State Budget Update
It's Time to Make Your Voice Heard
On Monday, the House Finance Committee formally presented its version of the biennium State Budget to the full House.
A copy of the committee’s presentation is available here. Please take a few minutes to look through it and see what impact it could have on the public services you care about most. Departmental appropriations from the General Fund start on page 32; total departmental appropriations (from all sources) start on page 40.
Then, please take a few minutes to contact your own Representatives and let them know your concerns about the Committee’s budget. The full House will vote on the Budget on Wednesday or Thursday, and then the Senate will start its review.
Through letters, emails, phone calls and testimony at budget hearings, SEA members have already helped change this budget:
• The Governor proposed privatizing the Liquor Commission warehouse operations and closing several retail stores. The Finance Committee Budget keeps the warehouse state-owned, and keeps at least some of those stores open.
• The Governor proposed closing or privatizing several highway rest areas. The Finance Committee Budget keeps those rest areas publicly-owned and open through the biennium.
• The Governor proposed eliminating the Tobey School. The Finance Committee recommended keeping it open for at least a year.
But there are many items that still need to be changed.
• The 2% “tax” on public employees will affect 51,000 families across the State, making it harder for those families to make ends meet and pulling $100 million out of the economy.
• The 11.5% “tax” on state retirees under age 65 will hit these fixed-income families particularly hard. Many will not be able to afford to continue with the State’s health plan, and some will end up on Medicaid.
• Budget cuts to the Department of Information Technology will hurt almost all agencies’ ability to provide services effectively and efficiently.
• Almost all of the proposed cuts are to the State’s own workforce. Yet in many cases, privately-contracted people work alongside state employees, performing exactly the same services that state employees provide. State contractors generally build in a 10-20% “administrative overhead” charge, on top of the salaries they pay to the people working alongside state employees. This is not a cost-efficient way of hiring people to perform the services that NH residents expect from their government.
• The State needs to take a closer look at its self-funded health plan. In FY2008, the health plan returned $23.8 million to State agencies – and still had a year-end surplus that was $12.6 million more than allowable reserves. Charging agencies almost 20% too much money up-front – and then refunding it later – seems more like a “shell game” than a good budgeting practice. The Governor’s Budget reflects increased health insurance “costs” in agencies throughout the government. Are those “costs” closer to the mark than they were two years ago, or will the plan run an artificial surplus again?
• Severe and last-minute cuts to the Department of Corrections will jeopardize the Department’s ability to meet its mission and basic safety requirements.
Please take the time to contact your Representatives now, if you haven’t already done so. Contact information is available here. Or, using your home email address and home computer, you can use our automated contact system by clicking here.
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Please also plan to attend one or more of these Senate Hearings on the Budget:
April 14, 5-7pm, Laconia Middle School Cafeteria, 150 McGrath St
April 15, 5-7pm, Concord, Representatives Hall, State House
April 16, 5-7pm, Manchester, City Hall |
If you have questions about the budget, please contact your Chapter leadership or SEA Government Relations Coordinator Brian Hawkins at 271-3411 x120.