We recently stood together with all Democratic candidates for state Senate in releasing our Granite State Opportunity Plan, fighting for economic opportunity for all Granite Staters, not simply those at the top. Voters ought to know what a Senate Democratic majority would do. Part of the Granite State Opportunity Plan is a budget that truly works for everyone, not simply the entitled elite or corporate special interests.
Specifically, we propose a state budget that actually prioritizes the opioid epidemic, mental health, child protection, infrastructure, affordable child care, affordable housing and education, not prioritizing sending tax dollars to private and religious schools or giving tax breaks to corporate special interests.
Senate Democrats prioritize New Hampshire property-tax payers, from the family business to the working family to the senior struggling on a fixed income – that’s who we are fighting for, not the entitled elite or out-of-state corporate special interests.
Last session, the Senate Republican agenda meant taxes for corporations went down, while your property taxes went up. In fact, big, out-of-state companies, like Amazon, got a massive tax break, without anything in return for New Hampshire.
We sat through the budget hearings, and we can tell you that not one New Hampshire business testified in support of these giveaways.
Why should Jeff Bezos of Amazon catch a break while hard-working families and seniors are struggling with local property taxes? Meanwhile, Senate Republicans voted down efforts to establish needed and recommended child-protection services, voted down efforts to help with mental health provider services, voted down the effort to freeze tuition at UNH, voted down a property tax break for working families, and voted down job training for persons on second and third careers as well as graduating Granite State seniors who may wish to pursue a vocation or trade.
Budgets are the ultimate test of priorities and values. A Senate Democratic majority will always put people first – and our budget will represent that most basic value. We will work with anyone who will listen in order to get a budget that provides the funds necessary to finally move forward with paid family and medical leave insurance, that establishes a meaningful children’s system of care to help all of our kids and prevent the future mistreatment of children, that reimburses our behavioral health care providers in a manner necessary to truly combat our opioid and mental health epidemics, that supports local education, local roads, local bridges and local jobs, and that upgrades state facilities and treats our state employees – both past and present – with the respect they deserve.
Since proposing our Granite State Opportunity Plan, our Republican colleagues have gone to radio silence. To be sure, some of their political operatives have resorted to name-calling and the usual silly politics, but not one specific policy has been proposed by our Republican colleagues for the future. Not one.
Voters deserve to know what Republicans actually plan to do if they retained the majority, not get some half-hearted review of half-measures from the past. That’s just basic transparency. Will the Republican budget priorities continue to be the sending of your tax dollars to private and religious schools, and to give further tax breaks for corporate special interests?
Our budget plan is clear: We will fight for a budget for everyone, not simply the entitled elite or corporate special interests. Working together, we can and we should build a budget that truly works for everyone.
(Lou D’Allesandro is from Manchester and represents Goffstown and Wards 3, 4, 10 and 11 in Manchester in the state Senate. Dan Feltes lives in the South End of Concord and represents Concord, Hopkinton, Henniker, Penacook and Warner in the state Senate. Both Sen. D’Allesandro and Sen. Feltes serve on the Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over the state budget.)