Our Republican colleagues in the NH House recently wrote a letter to the editor (The Conway Daily Sun, June 28) congratulating themselves for a historic NH budget. They are correct that it is a historic budget – it is possibly the most politically extreme budget in our state’s history that does great damage to our public schools, our first amendment rights and women’s reproductive rights. It is a Republican budget as the vote went straight down party lines.
Let’s pull back the curtain to show how several controversial and extreme bills which would never be passed on their own were buried into the budget so that the majority of citizens would not notice them. The citizens of the Live Free or Die State have always cherished our First Amendment Rights, but Republicans squeezed a bill limiting free speech into the budget. The ‘divisive speech’ law was included in the budget, which censors conversations within the public education system and state employees concerning systemic racism and sexism. In response, over half of the governor’s Council on Diversity resigned. Do we want our children and grandchildren to grow up in a country without the protection of First Amendment free speech rights?
Our Republican legislators also enacted a state law to limit women’s reproduction rights, including mandating an invasive ultrasound which can cost $500 to over $1,200 in New Hampshire, and the threat of criminal charges against a physician conducting an abortion after 24 weeks. There are no exceptions for rape or incest, or if when there is clinical evidence that the fetus will not be viable. As Rep. Marjory Smith noted, the legislature decided to cram itself into private citizens’ bedrooms and doctors’ offices to make decisions that should rightfully be made by a woman, her doctors and her family. It is a slippery slope from the loss of women’s reproductive rights to the loss of women’s legal rights which women have fought to acquire over the past 100 years.
The Education Freedom Accounts was included in the budget, as it was too controversial to stand alone as a bill. The purpose of the bill is to provide a choice for parents, giving the option of utilizing homeschooling, private or religious schools at taxpayer expense which will divert up to $4,600 per student away from our public schools, thus placing many public school budgets in jeopardy. There will be no checks and balances to ensure that children receive an adequate education at home. Public school budgetary shortfalls may result in higher property taxes to cover the shortfall.
Another budgetary bill has taxpayers bailing out wealthy investors to a Ponzi scheme who failed to do their due diligence to the tune of $10 million. At the same time, the legislature decided not to fund dental care for Medicaid recipients at a cost of $5 million which will mean that taxpayers will pay more for Medicaid patients to receive dental services in the emergency department instead of the dentists’ office.
Within the budget is the elimination of the interest and dividends tax. Half of this benefit will go to just 209 taxpayers, the top 1% of income earners. Thus, the Republicans are again successfully transferring your income to the wealthiest individuals in our state. And the reduction in the business profits tax benefits a small group of mostly out-of-state corporations, not the small businesses that are being touted by my colleagues.
Are there some good things in the budget? Yes, there are. A new psychiatric hospital was funded and $6 million was allocated for transitional hospital beds, a win for our mental health system. $25 million will be going into the Affordable Housing Fund and $100 million to combat substance abuse. So yes, there were some wins for the citizens of New Hampshire.
My Republican colleagues, congratulate yourselves if you like for burying all of the unpassable bills within the budget. Now you will have to explain to the voters of New Hampshire why you wish to transfer wealth to the wealthy, erode women’s reproductive and all of our free speech rights, impair funding for our public schools and potentially raise our property taxes. I doubt that many will show up for that victory lap.
(Anita Burroughs, Jerry Knirk, Chris McAleer and Steve Woodcock are NH representatives from Carroll County.)