Perhaps if Aaron Gill were better informed, he would have supported my position that the 10-member Fiscal Committee not act on the Gov. Hassan’s Gateway to Work program. Notice that I said “not act” and not “oppose.”
The proposed program is a new one, with most of its funding going to increase child care payments to subsidize low-income individuals’ employment. It costs $16 million a year, with the current request for a six-month, $8 million “pilot.” But this, despite Mr. Gill’s belief to the contrary, will become permanent, as the Legislature is unlikely to throw the 230 or so pilot program participants “under the bus” by taking away their more highly subsidized child care. As President Reagan put it, “Government programs, once launched, never disappear.”
More importantly, a major new program – and by New Hampshire standards, a $16 million a year program is a major program – should be properly analyzed, evaluated and enacted by the full 424-member state Legislature, not by 10 legislators. By asking the Fiscal Committee to approve her proposed program, Gov. Hassan is circumventing the Legislature.
If that’s a process Mr. Gill supports, why is he running for state representative? I have no doubt that a cost-effective program that helps put folks on welfare back into the workforce, and low-income part-time workers into full-time jobs, would be widely supported by the Legislature. But that’s a decision for the full Legislature, not 10 of its members.
Rep. NEAL M. KURK
Weare