What is the New Hampshire Advantage?

We all know New Hampshire is a great State to live in.  New Hampshire is filled with opportunities that every citizen can benefit from.  When other states developed massive state bureaucracy to solve their problems, New Hampshire embraced individual solutions, differing from community to community throughout our State. 

We have something known throughout the nation as the “New Hampshire Advantage”.  It derives from our flexible business climate, our lack of an income or sales tax, and the natural beauty of the landscape.  Our freedoms are a huge part of this advantage, as we constantly rank as one of the freest States in our Union, based off of social and economic factors. 

Our freedom in New Hampshire must be preserved in the years ahead in order for prosperity to succeed.  But how?

In our town of Salem, unemployment is a startling 7.4 percent.  While this is less than the rest of the nation, it is much higher than the State level, and when elected to the NH State House I will work hard to ensure this rate continues going down.  Steps we can take to do that are simple and have been proven over time to help employers offer our fellow citizens jobs.

An aging infrastructure must be addressed in a fiscally responsible way.  While our expanding of Interstate 93 is of great importance, we must open up state funding for other infrastructure projects, such as the Depot intersection in Salem.  Not only will these construction projects produce jobs, it will open up other investments in our economy along the routes of the investment.

We must confront the problems facing our schools.  Over the years, unneeded bureaucracy has muddled the system and has made it harder for schools on a district by district basis to innovate.  What works for the Salem School District does not work for the Windham School District as there are different dynamics in these different neighboring towns.  We must break down the unnecessary regulations placed upon our schools, develop a system of adequate funding, and ensure that each town has the means to provide their aspiring students with an education they can be proud of.  That occurs with less State involvement, not more.

We must not be afraid to invest in our economy while keeping taxes low.  With low taxes, more money will be kept in the people’s hands, allowing them to invest in their local economies as well.  We must find the balance where our State can invest and our people can as well.

Our economy in New Hampshire is on the slow path to recovery and we still have work we must do to ensure our neighbors have the tools they need to succeed.