VNH's 60
Second NH Tax Update with Charlie
Arlinghaus...
5. What's the long term "fix" to keep taxes & spending
in balance
Discipline.
For
too long, we have endured a boom and bust cycle on a
smaller scale than out neighbors have. After years of
spending increases, Steve Merrill was forced to
ratchet down spending, decreasing actual spending for
the first time in New Hampshire. After six more
years of high growth, Craig Benson vetoed a budget
and settled on
a compromise that decreased spending $90 million
relative to inflation. What would be more sensible
would
be to even out the growth instead of having regular
emergencies.
One
proposal is a spending cap. Spending growth would be
limited to the rate of inflation with a 60% vote
permitted to override that cap for important concerns.
If spending had grown at the rate of inflation over the
last
20 years, we would be spending about two-thirds of what
we currently spend, about $500 million less this year.
Question 1.
What
created the problem in the current NH budget?
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