate veto in June. She objected to the tax cuts on our employers being included, and her counter offer to increase other taxes by $82 million with $74 million in additional spending was completely unacceptable. Increasing taxes, much less the massive spending she proposed, was never on the table for the Legislature. We were pleased that she finally relented, allowing the budget to go into law.

I’m proud of the Fiscal Year 2016-17 budget that is now law. We funded critical programs for New Hampshire’s most vulnerable, increased support for substance abuse treatment and prevention, provided more help to local school districts and charter schools, and started to lower our high business taxes in order to boost the economy.

Better late than never; New Hampshire finally has the budget it needs.

State Sen. Chuck Morse, R-Salem, is president of the New Hampshire Senate.