9 Comments: "The Pledge"

by: elwood

Wed Oct 12, 2011 at 06:36:52 AM EDT

1. New Hampshire has a "structural deficit." Our revenue sources grow more slowly than our social needs - needs ranging from roads to schools to health and safety.
2. This despite having one of the very cheapest state budgets in the nation - ranking about 47th in per-capita spending. Any politician who says "we have a spending problem" is a liar who can't add.
3. This structural deficit keeps jacking up local budgets and property taxes. The property tax is a terrible, awful way to fund government. It drives people out of their homes. It builds great schools where some fluke development (e.g. a power plant) gets built - not where the kids and parents need them. It's regressive - someone making ten times the average wage-earner doesn't have a house that costs ten times more. It skews every decision about community growth. Just awful. But...
   
4. The state 2012 election is set to be a referendum on the extreme, hate-filled right-wing agenda of Bill O'Brien and his henchmen, including the Free State carpetbaggers. They are heading for a thorough rejection by the voters.
5. Not taking "the Pledge" will (in my estimation) suck all the atmosphere out of the campaign. It will no longer be about purging the crazies: it will be transformed into a simpleminded "new tax / no tax" choice.
6. Yes - everyone in the state news media should be ashamed of that.  We know better. But that's the story that would dominate the campaign - and  we don't know how to fix it in the next twelve months. And the predictable result would be a new Republican governor and majority. So where does that leave us?
   
7. Here's where it leaves me. I will support a Democratic candidate who takes a two-year pledge, with no pledge for a second-term. "If you elect me, my first term will be all about getting a complete picture of New Hampshire's challenges, opportunities and choices. I'll be talking with your city councilors and school board members - and you - about the effect our choices in Concord have on your cities and towns. I'll be looking for any areas where we can cut spending - but after generations of pinching pennies already, and a state education system that needs help, don't count too heavily on help there. That review is going to take a full two years. I will veto any broad-based tax in my first term, then I'll come back and share our assessment and ideas next time around.  So - elect the best people you can this year for the House and Senate - a broad-based tax is off the table."
8. Is that "kicking the can down the road?"  It feels like that, no question.  But bringing New Hampshire's resources and needs into balance is going to take a complete shift in the public perspective on our choices - not a single heroic figure.
9. And after that first two-year term: the Democratic Governor must face the revenue challenge head-on.  S/he will have the credentials and the bully pulpit - and the information and data. If s/he papers over  the revenue challenge, taking a second pledge without providing an alternative revenue and budget model that meets our needs - I will work for a primary opponent.