This author has not written his bio yet.
But we are proud to say that Joshua Elliott-Traficante contributed 109 entries already.
According to the BLS, the national unemployment rate fell in March to 7.6%, from 7.7% in February. On the surface it would appear that the labor is recovering, however the data contained within the report shows the opposite to be true. Labor Force Participation Rate drops to Lowest Level since 1979 The Labor Force Participation […]
As the Budget Process gets under way at the State House, in addition to publishing our pieces on the main page, we will be aggregating all of budget related content here.
Under the House’s proposed budget, 67.3% will go to Transportation, 31.7% to Safety and 1.1% for other. These ratios represent an additional $500,000 being diverted away from the Department of Transportation over the Governor’s budget.
March 2013 By Joshua Elliott-Traficante As detailed in an earlier piece on the Highway Fund diversion[1], the Department of Safety receives a sizeable portion of the revenue raised by the state Highway Fund. Historically the Department has received roughly between 24% and 32% of the amount collected, net of block grants to the municipalities. This […]
New Hampshire’s unemployment rate dropped to 5.3% in February from 5.8% in January. This drop represents 290 fewer unemployed persons in the state, leaving 43,000 total people unemployed.
New Hampshire’s budget often requires action to avoid a deficit. The budget ending this June 30 is no exception. We have a deficit, and the governor can and should act today in the same manner as all of her predecessors. Spending cuts now are both necessary and preferable to waiting and hoping.
February saw the national unemployment rate decrease from 7.9% to 7.7% with the Establishment Survey Data showing 236,000 jobs added over the month. Looking further into the data there are a few signs of growth but there are some discouraging ones as well.
In New Hampshire, not only is spending on highways paid for entirely with user fees like gas taxes and registration fees but the user fees are often diverted to other uses. The largest recipient is the Department of Safety, ostensibly to pay for state troopers but smaller amount of money have been transferred to other departments as varied as Cultural Resources, Health & Human Resources, and the Board of Land & Tax Appeals.
According to the foreclosure tracking firm RealtyTrac, 512 New Hampshire residential properties received foreclosure notices in January. While this is an increase from the 405 in December, the number of filings seen last month is substantially lower than the 2012 monthly average.
There is a common misconception that the state has not studied this idea recently; however two lengthy studies have been completed in the past six years. One was done in 2007 by the Passenger Rail Taskforce looked at service to Manchester and the other in 2010 by TranSystems for the NH Rail Authority, NHDOT and the Nashua Rail Planning Commission which looked at the entire corridor to Concord. While neither study recommends for or against introducing commuter rail, they provide a wealth of information as to how much the route would cost.
From the studies it is clear that constructing the route in its entirety to Concord would cost roughly $300 million and require subsidies of $11 million a year to operate.