Merrimack County District 20 (3 seats) represents Chichester and Pembroke.
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What specific policy do you see as most vital? School funding/lowering property taxes.
How do you plan to address the significant budget challenges our state will face in the months ahead? I believe that priorities must be addressed first. Vital services to state residents such as public education, health care, social services, and road maintenance are critical. With revenues down considerably, more focus is necessary to look at different revenue sources that might be available. The executive branch and the Legislature must work together in a bipartisan manner to put together a plan for the next two years that will work.
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What specific policy do you see as most vital? Keeping the N.H. Advantage going and keeping the taxes as low as possible.
How do you plan to address the significant budget challenges our state will face in the months ahead? Will take a look at recent legislation and postpone until N.H. is up and running and everybody is back to work. Will have every department take a look at budgets and cut temporary programs that can be postponed.
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What specific policy do you see as most vital? Property tax reform.
How do you plan to address the significant budget challenges our state will face in the months ahead? Review the recommendations of the N.H. School Funding Fairness Project and support the one or two proposals that will reduce the state’s reliance on a regressive and inequitable property tax system.
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What specific policy do you see as most vital? Achieving fair, nonbiased redistricting so that voters choose their representatives, not the other way around. Preserving and improving pay and benefits for employees. Maintaining a woman’s right to choice in healthcare issues. Pushing back against rising pharmaceutical costs. Supporting law enforcement while instilling respect for all elements of our population. Ensuring good public schools to benefit Granite State students.
How do you plan to address the significant budget challenges our state will face in the months ahead? As an incumbent, I am usually asked by various state agencies and other sources to file several pieces of legislation. I am self-editing those requests and filing only a few bills for this first year of the biennium and hope other members will do the same to limit the costs proposed to the state and municipalities. I likely will not be appointed to the Finance or Ways and Means committees, but will certainly monitor their work. I will also work to hold down costs at the county level (Merrimack County).
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What specific policy do you see as most vital? The biggest issue facing both our state government and our state is the damage done by, first, the pandemic and then by the resulting shutdowns. We’ve all seen one or more cherished local businesses go under, unable to meet the unprecedented challenge of these times. Many others, both small businesses and individuals, struggle on the edge of financial disaster, waiting to see what the next few months may bring. We must get through this current crisis without condemning our fellow residents to failure and loss. Key policies include restoring our state government to its proper role and get away from micromanaging how businesses address risk. The state’s determination of guidance must not turn into shutting down anyone who fails to comply. We also need to make sure individuals and businesses are not blocked from doing what they need to do to bounce back. This means not piling on new taxes and not adding more stifling regulation. It also means learning lessons from our ongoing State of Emergency. In some cases, we’ve freed people from regulation, allowing enterprise and innovation to help overcome the pandemic. The state needs to help and encourage, not regulate and tax folks into failure.
How do you plan to address the significant budget challenges our state will face in the months ahead? This biennial budget will be a difficult one. Businesses that have been shut down are not going to be paying much in taxes. Citizens who have withdrawn from the economy to protect their health are not out there generating the economic activity which pays the state’s bills. Nevertheless, we must produce a balanced budget. Furthermore, we had better not plunder businesses and individuals just to balance the budget in the short term. I have confidence that Governor Sununu is currently working with state agencies on how to best serve the people of New Hampshire while constrained by the drop in revenues. The Legislature must support this effort. Recent analyses show that the three years leading up to March 2020 produced not just a growing economy and record-low unemployment, but a shift in wealth towards the poorer end of our nation. The best way forward, purely from a governmental standpoint, is to allow that economy to recover. As the economy rebounds and grows even larger, higher state revenues will follow. We must not indulge our instincts to micromanage, over-regulate, and overtax for the possibility of short term gain, sacrificing a much greater reward in the decades to come.
■Nick White, a Republican, did not respond to a ‘Monitor’ questionnaire.