Carroll County State Representatives: Committed to continuing to work with the governor

To The Daily Sun,

When we all ran for public office, we made some basic commitments to our constituents. One was to subdue COVID-19 by facilitating our vaccine roll-out and pragmatically reopening our state. Another commitment was to implement business tax reform, pass a common-sense budget, and stimulate our economy. However, one of our largest commitments—and the easiest to fulfill—was to work with Gov. Chris Sununu on these issues and others. We will be keeping our promises and fulfilling our commitments as this legislative session continues.

We will not seek to undermine the governor’s COVID-19 response. A little over a year ago, our state embarked on a journey against its will. Our captain for this journey has been Gov. Sununu. The governor helped steer us on a steady course, promoting safety, personal responsibility, and healthy decisions. He worked with doctors and epidemiologists throughout New Hampshire and the nation. Not every decision he made was perfect, but he tried his hardest to balance the welfare of all Granite Staters and everyone’s personal liberties. NH has consistently ranked as having one of the best COVID-19 responses. We will continue working with the governor to bring necessary improvements to our COVID-19 response and vaccine roll-out. We will balance the needs of our communities with the liberties of individuals.

Gov. Sununu is also working with the legislature to create our next biennium budget. This budget will keep more of our tax dollars local and pragmatically reduce taxes. We will be safely streamlining government without reducing the quality of services, like with the proposed reorganization of our university system. This will lower costs for students, create more choices for consumers, and decrease our overall tax burden. Even with these proposed savings and revenue reductions, Gov. Sununu has noticed that we can add an additional $70 million back into our budget. Our revenues are improving at a faster pace than previously anticipated. This new revenue can be used for investment in our residents and infrastructure, or even decrease our local property taxes. Some politicians in both parties have already decided that they will fight the governor on his budget. We have decided to work with him. We will try to find common-ground with Gov. Sununu and colleagues in both parties.

Please, do not assume we are writing this because we will do everything that the governor tells us to do. We know our greatest obligation is to our constituents. Each community we serve did overwhelmingly re-elect the governor in 2020 and his approval rating has been over 70 percent for more than a year now. It seems our constituents want us to work with him—not for him— and to keep NH, NH. We will keep our promises and continue to champion the NH advantage.

Rep. Brodie Deshaies, Wolfeboro

Rep. William Marsh, Brookfield

Rep. John MacDonald, Wolfeboro

Rep. Karel Crawford, Moultonborough