by Hon. Frank McCarthy
Rep. Burroughs’s op-ed in the October 17th edition of the Conway Daily Sun was headlined; “A BUDGET FINALLY PASSED.” I found that to be amusing, albeit quite ironic. Why, I wondered, was she and her cohorts not quite as concerned about budgets in March of this year when, at the final hour, they admitted they had no idea what they were doing and allowed the budget default law to kick in. In so doing, the law required the county commissioner’s budget to be adopted, by default, as the official budget of Carroll County for the year 2019. As a result, the taxpayers of Carroll County were burdened with an unprecedented increase in spending of 13%. A total and absolute failure of the delegation’s primary responsibility to their constituents.
Perhaps more importantly, however, is the fact that another 13% increase in state spending was included in the budget vetoed by Governor Sununu. In total, the democrats in Concord and Ossipee had their constituents facing a combined county and state spending increase of more than 26%! Spending however, wasn’t the only problem. Where did they expect to get the additional one billion dollars needed to satisfy their lust for spending? Much of it would come from additional taxes and fees; such as: For the first time in state history, a .5% income tax, a 4.5% capital gains tax, and millions of dollars in additional state fees. Thank you Governor Sununu!
The vast majority of what was contained within the bulleted items in the piece were also contained within the Governor’s budget. The writer makes it sound like they were additional innovations, as in “Newly minted.” The Governor’s budget called for total funding for even a much larger secure psychiatric unit. However, it was eliminated in its entirety by the democrats, only to be reinstated because of Governor Sununu’s resolve. The bulleted $40 million quote relative to municipal aid, is less than half the 100 million in business tax surplus funds made available in the Governor’s budget.
Let’s look at a few facts conveniently overlooked. Four years ago NH. had the highest business tax in New England, and a stagnant economy. The republican Governor and legislature began a process of providing incremental tax relief to our state’s employers. Since then, the state has added more than 29 thousand of our neighbors to the list of gainfully employed, and realized more than half a billion dollars in surplus business tax revenue, above and beyond the annually increased projected figures. The democrats, however, would have totally reversed all of what we had gained by repealing the previous four years’ of incremental tax deductions, and imposing an immediate and, by the way, unconstitutional retroactive 12.5 business tax increase. Those suffering the most harm would have been the states family-run businesses, the lifeblood of our economy.
The democrat bill relative to elections would have totally negated House Bill 1264 signed into law in 2018, after being determined by the Supreme Court to be constitutional. The bill restored equality and fairness to our elections, and aligned New Hampshire with virtually every other state relative to requiring state residency in order to vote. The democrat Bill, on the other hand, would have bestowed upon certain individuals, temporarily residing in New Hampshire, including tens of thousands of out of state students, the right to vote in New Hampshire. Is that not a wonderful idea? Allowing Vermonters, Rhode Islanders, Californians and New Yorkers to tell us who our next selectman, representative or Governor should be? Without equivocation, House Bill 1264 puts every voter in New Hampshire on an equal footing, by making each of us subject to the same requirements. They call it a pole tax? More importantly, the democrat’s would have violated several articles of the New Hampshire Constitution. Among them, Article 7 which states: “The people of this state have the sole and exclusive right of governing themselves as a free, sovereign and independent state.” I wonder, have they ever heard of absentee ballots? Thank you Governor Sununu!
Finally, why is it that many individuals, particularly those who never owned, fired, or even handled a firearm, and are therefore deathly afraid of them, refuse to follow the required dictates of both the federal and state constitutions relative to bringing about the changes they seek. Rather, they continuously attempt to bring about those changes unconstitutionally, through the use of state legislatures, the courts and imposing illegal, unconstitutional local mandates? Perhaps, just perhaps, the reason is, they are fully aware that they are eons away from having the necessary majority to make such changes constitutionally. Therefore, several democrat sponsored bills related to our God given right to bear arms, all of which would have trampled on our state and federal constitutions were among those Governor Sununu vetoed! Thank you Governor Sununu!