Recently in Sensible Spending -State Category
Note from the MCA: At the 11/13/2008 Selectmen meeting, Ed Charest reported on a session he attended at the recent NH Local Government Center annual conference about the economy and how it impacts NH. Mr. Charest indicated that NH overall was one of four states that probably will weather the recession far better than the other 46 states. Hmmm... We respectfully disagree. There are many indicators in this state that point to very serious problems, such as 17% of NH single family homes having negative equity. As Betsey Patten state in the article "We all have to do some belt-tightening and take a deep breath." Read on below....
By DAN TUOHY
Thursday, Nov. 13, 2008
Brian J. Gottlob, of the Dover-based PolEcon Research, said towns and cities may see greater property tax delinquencies and a choke-hold on many smaller revenue sources, such as new car registrations. Towns and cities can better cope with the downturn than state government, but Gottlob said local leaders may not think so come budget season and its prickly political decisions.
"You'll probably suffer more of the angst," he said at the
Gottlob discussed the housing market,
The conference, "Local Government: Challenging Times, Creative Solutions," continues today and tomorrow at the Radisson Hotel Manchester. More than 650 municipal, school and county officials from around the state are attending. Topics include finance, land use, pension reform, and healthy, safe and secure school environments.
Local government officials are keenly aware of the challenges, said state Rep. Betsey Patten, R-Moultonborough, after listening to Gottlob's presentation. She sits on the House Municipal and County Government Committee and serves on her town's board of selectmen.
One of the first priorities, she said, is working to ensure the state does not shift any financial burdens to counties.
"We all have to do some belt-tightening and take a deep breath," Patten said.
While Gottlob says local government should not expect any help from the state, he anticipates the state looking to the federal government for financial assistance. Such a stimulus package for the states, now under discussion on Capitol Hill, could give
Gottlob expects six more months of declining state revenues, with a turnaround starting possibly in late spring of 2009.
Though he expressed an optimism about
Business access to bank credit has been hampered in
New unemployment claims are approaching levels of the last two recessions, and there appears to be no slowing in terms of home mortgage foreclosures in
He said 17 percent of
Compared to other states, there is not an especially high concentration of high-risk loans in
On the bright side, Gottlob said
"We're really on a precipice now," he said.
The Citizen Ocotber 29, 2008
By GAIL OBER
gober@citizen.com
As the national economy worsens, area economists and statisticians are keeping an eye on residential sales as an indicator of the overall health on
Countywide, recently released third quarter statistics show residential real estate sales in
According to information provided by the New Hampshire Association of Realtors indicated the number of sales dropped from 225 in the third quarter of 2007 to 177 in the third quarter for this year. On a positive note, the values of those third quarter
"There is some seasonality or certain sales that are associated with lakefront property in September," said New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority Housing Research Director Dan Smith who said the summer buying season generally ends in September, and he was not surprised that the overall values for Belknap County were higher than the rest of the state.
As to the number of sales, local economist Russ Thibeault of Applied Economic Research said he thinks many people are giving second thoughts to second-home purchases and he is not surprised to see the number of sales lower than last year even though value appears to be holding it own.
What concerns both Smith and Thibeault is the rising number of foreclosures.
Smith said the number foreclosures in the state could reach 3,500 — a 70 percent increase over last year. In
"Remember," said Smith. "There is a negative effect of foreclosure on property taxes."
He said when a property goes into foreclosure, somebody still owns it, so property taxes will be paid and are often recoverable from the next purchaser, but revenue streams can slow.
As to declining values, an overall declining value means a higher tax rate to maintain constant spending — as in the 9 cent jump in
Smith said he does not expect
The state, he said, has a much larger issue.
"When sales are off by 20 percent, as they have been the past three years, it represents a significant hit to the state for its revenue," said Smith.
WMUR recently reported the state's projected revenue for fiscal year 2009 could be as much as $250 million short. Gov. John Lynch has already trimmed $90 million from the state budget, but legislators may be forced to eliminate an additional $160 million in spending before June 2009.
By LAUREN R. DORGAN
Monitor staff
Concord Monitor June 18th, 2008
Lawmakers shrunk
The plan chops the budget of a statewide cancer-screening program to $500,000 from $4 million, requires the University System of New Hampshire to save $2.5 million and slices wiggle room from the Department of Education's catastrophic aid program for the 2008-09 school year.
The latest cuts, for fiscal 2009, emerged from a series of sessions in which Lynch met with department heads as a group to discuss what they came to call the "pain thresholds" of three levels of trims. Almost every state agency chipped into the bottom line, from $14.8 million from the Department of Health and Human Services, the biggest agency, to $1,000 from the state's Cosmetology and Barbers Board.
"We've had to make some tough choices," Lynch told legislators on the state's fiscal committee, saying that one of his chief aims was "protecting services to our most vulnerable citizens."
Some of those choices meant gutting the funding for programs Democrats touted last year...
June 5th, 2008
From: NH House Highlights
By Pamela Price
Our society is one of rules and laws which guide our existence within this democracy. Our government operates by rules, procedure, and tradition. The NH House is no exception. Last evening the House met in special session until late in the evening. All the rules and process which have long guided the way we do business were changed by a vote of the Democratic majority.......
Letter to the Editor
Weirs Times June 12th, 1008
To The Editor: Citizens of
By Norma Love
Associated Press Writer
The Citizen June 5th 2008
But lawmakers did not fix two key long-term problems: how to fund future cost-of-living increases and how to help all public retirees with health insurance. Instead, they voted to establish commissions to study long-term solutions to both issues.
"This is the second year of what I believe is a five-year effort to restore the strength of our retirement system," said Sen. Peter Burling. The Senate passed the bill 23-0.
Some in the House were less happy with the compromise, but the House voted 303-27 to pass it.
"We failed you. We failed you badly. .....
"HB 1645 is arguably the most important piece of legislation to affect
Editorial The Citizen June 1st, 2008
Taxpayers in cities and towns are at risk
So near, yet so far.
Negotiators deadlocked Saturday morning in an attempt to overhaul the New Hampshire Retirement System. The major sticking point in the dispute is a House of Representatives provision in HB 1645 calling for a cap on pensions for employees hired after July 1, 2009, at 100 percent of their highest year of pay. It is something the unions — particularly the police and firefighters unions — object to. Their argument is it would hurt recruitment and retention would be made more difficult because they work overtime to boost their retirements benefits — retirement for which they become eligible at age 45.
Recruitment and retention is a management function unless otherwise ceded in contract negotiations. The argument of unions to the contrary are at best lame,.......
Union Leader May 25th, 2008
GOV. JOHN LYNCH was supposed to be a kinder, gentler Craig Benson. He'd be the millionaire former business executive who balanced the state budget without raising taxes, but also without angering state employees by slashing jobs or upsetting the apple cart too much. Oops. During four years in office, Gov. Lynch has shown that he has no interest in cutting taxes, but lots of interest in raising them to pay for increased state spending.The governor cannot hide behind the excuse that he had to raise taxes because the economy is bad. He raised taxes his first year in office -- when the state budget was in surplus. In 2005, he proposed and got a 28-cents per pack cigarette tax increase. Last year, he got another 28-cents increase. This year he proposed a 25-cents per pack hike. That's three cigarette tax hikes in four years.Last year the governor proposed -- and got -- tax increases totaling more than $100 million. They helped pay for the largest general fund budget increase in 20 years -- 17.5 percent. Unfortunately, they didn't pay for all of it. ....
