The books closed last week on the last two-year state budget, crafted by state-level Democrats. Before turning to this new Republican state budget, let’s take a look at the results of the two-year Democratic state budget. Working together, we crafted a two-year state budget that listened to the working families, senior citizens, and small businesses of New Hampshire. The proof is in the pudding: after closing the books, our budget had over a $300 million dollar surplus, there are thriving business and housing markets in New Hampshire, we have the lowest bankruptcy filings in state history, and the lowest unemployment rate (2.5%) in the country.

It wasn’t by accident. Our budget included common sense investments in job training and workforce development, affordable and workforce housing, child care, infrastructure, health care, and education. On education, we delivered the most state support ever for local K-12 education, including finally supporting Full-Day Kindergarten like any other grade. We also reinstituted local revenue sharing with every community. Overall, we invested hundreds of millions in state revenue directly into our local communities, with dozens of communities responding by reducing their property tax rates, with many more holding steady.

After listening to the small business community of New Hampshire, we also did common sense business tax reform. We lowered the business tax burden for small businesses right here in New Hampshire, while closing massive tax loopholes for large out-of-state corporations who sell into New Hampshire – like Netflix and Amazon – forcing them to pay their fair share. Simply put, we listened to and we worked for New Hampshire’s working families, seniors on fixed incomes, and small businesses.

The naysayers of our budget said it had a “structural deficit”, that it relied on “one-time revenues”, and it would lead to an “income tax.” Of course, that was all a bunch of baloney – it wasn’t true then, it wasn’t true in all those phony campaign ads you saw, and it isn’t true now. In fact, the commonsense Democratic state budget led to a record surplus of $279 million this past year alone, through a pandemic. Economically, the most recent data shows the Democratic state budget helped secure New Hampshire’s footing with the lowest unemployment rate in the nation at 2.5%, as well as booming housing and business markets. There’s an old saying that if you see a turtle on top of a fence post, it didn’t get there by accident. Our budget looked to the future with resilient, fiscally prudent investments in our people and our businesses – and it paid off.

That all stands in stark (very stark) contrast to the state budget just passed by Republicans. Wow. It is a doozey. Instead of just doing their work on a state budget, the Republicans rammed into the state budget radical right-wing policies, including a first-ever abortion ban in New Hampshire, mandated ultrasounds for women seeking any abortion, cuts in funding for family planning centers and Planned Parenthood, the banning of discussions on systemic inequality at our schools and in public offices propelled by white supremacists, and the diversion public tax dollars meant for public education, giving away public tax dollars to private prep schools and religious schools with little to no accountability and ripe for waste, fraud, and abuse. It’s an agenda that will certainly hurtle the state into costly litigation, and, it’s an agenda driven by right-wing radicals that was, unfortunately, endorsed and signed off on by Governor Sununu. Traditionally, regardless of the political party in control, controversial items like those above would go through the normal legislative process, not simply hitch a ride on the back of a two-year state budget. But these aren’t normal times and this isn’t your normal Republican party – it just isn’t.

Fiscally, the Republican budget takes us back in time – decades. Over 1/4th of our communities will receive an actual cut in K-12 education funding, child protection staffing is slashed, putting vulnerable children in the cross hairs of abuse and neglect, private prep schools and religious schools get your tax dollars, and additional pension costs are further downshifted from the state onto all communities. At the same time, the tax on corporate dividends payouts to corporate stockholders is eliminated, and there’s a tax giveaway to large out-of-state corporations that should be paying their fair share to New Hampshire. Factually, the wealthiest one percent and the large out-of-state corporations make off like bandits, and, to be very clear, they are the very same folks who also fund all of those phony campaign ads. Meanwhile, our local property taxpayers and small businesses right here in New Hampshire are left holding the bag, literally. It’s just not right. And, it’s really bad economics.

In the 2022 election, the citizens of New Hampshire will vote on which political party at the state level is better at avoiding extremism in state budgeting, better stewards of your tax dollars and better at propelling New Hampshire’s economy. At this point, there really isn’t much of a debate: vote Democrat at the state level in 2022.

Mary Jane Wallner and Dan Feltes were lead budget writers of the two-year state budget ending June 30, 2021. During the crafting of that budget, Mary Jane served as Chair of the House Finance committee and Dan served as Majority Leader of the Senate, Chair of the Senate Ways and Means committee, and Vice Chair of the Senate Finance committee.