Republican U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte again accused her rival of being a hypocrite about the state budget Tuesday while Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan cast Ayotte as part of a dysfunctional do-nothing Congress.
Ayotte and Hassan have been in a tight race for a seat that could help determine control of the Senate. The two faced each other at a debate focused on the economy and small businesses.
As she has previously, Ayotte argued that Hassan has been dishonest in taking credit for a state budget that lowered taxes on small businesses because Hassan vetoed an earlier version of the spending deal. She also noted that as a state senator, Hassan sponsored a bill that applied the state’s interest and dividends tax to owners of limited liability companies.
“Gov. Hassan was the original sponsor of the LLC income tax on small businesses, and when it comes to the most recent business tax cuts that helped our state, she opposed them, and unfortunately even when the Legislature wanted to work on this, she took a partisan stance,” Ayotte said. “There’s a big difference in this race in terms of how we’re going to view what happens with small businesses.”
Hassan agreed that there are big differences on that front, and accused Ayotte of working harder to protect tax breaks for oil companies and Wall Street executives than small businesses. She defended her budget veto, saying the numbers didn’t add up, but said she supported a bipartisan compromise that included the tax cuts as well as important safeguards to protect future budgets.
Questioned about a new Labor Department rule that will make more salaried workers eligible for overtime, Hassan said the rule may need adjusting but she faulted Ayotte for not taking on the issue and coming up with a solution that better serves nonprofit groups.