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Former Chairman of the Josiah Bartlett Center Walter Peterson was one of the great treasures of the state of New Hampshire. A former governor and university president, he was known to everyone simply as Walter and no one remembers him as anything other than a warm and wonderful man.
With ten of the twelve months of revenue collected for Fiscal Year 2011, revenues are on track to be $54.6 million short of the budgeted amount. The shortfall will not only require action to balance the last budget but also reduces the base used to project revenue growth for the 2012-13 budget currently under consideration.
The House budget was a huge step forward in the process. It set priorities and achieves a realistic balance. It also allows us to compare and think about priorities and making some alterations to those priorities.
The House prioritized cuts to state government that were significantly…
Pension and retirement obligations are the biggest long term problem facing the state. New Hampshire’s four long-term pension and retiree health benefit obligations have current unfunded liabilities of more than $7 billion. Changing the state’s pension and health obligations is no longer optional.
Through the Retirement System, the state administers a pension plan for state and local employees and a retirement health benefit. Those two components have unfunded liabilities of $4.7 billion. In addition, outside of the system there is a much larger health benefit with an unfunded liability of $2.4 billion and a much smaller judicial retirement plan with rapidly eroding funding — $15 million in the hole after just five years.
Fewer New Hampshire drivers are paying a premium to customize their license plates, following a 60% increase in the fee. The New Hampshire Legislature increased the annual surcharge for customized plates from $25 to $40 as part of the 2009-2010 budget. The higher rate went into effect on August 1, 2009. One year after the fee increase, there were nearly 10,000 fewer vehicles with premium New Hampshire license plates. This drop-off represents a small fraction of car owners, as the percentage of vehicles with vanity plates has fallen from 14.8% to 14.3% of all cars on the road.
The incoming Senate and House have their work cut out for them when it comes to the state budget. The economic downturn, coupled with decisions on the parts of both the Legislature and the Governor, have left a $700 to $800 million dollar hole in the budget. The Legislature, while looking for cuts in other departments, which resulted in hiring freezes and layoffs, increased its own budget faster than the budget overall. Given current revenue forecasts, overall spending will have to decrease. The Legislative Branch, having seen the largest increases, has much more room to cut than other departments. Though the Legislative Branch accounts for less than 1% of the budget, it is crucial for legislators to lead by example
This is the latest version of our spreadsheet comparing state spending in 2008-09 to 2010-11. Because $248 million of general fund spending was moved offline, apples to apples comparisons are not obvious from official documents. Using official state data, we compare the same spending from 2008-09 with the same spending in 2010-11 despite label changes […]
The slides from Charlie Arlinghaus’s seminar for policymakers on the basics of the state budget, how its organized, where to find information and how to become your own state budget expert.
Just click the Quarter to get started! A public database isn’t just a tool for those of us strange enough to want to pore over budget data. It is the sunshine that disinfects the public square. Knowing that every detail is available, accessible, and searchable means there is no chance that any action, any […]