Rep Sherman Packard's Letter

Packard op-ed:


I often hear the adage that if you are in the habit of spreading misinformation, you ultimately begin to believe it. Such is the case with Terie Norelli’s recent column about NH faring well under Democrats. I think it’s about time that Democrats in Concord started telling the truth to the voters of New Hampshire; but since they refuse to, I’ll take a shot. Speaker Norelli talked about working to create and protect jobs. I wonder why it is then, that over the course of her term as Speaker, through two budget cycles and other pieces of legislation, over 100 taxes and fees were either created or increased. This included a job-killing LLC Income Tax that directly hurt small businesses across the state. Yes, after months of public outrage and polls, the Democrats finally opted to repeal the tax; but if they cared about the small business owners, like me, wouldn’t they have shelved the idea of the tax when it was first brought up? Speaker Norelli talks about stimulus dollars rolling into the state, most of which is one time money that she ordered to be used to ‘balance’ the out of control budgets she has forced upon the taxpayers. And the stimulus dollars that were supposed to create jobs? According to news reports, 776 were created and possibly more in New Hampshire’s 00 and 6th Congressional districts (neither of which actually exist). Speaking of which, let’s set the record straight on the budget. According to the non-partisan Legislative Budget Assistant’s information sheets, in her first term as Speaker, Norelli increased state general fund spending by 17.5%. State general funds are dollars that are raised directly by the taxes we pay and are spent on state programs, and the fact that in less than one year in power, and when the economy was beginning to freefall she’d increased state program spending by over 17% is nearly criminally negligent. The current budget wasn’t much better, Norelli and her finance team advocated stealing private money from doctors, increased more taxes and fees and still increased general fund spending, at a time when nearly every state in the country cut spending by an average of 2%. At the end of the session, after ridiculing Republicans for a year when we suggested cutting state spending, they acquiesced to Governor Lynch who woke up and realized we needed to cut. I genuinely chuckled when I read that Norelli had balanced the budget that maintained aid to cities and towns. Here’s the truth, not only did Democrats suspend revenue aid to cities and towns, they stole money from rooms and meals revenue sharing with cities and towns as well. We were fortunate early this year to convince enough Democrats in the House to restore $5 million to cities and towns in rooms and meals revenues, but it was scuttled by Democrats in the Senate. If Speaker Norelli thinks that education funding is solved, she must have a vat of cool-aid nearby as she brought back donor towns and the likelihood of further funding lawsuits against our state. And the pension fund she mentions? Well, it’s over a billion dollars in the red, and when Republicans and many Democrats tried to work to reform the system, the unions threatened and Norelli and her party backed down. I have tried to set some of the record straight regarding what Terie Norelli and her party have done in Concord since they came to power in 2006 but the simplest way to put it to New Hampshire voters is this: since Terie Norelli and the Democrats took control in Concord four years ago, has your life been better? Have you seen a raise in your paycheck of 17.5%? Are you happy with a projected half billion dollar deficit the state faces because of irresponsible budgeting? Are you happy that your property taxes will go up because the state downshifted costs to your cities, towns and school districts? Are you feeling safe in the state’s economic climate? If you answered no to any of those questions, I think you need to remember your answer on November 2.



Rep. Sherman Packard

House Republican Leader