VIEWPOINT: State budget fails to prioritize compassion, well-being, and justice

A state budget is a moral document. It reflects who we are as Granite Staters by showing what kind of community we want to live in, what we value, what we don’t care about.

Tragically, the latest state budget continues a long tradition of failing to represent the values of compassion, well-being and justice. On June 26, with a combination of party-line votes in the Senate and the narrowest of margins in the House, the Legislature passed the budget bills and Gov. Kelly Ayotte quickly signed them.

A moral budget should be equitable and inclusive, compassionate and human-centered. Instead, this budget ignores the needs of our most-vulnerable neighbors in order to give significant tax relief to the richest among us, and enacts harmful and regressive policies based on extremist ideologies.

The state has already given the ultra-rich yet another break with the elimination of the interest and dividends tax, a loss of $180 million in revenue that will further contribute to the narrative of ‘scarcity’ that is used to justify drastic cuts to human needs programs.

On behalf of NH Voices of Faith, a statewide network of pastors and people of faith and moral conscience, we mourn that yet another state budget fails to deliver adequate funding for food and housing security, medical and mental health care, access to education and strong public schools, child safety, environmental protection and fair settlements for victims of horrific abuse at the Youth Development Center.

Food – The budget passed by the Legislature fails to prioritize feeding New Hampshire children. It refuses to fund free breakfast and lunch for all children in public school despite overwhelming evidence that well-nourished children learn better than hungry children. It cuts the WIC Farmers Market Program which doubles consumers’ purchasing power to buy fresh produce at farmers’ markets, harming local farmers and hungry families.

Housing – With a 90,000-unit housing shortage in New Hampshire and with homelessness soaring, the budget adds zero dollars for new affordable housing and eliminates existing programs that help build more homes. Renters face housing insecurity resulting from passage of a bill allowing landlords to evict tenants at the end of a lease term without any just cause.

Health and human services – The budget imposes work requirements and premiums on households receiving Medicaid, making health care unaffordable for the poorest of our children and people with disabilities. The majority of seniors in nursing homes receive Medicaid. This is a cruel slap at our most vulnerable population.

The budget also imposes a $51 million “back of the budget” cut on the Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS), requiring the department to “find” $51 million in savings without directing DHHS how to do so.

Cuts to mental health services will mean more distress for people with mental illness and their families. They are more likely to have behavioral problems in schools and run-ins with law enforcement, or lash out when distressed causing them to be blamed for their behavior.

Cuts to reproductive health services like Planned Parenthood mean that some people without insurance will have no access to any health care.

Education – For over 30 years, the state has avoided developing a workable system to pay for the adequate education that is guaranteed by the state Constitution. Instead, the Legislature has approved universal vouchers, a costly outlay of public dollars without requirements or accountability, for any household regardless of income. Ninety percent of the students using EFAs are already attending private or religious schools or being home-schooled. They will not be reducing the number of public school students, but the drain on the Educational Trust Fund will put more pressure on local school budgets, and in turn, increase property taxes.

Cuts to promoting tourism, so important to New Hampshire’s economy, will lead to reduced revenue from meals and rental taxes, which is shared with municipalities. Towns and cities will find it harder to balance their budgets and be forced to make drastic cuts or raise property taxes. Reduced tourism will affect small and large businesses statewide.

This state budget will hurt everyone. But the unequal impact of the budget will impose greater suffering on the have-nots even as it provides the most benefit to the well-off. This will exacerbate the growing income and wealth inequality gap in New Hampshire.

As people of faith, we believe that government should uplift all people and address the needs of the least among us. As people of faith, we believe that where there is any injustice, where there is any harm, all of us are affected. As people of faith, we believe that we should have enough empathy to feel our neighbor’s distress and work to relieve their suffering.

Claudia Istel is a retired NH public high school teacher and currently an adjunct in the Community College System of New Hampshire. She resides in Acworth. Ken Barnes is a retired civil rights attorney. He lives in Contoocook.