One of the candidates seeking to represent the Concord area in the state Senate says he’ll hold down new spending in the state budget, and the other says it’s time to restore dramatic cuts made during the Great Recession.
Their plans for surplus dollars in the state budget illustrate some differences between the incumbent, Democratic Sen. Dan Feltes, and challenger, Republican Jeff Newman, running in Senate District 15.
Newman said he’d seek to use some of the money to help school districts deal with unexpected special education costs, to shore up mental health services and fulfill obligations to people with disabilities.
“I would look at some of those as destinations for some of this aid, but the rest of it I would sit on,” he said, “and if we generate that kind of a surplus next year, then I would look at cutting taxes, which . . . would encourage more businesses to come here.”
Feltes, on the other hand, said the revenues are close to what Democrats predicted, and shouldn’t come as a surprise. Therefore, he said, they should be seen as “the baseline for projections moving forward.”
“This next governor and next Legislature is going to have not just a surplus, but $200 million-plus in additional money in the next budget, depending on your revenue estimates, and the question becomes: What are we going to do to meet our critical shared priorities?” he said.
He said he’d look for the state to give more aid to school districts that offer full-day kindergarten, to relieve “chronic underfunding” at the Division of Children, Youth and Families and to fight against the public health crisis posed by opioid addiction, in part by making Medicaid expansion permanent.
Feltes, a first-term senator and former legal assistance attorney from Concord, said the state has a chance to restore cuts made under the leadership of former Republican speaker of the House Bill O’Brien that were achieved “by dismantling the existing system of government.”
“This quote unquote ‘surplus’ – did it magically come about based on a modest business tax deduction, or did we see it coming? Well, we saw it coming and now we need to make the right adjustments,” he said, adding that Republicans adopted revenue estimates lower that what he and Democratic Sen. Lou D’Allesandro estimated.
“The answer is not significant tax cuts for business owners. The answer is investing in our shared obligations, including some that haven’t been filled since O’Brien cut dramatically our state budget,” he said.
Each candidate sat for a meeting with the Monitor’s editorial board the week of Oct. 10.
Newman, who is an intellectual property attorney and graphic illustrator for patents, said he decided to run because no other Republicans campaigned for the seat, which has for decades been filled by Democrats and covers Concord, Hopkinton, Henniker and Warner.
Newman opposes changing the state’s education aid formula so that it would benefit districts that decide to offer full-day kindergarten to their students. Feltes said this was not only a policy that he supported, but one that has “a very good possibility” of passing.
Newman was noncommittal about whether the state should establish a minimum wage, another policy that Feltes supports.
“I’m very concerned,” Newman said, “that if we begin raising the minimum wage, we’re going to see more automation, more automated checkouts.”
He added, in a sweeping statement that contradicts much fact-checking: “I know that every time the minimum wage has been raised, you’ve seen a greater unemployment.”
Newman said he wouldn’t seek to do away with expanded Medicaid – which Feltes supports – but try to improve customers’ experiences.
“I’m not going to second guess it. I’m not going to run back and say, ‘Oh, we have to repeal it.’ I would look at how we can make it work more effectively so that it doesn’t cost me one-fifth of my income to have a $5,000 deductible,” he said.
Senate District 15 includes the communities of Concord, Hopkinton, Henniker, Warner.
(Nick Reid can be reached at 369-3325, nreid@cmonitor.com or on Twitter at @NickBReid.)