Which party wants to take big money out of politics?

To The Daily Sun,

The governor recently reported that in 2018, N.H. was number one for economic opportunity, according to U.S. News and World Report; child well being according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and that Politico proclaimed N.H. the Best State in the Union. The state rates high in other areas like best state to live in, best state to raise a family, best quality of life, best economy and best taxpayer return on investment. When we went to the voting booth we did not respond like we appreciated that very much.

The governor reported state revenues were more than $133 million ahead of plan with only three of the state’s taxes not meeting or exceeding plan. The Legislature has been busy incrementally cutting business tax rates and reviewing results on a source by source basis. The above plan revenues have been used for things such as replenishment of the “Rainy Day Fund,” red list bridge project, advancing the 10-year plan for highway projects, and changes in DCYF and its facilities among other one time projects that will advance the betterment of N.H. Specifically avoided were addition of new permanent programs and subsidies.

For the last couple of years both houses of the N.H. Legislature, the Execurive Council, and the governor have been Republican or had a Republican majority. One might think that success would be rewarded with a return of incumbents to their positions… but no, not in N.H. In the mid-term elections the Democratic Party took control of both houses of the Legislature and the governor’s council. Did we think through who and what we were voting for? Guess we’ll all have to take a look in the mirror on that one.

Well, maybe we did. But then again maybe we listened to what was being trumpeted the loudest and the most often. Money is the mother’s milk of politics. Ability to get out the message and ability to get the candidates before the voters depends to a large extent on money raised and spent. So, who is doing the spending in N.H? We know from the campaign spending reports that the Democrats raised and spent more than $3.7 million. By contrast the Republicans raised and spent about $1.1 million. Who’s always talking about big money out of politics? Who wants tax dollars as matching funds? I’m just asking…

There’s an interesting article in December’s Governing magazine by Mike Maciag titled, “Why Are People Moving Out of the Northeast?” In it he observes the Northeast is losing people to other parts of the country and isn’t gaining enough new residents to even come close to replacing those leaving either through inward migration or natural births or the combination of both. He asserts the Northeast has lost at least 200,000 residents each year for three years in a row. Last year the region lost 352,000, the most people to domestic migration since 2004-2005. Further, two thirds of those who left moved south. N.H. is singled out as the only state bucking the northeast trend. Why is that?

Do we want to be better than the rest of the pack? If we do, as Rick Ricard told Lucy, you got some "splaining" to do… about our mid-term voting.

Marc Abear

Meredith