Merrimack County District 18 represents Concord’s Ward 9.
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What specific policy do you see as most vital? Income inequality was already bad BEFORE COVID, and the financial crisis has only put more sunshine on the many ways people are suffering in NH. Many frontline workers in the service industry and as healthcare aides make very low wages and the COVID stipends to supplement their income ended long ago. I am filing the $15/hr minimum wage bill again because defaulting to the federal rate of $7.25/hr is shameful. Let’s be clear: $15/hr ANYWHERE in NH is not a living wage, and yet my bill also includes an annual cost of living increase. New Hampshire once had our own minimum wage and it is time to bring it back.
How do you plan to address the significant budget challenges our state will face in the months ahead? We must not make cuts in the budget which would affect the people who are already suffering because of illness and/or low wages. We must not balance the budget on the backs of the average NH property taxpayers either. Instead, we must find ways to balance our budget fairly and put the burdens upon those who actually can afford it: New Hampshire’s millionaires and billionaires. They have been given generous tax cuts in recent years and have managed to become even wealthier during the COVID pandemic. The fairest way to balance NH’s budget is to roll-back handouts to the wealthy and create a new, targeted capital gains tax. This approach won’t even be a sacrifice for them and will stop the burdens of downshifting to local government, the people who are ill, and the workers earning low wages.
■Claude Bongambe, a Republican, did not return a questionnaire.