House GOP: Hassan Budget 'Balanced on the Backs of the Poor' [VIDEO]

On the eve of a vote on Gov. Maggie Hassan’s 2014-2015 New Hampshire budget, House Republicans on the Finance Committee slammed the proposal, stating that it was growing government too fast and was being balanced on the backs of the poor, counties, and small business.

State Rep. Lynne Ober, R-Hudson, said the state needed to live within its means while at the same time acknowledging that there were programs that state had to finance. Ober claimed Democrats were hiding line items in the budget, like Corrections Department overtime, which wasn’t funded properly. She was also critical of school construction money stripped out of the budget. Ober also stated that House Finance Democrats, many who are against a casino, kept spending from potential casino revenue in the budget even though they plan on voting against a casino.

“Where will we get the money to fill that hole?” she asked, if the casino proposal failed to be approved.

House Minority Leader Gene Chandler, R-Bartlett, said the budget was similar to the policies of the 2009 session in which Democrats expanded the state’s government and reportedly created one of the largest budget deficits in history. Republicans, he said, had other ideas that they will be pushing on Wednesday.

State Rep. Neal Kurk, R-Weare, said there were about 12 different “significant problems with this budget,” ranging from added Medicare costs, the downshifting of expenses to county government, school construction expenses not being funded, and “rosy and inflated revenues.” He was also critical of new gas and cigarette taxes as “regressive” that are funded primarily by the poor and working class people in the state.

“It’s unfortunate for me to have to say this but appears to me and many of my Republican colleagues that this budget is balanced on the backs of the poor and the backs of small business,” he said. “It’s very bad public policy.”

Kurk also blasted the moratorium on new charter schools and the repeal of the education tax credit for low and moderate income families who might want to educate their children in private schools. He also criticized highway money being spent on state troopers and small business credit suspensions that he said would hamper potential business expansion and job creation.

“There are 40,000 New Hampshire folks looking for work,” he said, “and this budget does not facilitate any of that.”

State Rep. Kenneth Weyler, R-Kingston, also attacked the budget saying that the state had “more government than we can afford.” He stated that two years ago, the state made some progress, reducing taxes and finding efficiencies, and progress on the charter school front. However, the current budget proposed by Hassan was going backward, he said. Weyler also said there was “no evidence” that anyone who needed services in the state was not able to get the services they needed during the last two years.

Democrats, however, pounced on the Republicans while the press conference was still going on, sending out a fiscal 2013 budget snapshot alert that they said proved that Republicans had created a $40 million-plus deficit this year.

Ray Buckley, the chairman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, called the press conference "one of the most elaborate April Fool's joke" he had ever seen and found it “striking” that Republicans were calling for more spending while complaining the budget spent too much.

Buckley said with her budget, Hassan was “keeping her word,” focusing on restoring spending on programs cut by while coming up with new revenue with a new casino. He said it was “important to keep an open mind” when considering the casino plan and the budget adding that everyone would come together in June. Buckley also challenged the assertion that the revenue from the casino was in the House Finance Committee budget.

“I don’t know what they were looking at,” he said. “I know they re-write history often but I guess they are re-writing their own remarks while their talking … it’s quite remarkable to listen to such a stunt.”