Report from Concord: Undoing some bad legislation

To The Daily Sun,

Summer’s over and it’s time to get back into the politics of Concord. I’ve taken time off from my letters but I’ve been busy both at home and in politics. I’m chairing a study committee for Tiny Homes on Wheels that I’ll address in a later post. I also had to remove a 150-year-old beech and a 200-plus-year-old maple that I’m having milled for future projects. Today, let’s discuss vetoes and budgets.

In June, the Democrats proposed an unsustainable budget. They asked for nearly $400 million in extra spending, meaning you were going to pay higher taxes. Most of this spending was funded by a large one-time budget surplus and, even though the governor proposed spending this surplus on one-time projects, the Democrats chose to spend this one-time surplus on operational expenses that would require us to replace the surplus in the future. Democrats are in the majority, but the Governor has a veto pen. Thus, we are living on a continuing resolution that limits spending to last year’s budget.

Last Thursday, the Democrats tried to introduce an 800-plus-page budget still fraught with long-term spending items. This was a budget that they created on their own, without discussions or public hearings. This bill required a 2/3 vote to introduce it. The minority Republicans stopped it. More to come....

BTW … it used the $20 million savings that resulted from living on last year’s budget to fund spending (aka a continuing resolution).

Wednesday and Thursday were spent voting to sustain or override Governor Sununu’s 50-plus vetoes of what can only be described as “bat excrement” bad bills. We sustained (killed) all but two marijuana bills. We supported the Governor’s veto on bills that would have infringed on our right to keep and bear arms. We stopped bills that would have overturned recent common-sense changes to voting procedures. (We need to work on some more.) We sustained vetoes that would allow more subsidy of your neighbor’s solar panels (by you) every time you pay your electric bill, and we sustained a veto that would have allowed unions to harass you if you didn’t want to join a public union.

There were many more, but basically the minority stopped the foreseeable damage. But we can’t let it happen again. Most of these bad bills have been re-filed and are coming back. You have to be vigilant and tell us when you see something that is wrong and you have to vote in the next election for people who won’t pull these shenanigans.

Next week, a “new” budget may be considered. I predict we will have another continuing resolution because there is almost zero chance that the two parties will seriously negotiate. It hasn’t happened since July 1, and my sense is it won’t magically happen in less than a week.

Give me a call or email me if you want to talk or just have a cup of coffee. I’m at 603-320-9524 or dave@sanbornhall.net.

Cheers!

Dave Testerman

Representative

Hill and Franklin