NH House Leaders Comment on October Revenue Figures

CONCORD – House Speaker William O’Brien (R-Mont Vernon) and House Deputy Majority Leader and Ways & Means Chairman Stephen Stepanek (R-Amherst) offered the following comments on the release of October revenue figures showing that the state brought in $8.9 million above projections.  The gains were led by business taxes, which were ahead by $4.2 million, and tobacco and real estate transfer taxes, which were each ahead of projections by $1.9 million.

House Speaker William O’Brien

“This month’s revenues show that New Hampshire is headed in the right direction.  The strength in business taxes and real estate transfers is a positive sign for the economy.  Furthermore, the fact that tobacco taxes came in nearly $2 million ahead of projections, despite the fact that other ‘sin taxes’ were below projections demonstrates that our decision to repeal the last of the four tobacco tax increases was the right one.  Cutting taxes creates economic growth and jobs, while raising taxes makes us less competitive and leaves our residents out of work.  This is one more example of the constructive steps this Legislature has taken to make New Hampshire stronger for the future.”

House Ways & Means Chairman Stephen Stepanek

“Now we are 16 months into our two-year budget, and our revenue projections are accurate to within 2/10 of 1%. This demonstrates the care that the Ways & Means Committee put into our work, and shows the stark contrast with the work of the Democrats, who simply inflated revenues to spend more money.  Strong revenue projections leads to strong budgets, and the reason why we are not here today, talking about major cuts to the budget or more tax increases – as the Democrats did when their budgets went off track – is because we took politics out of revenue projections and made it about getting the numbers right.”

NH House Leaders Comment on Release of Revenue Figures for Last Fiscal Year Being Nearly Identical to Target

CONCORD – House Speaker William O’Brien (R-Mont Vernon) and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Stephen Stepanek (R-Amherst) today offered the following comments in response to the release of the budget results for the fiscal year that ended on June 30, 2012 (FY12).  The figures released by the Department of Administrative Services show that the budgeted revenues were up over projections by $600,000 on a $2.19 billion, or a variance of just 3/100^th of 1%.

House Speaker William O’Brien

“To come so close to revenue projections that we would exceed our estimates by a mere 3/100 of a percent is a stunning, remarkable achievement, and shows what happens when your focus is on delivering accurate figures and not trying to inflate revenues to spend more money.  This is a far cry for the prior fiscal year (FY11) when Maggie Hassan and the Democrats overestimated revenues by $116 million – even including their additional tax and fee hikes in a special session – and Governor Lynch’s estimates for FY12 which would have missed by over $122 million, and would have set the stage for yet another budget crisis.  This is a testament to our Ways and Means Committee’s hard work to get the right numbers, not politically expedient figures.  While it’s great that we ended the year with a surplus, we would have like to have seen more aggressive management of the state agencies by Governor Lynch, as we saw lapse figures – the amount that state agencies do not spend – drop by over $60 million from the prior year.  Hopefully, the next governor will be more attentive to ensuring that state agencies rein in their spending.”

House Ways and Means Chairman Stephen Stepanek

“This Legislature chose to use reasonable, responsible revenue figures to bring integrity and accountability back to the budgeting process. These revenue figures are once again a tremendous compliment to the hard work of the Ways and Means Committee. We chose to use reliable revenue targets, and not inflate estimates as the Democrats did when they were in charge so that they could spend more. Unfortunately, the Democrats’ spending was paid for at the expense of the taxpayer with 100 new taxes and fees. We’ve made clear that this legislature refuses to pass the burden off to the taxpayers by raising taxes. Lower taxes mean less of a burden on our businesses and more new jobs here.”

NH House Leaders Blast Democrats Ongoing “War on Facts” On Medicare

CONCORD – House Speaker William O’Brien (R-Mont Vernon) and House Commerce and Consumer Affairs Chairman John Hunt (R-Rindge) today condemned factually inaccurate statements made by Democrat candidate for Governor Maggie Hassan and the New Hampshire Democrat Party that Speaker O’Brien supported legislation (HB 1560) to have the state run Medicare, the health insurance program for seniors.  At a debate at New England College Thursday, Maggie Hassan stated that Speaker O’Brien supported this legislation, a charge repeated by the NHDP in an email to supporters Friday.

House Speaker William O’Brien

“The Democrats’ War on Facts has now hit a depressing, but unsurprising, new low.  Clearly, Maggie Hassan and Ray Buckley feel confident promoting lies made out of whole cloth, confident that the state’s media has been and will be disinclined to hold them accountable for their reckless mistruths.  In the real world, the world were the statements by Hassan and Buckley are lies, I was the one who asked Chairman Hunt to turn this legislation to a study committee for the purpose of salvaging the portion of the bill I strongly supported – turning federal Medicaid payments into a block grant – and removing the part of the bill I didn’t support – asking the states to accept the responsibility for Medicare’s massive unfunded liability.  I was clear then, and I believe now, that it makes no sense to ask state taxpayers to take on Medicare’s hole of between $38-43 TRILLION in obligations, which is even larger than the liability for Social Security.  However, it is also clear that Democrats have no use for facts and will simply make up whatever story suits them on any given day.  Just as they showed in the prior two legislative terms that they cannot be trusted with running government, throughout Hassan’s campaign, she and Buckley have shown they can’t be trusted to tell the truth.”

House Commerce Chairman John Hunt

“The Speaker clearly expressed a great deal of concern over the state taking on the liability of Medicare and suggested that we needed to put a great deal of study into any effort to do so.  At the same time, he is a strong advocate for block grants for Medicaid.  His concern was a big reason why the Commerce Committee recommended that the Health Care Compact bill be turned into a study committee.  For the Democrats to suggest that Speaker O’Brien was a supporter of the state taking over Medicare is simply 100% inaccurate and irresponsible.”

NH House Leaders Blast New Democrat Plan to Hike Rooms and Meals Tax

CONCORD – House Majority Leader Pete Silva (R-Nashua) and Deputy Majority Leader and Ways and Means Chairman Stephen Stepanek (R-Amherst) today took Democrats to task for yet another tax increase on working families with candidate for Governor Maggie Hassan promoting a hike in the Rooms and Meals Tax.  At a forum discussing tourism yesterday, the Union Leader reported that Hassan stated, “I’m not going to support any raise in the rooms and meals tax above 9.5 percent.”  The current rate is 9%, after Hassan led efforts to pass a budget in 2009 that increased the rate from 8%. With her latest proposal, she personally would be responsible for a 12% increase in the jobs killing rooms and meals tax.

House Majority Leader Pete Silva

“First an income tax, next a gas tax hike, then a beer tax increase and now this attack on our wallets.  It doesn’t matter if you are going to work, filling your tank, drinking a beer or just going out have lunch, the Democrats have a plan to tax you more.  Raising the rooms and meals tax again, up to 9.5%, would devastate the economies of border communities like Nashua, as it would make our tax on eating out much higher than Massachusetts (6.25%) and Maine (7%).  This would take the New Hampshire Advantage we have for our retailers for not having a sales tax and turn it into a New Hampshire Disadvantage.  We don’t need to see restaurants in Nashua packing up and moving to Tyngsborough, or from Salem to Methuen, thanks to Maggie Hassan and the Democrats’ tax increases.”

House Deputy Majority Leader Stephen Stepanek

“Maggie Hassan and the Democrats already increased the tax mom-and-pop restaurant owners across New Hampshire by 12.5% a short three years ago.  They are just now recovering from this, and now she wants to hike that same tax by another 5.5%.  This makes no economic sense, no sense to attract businesses and jobs here and no sense to add one more hit to the working families who are trying to get by and might want to take their children out to eat occasionally.  The hardworking taxpayers are struggling and paying enough, but in the Democrats’ eyes, they are simply one more source of revenue to pay for an every growing state government.”

NH House Leaders React to Elimination of Emergency Surcharge to the Unemployment Trust Fund

CONCORD – New Hampshire House Speaker William O’Brien (R-Mont Vernon) and Majority Whip Rep. Shawn Jasper (R-Hudson) today offered the following statements in response to the announcement that New Hampshire employers were notified that the emergency surcharge put in place under Maggie Hassan and her fellow Democrats in 2010 will be removed.  According to the Department of Employment Securities notification, the reduction applies to taxable wages paid to employees starting in the 4^th Quarter of 2012, beginning October 1.

The surcharge was first introduced by then Senator Maggie Hassan (D-Exeter) in 2009 and took effect January 1, 2010, requiring that employers pay the additional rate increase into the Unemployment Trust Fund because the fund fell below $150 million.

House Speaker William O’Brien

“Sen. Hassan has said this legislature is extreme.  Perhaps to Maggie, any lowering of the burden of taxation on employers is no doubt extreme, but in her mind raising the unemployment tax on employers three times, as she did when she last held elected office, is moderation.  In reality, there only two things extreme here: the first is the stark transition between legislative Republicans lowering numerous business taxes over the last two years, and Maggie Hassan having increased spending by 25% in the prior four years, paid for by over 100 tax and fee increases, when she lead Democrats in the state Senate, and the other is Maggie Hassan herself.  To her, the burdensome rate by which she increased taxes and fees, including this now-eliminated surcharge tax on our businesses and employers, is just what government does.  Hardworking New Hampshire taxpayers know differently and are growing tired of Maggie’s excuses.  The removal of Sen. Hassan’s tax on employers signals that our economy is becoming stronger, our employment conditions becoming more favorable, payrolls are increasing and we can’t afford Maggie again.”

House Majority Whip Shawn Jasper

“I am appalled at the lack of responsibility Maggie has taken for the taxes and fees she had a direct hand in increasing as a leader in the Senate including this tax on job creators. This legislature has had to do reconstructive surgery to our tax and fee structure in order to allow New Hampshire businesses to stop hemorrhaging jobs and start hiring again. I would suggest that if our businesses and job creators appreciate the removal of this .5% tax, they should call Sen. Hassan and ask her to support the reelection of Speaker O’Brien and this legislature, who can be credited with setting us back on the right track after the train wreck of the prior Democratic legislative majority.”