by Stephen Poschmann
It is my impression that many Bedford residents are unaware of Gov. Lynch’s budget proposals and the effect it will have on residents of Bedford and other towns.
For those who have not heard, the governor and legislature have spent us into a $500 million hole. The governor’s 2009 budget is fraught with creative accounting, shell-game gimmickry and outright theft that allows the governor to claim that he is cutting general fund spending while actually increasing spending. Of the many examples of trickery in Gov. Lynch’s 2009 budget, here are two.
The New Hampshire Medical Malpractice Joint Underwriting Association is a semi-private nonprofit organization that owns a fund paid into by doctors, medical institutions and its staff for the purpose of keeping malpractice insurance premiums reasonably priced.
This is not government money, but private funds. John Lynch and the Democrats in Concord plan to change the law such that he can confiscate $110 million from that fund.
• If that is not enough to outrage non-medical workers, perhaps this one will. Gov. Lynch plans to take rooms and meals tax revenue from the towns. For Bedford that means about $1 million per year. How does the governor suppose the towns will make up for the shortfall forced upon them? He hopes the federal stimulus money, which is mostly earmarked for schools, will cover it. If not, well, the towns are on their own, and will likely have to raise property taxes. That means your property taxes will go up. This is reckless and risky.
• The most troubling aspect of the governor’s proposed budget is that after all the real and faux spending cuts and confiscation of funds, state spending will actually increase by 11 percent, or $1.2 billion, over the next two years.
This shows the Democratic-controlled legislature and Gov. Lynch have no intention of reducing spending.
• The governor has repeated he will not sign an income tax into law. Perhaps he will stand by that promise. But the groundwork is being laid right now for an income tax in the future.