Op-Ed: The Time for Budget Negotiations is Now

Submitted by Katie Robert

the NH Public Health Association urges negotiations now on the budget.

We understand why some wish Gov. Hassan had not vetoed it, but we think she was right. The unacceptable cuts in business taxes amount to a poison pill inside the half-a-loaf of needed increases in funding the governor originally proposed. New Hampshire state government has been cut to the bone over recent years through lean budgets and back-of-the-budget cuts the governor had to make due to revenue shortfalls. It is unwise to rely on possible increases in business activity from business tax cuts to offset loss of revenue. Nibbling that half-a-loaf now may sicken us later.

Those who crafted the vetoed budget may feel their majority should mean that they should get their way. But the governor also won in 2014 over a candidate espousing business tax cuts.

We believe that they all have the responsibility to protect the health of all people in the state, not just the ones who voted for them. The health of the most vulnerable among us has been jeopardized by years of cutting services because our representatives have been unwilling to find ways to raise the revenues needed to meet New Hampshire’s needs. Cutting business taxes only makes a very bad situation worse and worse with each year if no other source of funds is enacted.

Partisan sniping must stop and leaders must craft a budget protecting public health and giving reasonable people in all parts of the electorate the feeling that they have been heard.

Katie Robert is the board president of the NH Public Health Association.