guest column week of june 20, 2011

8/6/2019 Guest Column Week of June 20, 2011

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feet up and pour a glass of wine while I worked on a guest column for this

week. I think she muttered something along the lines of feel free but that

latter word seemed to set her off all over again. So while Jackie washes

some wine down with Peptobismal I, Media Shy Guy, will take you through

some background on what happened at the Statehouse this week.

The Budget Promises Kept (Or So They Say)

The budget was passed by an overwhelming majority, (read that veto proof)

and the trailer bill passed with a slim 8 votes veto proof tally. Inside the

budget were all kinds of cost saving measures and promises kept as Speaker

OBrien so proudly declared to the press. Promises made and promises

kept is the quote in the Nashua Telegraph today. He spoke eloquently

about the savings they promised . They cut taxes to help the residents he

stated and they made the state more competitive to get the economy going.

I guess he must mean all the great things they did for small business, thehospitals, university system and job growth.

What great things they have done. Or, did they?

Lets dissect just a little bit of what this all means to you and me. Lets start

with something simple, job growth. The budget does away with 1100

positions in state government. They say there are currently only 400 of

those jobs with real people so they count that as a loss of 400 union jobs.

Okay so we can understand their objective here. Theyre just union thugs so

nobody is going to complain much about those jobs going away, right?

The so called Right to Work bill which was vetoed by the governor is just

hanging around until Speaker OBrien can muster enough votes by waiting

for a Democratic convention to eliminate some positive votes for workers or

perhaps a new goon squad to come up from the Virginia offices of the

National Right to Work to harass and intimidate enough republicans to just

not show up to vote. After all he only needs 2/3 of those present and voting

to override the governors veto. Someone actually said the Speakers new

motto is Git Er Dun a favorite quote for a comedian who pretends to be an

uneducated hick from some remote location where you pick your bride at thefamily reunion. Someone needs to explain that its a joke, its supposed to

be funny not actually emulated.

Anyway, sorry for that digression.

So we are looking at job growth. With the elimination of 1100 possible jobs

and the layoff of at least 400 real people those of us who understand


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economics because we actually work for a living know that is a decrease.

And it comes with a cost.

The State of NH does not contribute or pay the employment tax. That means

every person who files for benefits for being laid off will actually still be

getting state general fund dollars. The state is required to pay whatever theemployment benefit is for every person plus a 10% administrative fee for all

the extra work it has generated. That means from this budgetary action we

will have at least 400 (the numbers could go higher due to other budget

mandates) out of work but there will not be a dollar for dollar reduction in

state expenditures. Additionally, there will be higher costs to communities,

local economies and so on.

And what about the University system? Word is the loss of state

participation dollars in the state university system will cost about 400 jobs. I

dont know if they pay the employment tax, the law doesnt require they dobut they, too, will now need to find the money. Oh wait, they have. They

have passed on the costs to in-state students. Thats right what we did as a

state was buy down the cost of our own bright young population who had

shown the ability to go further to go to college. Since the legislature decided

they dont need to help the in-state tuition will rise and the reduction of staff

will be borne by the states own. Anyone out there notice how well Chinas

students are doing lately? Im sure our young workers wont mind working

for Chinese bosses for the rest of their lives. (Dont get me wrong here. Ive

got nothing against the Chinese, in fact I admire their willingness to invest inthe education of their youth. Its just that the patriofascists are always

talking about American exceptionalism even as they destroy the very

elements that made us exceptional.)

Okay, lets take a moment for reflection here.

Who among you remember the elected saying they were going to raise

tuition on all our New Hampshire kids who wanted to go to our state

University or our colleges. Come on, raise your hand. Who among you

remembers these folks campaigning onjob reduction not job growth.

Raise the other hand if you do. Ahh, thats right this is print. Send your

answers to Jackie next week, she should be done counting and able to say

something nice.

Way Business Friendly Or Are They?


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So we all know they talked about small business and how the Democrats had

done all these nasty rotten things to stifle business in the state and had

hampered job growth. Who doesnt remember the rallies at which now

Senator Sanborn stood before the crowds and whipped them to frenzy

worthy of any good rabble rousing union chief.ooops sorry Sen Sanborn

despises unions and the people who belong.he was emulating them only to

prove a point I am sure..

Anyway there he was, soon to be SenatorSanborn, raising hell with the

commissioner of revenue over a tax upon limited liability companies,

partnerships and associations. A new tax on the income over $50,000. The

money over that would not be considered pay for services performed but

would be considered a distribution under the dividend and interest category

subject to an 8% tax. The so called State Chamber of Commerce , the

Business and Industry Association (BIA) had whole heartedly endorsed this

by sending letters to the senate asking them to vote to include this new

revenue for the state. Senator Sanborn was going to fix it if he were to be

elected.

Elected he was along with most of the others who campaigned against the

vile LLC tax (that had already been repealed by the time of the campaign).

When the new crew got into office they realized that repealing the tax all the

way back to the beginning was going to cost the treasury about $30 million

so they left that in place. Of course the legislature passed a bill making it

more difficult for DRA to claim a tax owed on money earned over $50,000 bynow making DRA prove it is unreasonable compensation whereas prior law

made it guilty until proven innocent. The DRA simply had to make the

accusation and the party accused had to spend whatever it took to prove to

DRA they were not unreasonably compensated.

Wait !!! I thought they said they repealed the tax so why did they need this

law if there is no tax? What did they really do? Of course this law on burden

of proof now being on DRA doesnt cover the years prior to its passage either

so DRA is rushing to audit as many years as possible to extract as much

money as possible from small business so the Republicans look like they notonly saved the world by spending what they had but also ended the budget

with a surplus. Lord knows they are going to need something to stand on

come November 2012. Why go after small business? They can least afford

the proper representation so they are most likely to pay a fee to stay alive.

The big corporations will fight to the finish and we cant have that now can

we?! No we cant because we just laid off a bunch of auditors. Without


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auditors we cant possibly get money from the corporations. Once again, the

little guy will pay because he doesnt have a choice.

So I guess Senator Sanborn kept his promise right? He rid the state of the

tax right? And he was smiling so I guess he figures he collects $30 million

from small business so he can run on a frugal budget that saved money andwas good for business, BIG business. It will be interesting to see if his

venues go from school auditoriums to corporate lunch facilities.

Dont despair there is great news for small business, I think.

The Department of Labor is there to serve both business and its workers. In

doing so the DOL is tasked with making sure everyone complies with the law

and the rules. The legislature has given the DOL great latitude in being able

to fine those who dont follow the rules. Those fines have always gone to the

general fund to be spent as the legislature saw fit. Business will be happy toknow those fines will stay with the Deparment of Labor to be sent by the

Department of Labor to accomplish the laudable goals it has. No longer will

business fines be used by any other department or cause. In fact the

legislature was so positive this was a good thing they decided all of the

operating budget would be supported by fines. Now fines wouldnt go into

the general fund and general funds wont go into the Department of Labor.

In order for the Department of Labor to meet payroll and operating costs it

will need to descend upon the business community and fine fine fine or the

paychecks will dry up. There is a law against any commissioner spending

more money than they have meaning if the fines dont come in there will be

layoffs and demotions and pay reductions, I guess. The incentive is sure

there for all employees to move quickly come July 1 to start collecting.

Summer is a good time to find executives gone so talking to a lower level

employee might be just the key to filling the coffers.

Again, please dont misunderstand me here. I know many of the folks at the

Department of Labor and they are all good, well-meaning people (well, most

of them anyway.theres a few that I couldwell leave that for another

day). This is not about the integrity of DOL management or staff. This is

about the predicament those folks have now been put into by this

shortsighted legislature. They can only survive if they bring in sufficient

revenues from fines. What would any rational person expect them to do

under these circumstances?

Okay, who will contact Jackie and tell her you remembered Republicans

campaigning on fines as the driving force of government? And before any on


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you get too snippity about the campaign promise of smaller government re-

read the above. It will get a lot smaller if they dont fine you. That promise

they are keeping again.

Dont Worry Your Taxes Will Decrease Or Will They?

This is getting rather long and I know Jackie is going to want to write about

something after she is done counting to the number reflecting the national

deficit. I was going to write about the promise to lower our taxes, after all not

all of us are business people so we wouldnt have received the same

treatment and by Jove thats just unconstitutional and Lord knows we have a

vast amount of constitutionalists elected last time.

So what did we get? Well, they decided that all those old people and those

sick people really werent worth the trouble and expense. So despite all the

political rhetoric about the Obama health plan contained death panels andsuch, these pseudo-Republicans actually put them into practice. They didnt

give their plan a name nor were they really too loud about lest people ask

Isnt this the Obama plan Republicans claimed he had formulated so we

should vote out all the Democrats and repeal the new Accountability Act? Of

course they needed to be quiet because they campaigned against their own

new plan.

Now here is the best part. What are the impacts of all the services the

legislature has decided it isnt paying for anymore? The people who are out

of work and of course the newly unemployed who were, until the budgetpassed, good public servants are without healthcare coverage. What

happens to all the sick and infirm? They now become welfare recipients of

the local towns. The law states no town can deny those who live there the

assistance needed for basic needs such as food, shelter and medical care.

This is supported by your local property taxes ( see a pattern yet?) And the

ones with no insurance will look to go on Medicaid which is 50% funded by

the state.

Then there are those who will show up in the hospital emergency room for

treatment with no money. Thats called uncompensated care. Until thisbudget the state recognized the need to help defray the cost by giving the

hospitals money . As New Hampshire seems uniquely adept at doing, a long-

ago legislature put into place a little shell game. They taxed the hospitals

(really, what they did was borrow money from the hospitals) that was used in

order to obtain a federal match in Medicaid dollars. That borrowed money

(or bed tax as it is referred to) was sent back to the hospitals along with


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the Medicaid match. It provided some relief for uncompensated care or care

for those who have no place else to go with their sick child.

Under the new shift and shaft plan, the state collect will now collect the

new tax, get the match from the federal government but it wont be giving

any of it back. So here is another issue for you and me. The hospitals willnot be turning the sick or injured away lets hope anyway. They do that in

some areas of the country, but the hospitals say they have no plans to do so

here in New Hamsphire. They have said that they will defer or eliminate

elective procedures for those unable to pay.

The likelihood is that hospitals will continue to treat the indigent and when it

comes time to figure out the rates it will now pass along the extra people it

treats with no compensation, the loss of a state participation in

uncompensated care costs, the loss of the original tax back along with

federal funds , whew I am running out of breathe, all this will be added upand come renewal time all the money the state saved us taxpayers will be

added to the cost of private insurance for those of us who can still afford it

and, just so you know, that number is likely to dwindle. No doubt in my mind

there will be a lot of us who wont be able to pay for the new deal. The

legislature will have accomplished what their real agenda and what they only

dare whisper about among themselves and that is survival of the fittest.

(Think Marty Harty here. He said it out loud send all those defective

people to Siberia to freeze to death and die. These folks whisper it, but

take a good look at what they are doing folks. The only way they differ fromformer Rep. Harty is they dont say it out loud.)

They can afford health care we cant. That means the life expectancy goes

down, the survival rate for diseases such as breast cancer, colon cancer,

prostate cancer, all those things that cost money, well those people will just

go away. After all they are only costly because we use every method

possible to help them survive. How many cancer survivors have you seen

proudly wearing the pronouncement on their chest?

Okay one more time, who remembers our current flock of legislators

campaigning on the removal of health care in the last election. Raise your

right hand (chuckle) and who remembers what is described above as being

what Republicans campaigned on as the supposed Obama Care raise your

left hand ( ha!) yes yes I get it this is print so just contact Jackie and tell her

which hand you are raising. And when you have her on the phone remember


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to tell her this is just the tip of the iceburg and you want to know more so

you can remember in the next election by finding replacements now.

Thanks for reading. The Telegraph has Mr Snitch Jackie has Media Shy Guy.

Impulse Control and Pledge PoliticsBy Susan Bruce for the Conway Sun

It has become increasingly obvious that the current NH legislature is not justtrying to turn the state into a Randian/Dickensian paradise, but theyre alsointent on repealing any law they can, just because.

A case in point would be the recent repeal of the NH minimum wage law. NH

has had its own minimum wage law since 1949. The party that claims to beall about states rights just passed a bill that repealed a law that gave usthe right to set the states minimum wage, rather than just abide by thefederal minimum. Governor Lynch vetoed the repeal, and the Freebaglicansdecided that it was so important to thumb their nose at the Governor (whowas defending the actual right of the state) that they overturned the veto.This is the kind of brilliant thinking thats been going on in Concord this year,in a legislature overrun with Tea Partiers, Free Staters, and John Birchers.

The current crop of Republicans is badly behaved. Youd see better impulsecontrol in the ape house at the zoo. House Majority Leader D J Bettencourt

calling Bishop McCormick a pedophile and a pimp comes to mind as anexample. NH GOP Chairman Jack Kimball had this to say about the re-election of President Obama: look at who we put in the White House. Youthink about that and we realize the profound responsibility that we have thistime. In my view, if we re-elect this man, all that all of the people fought anddied for is completely in vain. In other words: if you die in the service ofyour country when the president is a dark skinned Democrat whom we like topretend was born in Kenya; youve died in vain. A number of veterans groupsare rightly unhappy with this statement. Those of us who remember beingcalled traitors for questioning the invasion of Iraq are unsurprised by thelevel of hypocrisy shown by the leader of the NH GOP or his NH media

stenographers.

Another badly behaved Republican recently in the news is our very own RayShakir, whose lack of impulse control has been on display for a number ofyears in the op-ed section of this newspaper. Ray achieved national fame forhis brand of commentary in Mother Jones magazine, in a piece on his supportfor presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty. Writer Andy Kroll quotes Shakirsdescription of President Obama: "a jungle alien. Because that's what he is


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he's not an American. You can call me a birther if you want." A junglealien. Im sure old T-Paw is thrilled to have his association with a racist gonational, especially given that Pawlenty himself has tried to avoid rolling inthe stench of the birther cesspool.

The Freebaglican legislature passed their budget this week. As legislaturediscussed the bill, prior to the vote, the Republicans in the House got up andwalked out when former Speaker Terrie Norelli spoke in opposition to the bill.The GOP majority has shown repeatedly that not only do they lack impulsecontrol; they are incapable of common courtesy.

This budget makes drastic cuts in the few safety net programs our state has.NH will be returning to the GOP glory days of the wait list for services forpeople with developmental disabilities, always a source of pride for our state.There are further cuts to domestic violence programs, to mental healthprograms, and to substance abuse treatment programs. Its hard to imagine

that a state that uses alcohol as a source of revenue could spend any lessthan we have been on treatment, but we will be. Prison and jail will be theincreasing source of treatment for addicts and the mentally ill. Despite therecent heap of baloney served up by DJ Bettencourt and Gene Chandler onthe op-ed pages of this paper, be prepared for cost shifting to the countiesand towns. Expect your property taxes to rise as a direct result of thisreckless budget.

Another area of concern is NHs failing infrastructure. The annualinfrastructure report card gives NH a barely passing grade. NH has 142bridges on the red list. Our roads, bridges, dams, schools, public water, and

public sewer systems are all in need of attention. Pledge politics mean wevekicked that can down the road for decades. Pledge politics guarantee thatwell continue to, and that well pay the pound of cure when some kind ofdisaster occurs.

When the recent unemployment numbers came out for NH, showing that ourstate has among the lowest numbers in the country, the NH GOP took creditfor it, saying it was their policies even though those policies had yet to beenacted. When those numbers rise, as a direct result of the budget cuts, onewonders if theyll be so eager to take credit for the increase.

This legislature has slashed programs carelessly, and has worked hard to cutrevenue sources. This week, as Speaker OBrien returned from meeting withspecial interest groups (including one funded by Big Tobacco) the House cutthe NH tobacco tax. NH is the first state to decrease the tobacco tax in 50years. This is expected to result in a $15 million loss in revenue over thenext two years.


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At the same time, the new budget slashes state aid to higher education by45%. NH already has the dubious distinction of ranking dead last amongstthe 50 states in spending on post-secondary education. NH was firmly in 50th

place well behind states like Mississippi and Arkansas. Were in 70th placenow, behind the other 50 states. This means that sending a NH kid to a NH

college is now going to be even more cost-prohibitive. In-state tuition at UNHis going to increase by 8.7 percent. If this budget becomes law, its going tobe cheaper for NH kids to go to college in other states. When they do, thelikelihood of their returning to NH is small. Theyll be helping to build theeconomy and the future of other states, while NH remains a hostage of thepast.

Pledge politics combined with a tax system that designed in the 1800s, butfails in the 21st century will continue to conspire to keep our state movingbackwards. Businesses considering moving to our state will not find ourproperty taxes and our negative attitude about education to be an

enticement. The real NH advantage is being slowly destroyed by pledgepolitics.

New Hampshire is not a poor state, NH is a cheap state. Blue Hampshireblogger tchair.

guest column week of june 20, 2011

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