Last week the Governor talked to members of the press about the ongoing budget negotiations and to hear the governor tell it, there really isn’t even a need for him to be in the room. During the interview the governor said, “it is really the House Democrats and Senate Democrats that have to come to an agreement in terms of how to spend those dollars and I am giving them all the leeway in the world to make that decision” and “they just need to work it out amongst themselves.” Talk about an absence of leadership.
We should be very clear about the governors first point. Democrats in the House and Senate have already come together in a budget agreement. The House and Senate met the last week of June and found compromise. In addition to finding compromise with each other we also worked to remove some of the governor’s biggest objections. We removed a paid family medical leave plan from the budget and eliminated the closing of the capital gains loophole to pay for education. Those two pieces represented two of the biggest priorities for the Senate and House, respectively. The governor decided that these concessions were not enough and that he wanted his continued tax breaks for large, out of state corporations, so he vetoed the budget. Since then, radio silence.
In 2015, when then Governor Maggie Hassan vetoed the budget, she came back to the legislature with a compromise by the last week of July. It is now the end of August and we have still seen no concrete plans from Governor Sununu. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised. As you may have heard the governor has vetoed a record 53 bills (as of my writing this) so far this year. The previous record was 15. Before a bill becomes law, it goes through an extensive process that takes months and provides ample time for input. The only bills the governor had any comment on during the process were HB 1 and HB 2 which are the bills that make up the budget. For the other 51 bills he vetoed he sat on the sideline declining to do any work to try to make these bills better (in his view), instead vetoing more than 4 times as many bills as any governor before him. This problem isn’t necessarily new with Democratic majorities in the legislature, either. Previous Republican Speakers of the House complained over their terms that Governor Sununu planned to veto legislation that he had expressed no problems with. It seems rather than do proactive work the governor is just looking for the easy way out.
The governor must take responsibility for his budget veto and step up to the negotiating table. The budget he vetoed provided unprecedented property tax relief for Granite Staters. It addressed education, the opioid crises, the Division of Children, Youth and Families and so much more. Every day New Hampshire goes without a budget is another day that Granite Staters needlessly struggle. If the governor was serious about addressing any of these issues he would come to the table in earnest, ready to work.
We are well past the time of looking for the easy way out.
Marjorie Porter represents the towns of Antrim, Hillsborough, and Windsor and serves as Deputy Majority Leader in the House.