Some good news: Governor says "State Budget Surplus Hits $70 Million"

by: TimothyHorrigan

Mon Oct 04, 2010 at 13:30:24 PM EDT

$20 million of the surplus comes from larger than expected lapses: the last budget anticipated $23.6M in lapses, but there were $44M.  Lapses are money which is appropriated but not spent when (for example) a worker leaves his or her job and the state doesn't have to pay the salary while a replacement is being recruited.

The pain of an old fashioned Republican

by: Lucy Edwards

Mon Sep 06, 2010 at 10:30:48 AM EDT

Horning In on Bass's Parade- An open letter to Jennifer Horn

by: JonnyBBad

Mon Aug 30, 2010 at 11:15:52 AM EDT

http://www.nashuatelegraph.com...

Monday, August 30, 2010
Horn needs to speak to Bass' real record

This is an open letter to 2nd Congressional District candidate Jennifer Horn:

Ms. Horn, although it may be counter to your nature, I believe you need to make some points about Charlie Bass - and fast.

Charlie is a longtime political insider. Moreover, he's a go-along-to-get-along Republican, who's comfortable and inclined to accommodate the left-leaning Democrats if he thinks it will benefit him personally.

He's demonstrated himself to be a big spender, despite his newfound campaign rhetoric. Just look at his record as a congressman.

Today, New Hampshire needs a bona fide conservative, who's pledged to stop the reckless spending by the left-wing Congress, as well as to stop the wealth-distribution agenda of the Obama administration in its tracks. Charlie Bass isn't that person; you are.

I ask you to make these points as strongly, as loudly, and as often as possible, because if you don't, Annie Kuster will.

"Deliberate path of excessive spending"

by: Lucy Edwards

Sun Aug 01, 2010 at 07:44:34 AM EDT

Question for all running for Federal Office

by: Mike Hoefer

Wed Jul 07, 2010 at 09:43:34 AM EDT

Reich

So what are we doing about it? Less than nothing. The states are running an anti-stimulus program (raising taxes, cutting services, laying off teachers, firefighters, police and other employees) that's now bigger than the federal stimulus program. That federal stimulus is 75 percent gone anyway. And the House and Senate refuse to pass another one. (The Senate left Washington for the July 4th weekend without even extending unemployment benefits for millions of jobless Americans now running out.)

Krugman

We are now, I fear, in the early stages of a third depression. It will probably look more like the Long Depression than the much more severe Great Depression. But the cost - to the world economy and, above all, to the millions of lives blighted by the absence of jobs - will nonetheless be immense.

Bonddad

"I realize there are people out there who are unconcerned with facts; they will continue to say Washington needs to "stop spending". These people are fools."

I hope the three I quote above are just being "eeyore's" but I for one am getting scared.

So my question is:
"What new spending or stimulus programs will you sponsor, champion, work for if we elect you to the office you seek? Please note, 'Create Jobs' without an associated spending program is not an acceptable answer."

What questions do you want to ask the candidates for Federal Office? What do you wish you would hear from them on the stump? Post away in the comments (you know there is a good chance they will see it.)

What about our candidates for Governor and State Senate should they be answering the same questions?

Manchester Tax Cap

by: The Money Magician

Sat Oct 10, 2009 at 10:59:41 AM EDT

- Gatsas for Governor 2012

They haven't spent a penny on the roads in Franklin for four years, and we do have a lot of missing bricks in Manchester sidewalks.

If ever in Manchester there was a gift-wrapped, defining issue, for candidates to say "this is why I am a Democrat", it is the tax cap.  I am astonished that Democratic candidates are not using their bully pulpit to both educate the public and nail this to their opponents.  It should be an embarrassment to support this garbage.

99 Days To Go: Education And Spaghetti Sauce

by: Andrew Sylvia

Mon Jul 28, 2008 at 12:33:06 PM EDT

She talked about two of her sons, one in private school, the other in public school. The one private school was older, she thought she would be able to put both of them in private school, but it turned out not to be the case, and she didn't want to separate the older child from his friends he had made and she could afford to send one of the two kids to private schools.

She wondered why the two children received such different educations despite going to schools only a few miles apart from each other. The private school child received much more emphasis on a core curriculum while the public school child in her eyes was not being challenged.

She also said the private school staff were being paid far less and received fewer extraneous assistance in teaching, yet the results she was seeing from the private school were greater than those she was getting from the public school child, who was getting far less homework.

I can't affirm or oppose her assertions in regards to the private school she mentioned, and while I was on the School Board Budget Committee last year, I have to admit that our job seemed to be one of oversight rather than real hands on fiscal policy in the school district, due in large part to the excellent job the School Board did before we convened shortly before the Deliberative Session in the spring.

However, when I was going over those budgets, it was difficult to discern what the value of each line item was, due in large part because there were so many.

This was part of why the woman I talked to wanted to see our town's school budget cut. "When I go to the supermarket, I see so many brands of pasta sauce now that I can't tell them apart, I get overwhelmed" she said. "So in the end, I just look for the price, and find the cheapest one."

I believe a government budget is no different than that woman's dilemma with the spaghetti sauce as well as how she viewed the educations of her two sons.

If the choices that need to be made within a budget are overwhelming and it isn't clear what value one would get from spending on a certain item, it's understandable that people would go into a default mode and make a decision on the clearest value you're going to see on just about any spreadsheet: price.

However, with her kids, she saw more than just price. She saw something that may well be intangible in terms of her childrens' education, but is never the less just as valuable as the money spent on it, if not more so.

It appeared that she agreed with my belief on budgets that any dogma of an extreme, whether it be cutting everything or spending indiscriminately without understanding of the cost, wasn't a particularly good idea.

We had a good discussion, and even though she didn't say specifically that she'd vote for me, she offered me a Fresca since it was a hot day, so i'm guessing i've gotten her vote.

And to top it off, I was actually aiming to talk to someone else in her house that wasn't home....

Why I support "the pledge" ...

by: Tony Schinella

Sun Mar 16, 2008 at 17:14:30 PM EDT