Why New Hampshire is indebted to Senator Charles Morse

Charles Morse, R-Salem, deserves high praise, not only across his Senate District, but across all of New Hampshire. Because of his efforts and leadership as the Finance Chairman of the New Hampshire Senate, we have a budget we can be proud of. It is a budget that raises zero taxes or fees. It is a budget based on reasonable revenue estimates, a budget that lives within its means, and a budget that takes care of our most vulnerable citizens.

This budget, crafted by Senator Morse, has received praise across the political spectrum. With broad bipartisan support, it unanimously passed the New Hampshire Senate, and had a wide margin of victory in the New Hampshire House, with just a few dissenters. The Morse budget requires strong leadership and management in order to keep it on the straight and narrow, and I hope for New Hampshire’s sake that Governor Hassan is able to manage this biennial budget.

When election time comes again in a year and a half, remember the strong leadership Senator Morse delivered for the State of New Hampshire. Remember the investments made by the Morse budget in our State’s future, and I pray you remember that any economic progress made in the next two years are not due to Governor Hassan’s efforts. They will be due nearly entirely to the Morse Budget, and all Granite Staters are indebted to Senator Charles Morse for his leadership and management work in delivering this great pathway for New Hampshire’s prosperity.

Representative Joe Sweeney
Rockingham District 08

NH State Budget Deal Reached

House and Senate budget negotiators reached a deal early Thursday morning - around 3:30am - and returned later Thursday to put the finishing stamp of approval on it.

The result? The House Democrats caved on nearly every one of the Senate Republican priorities.

More detail to follow soon.

It’s time to fisk Kelly Ayotte’s lame Gang of 8 Op-Ed

On Sunday, our otherwise admirable U.S. Senator Kelly Ayotte announced her support for the Gang of 8′s immigration bill, which provides for immediate legalization of illegal aliens in exchange for a promise of increased border security, on Face the Nation.  She followed it up with an op-ed explaining her position.

Nobody here is calling Kelly Ayotte a RINO, so spare us the indignance.  But let’s take a close look at what she has openly embraced as her position.  All emphasis is mine.

Everybody agrees that America’s immigration system is broken, threatening our security and holding back our economy. The combination of porous borders and lax enforcement has made us a magnet for illegal immigration.

If everybody agrees our immigration system is broken because of porous borders and lax enforcement, then why is the bill’s immediate priority the legalization of current illegal immigrants?  Wouldn’t the priority be border security and enforcing the current laws, ie, fixing the porous borders and lax enforcement? (more…)

Democrat messaging blunder: Whether the Governor has authority to expand Medicaid without legislative approval

This week’s Democrat messaging blunder: Whether the Governor has authority to implement Medicaid Expansion without legislative approval.

On Monday, Speaker Norelli and Sen. Larsen held a press conference outlining their objections to the Senate budget proposal. In response to a question from a reporter, Sen. Larsen gave a surprisingly candid response on Medicaid Expansion, which Speaker Norelli then backed up.

From NHPR:

… Senator Larsen and Speaker Norelli say they support exploring whether [Medicaid] expansion can take place even if the Senate opposes it.

LARSEN: “I believe the Governor’s staff is looking at it. I hope the attorney general’s office is looking at it.

NORELLI: “I also have my legal counsel looking at it as well.’

The Senate’s top budget-writer, Republican Chuck Morse of Salem says he doesn’t think the Governor has authority to expand Medicaid without legislative approval.

A spokesman for Governor Hassan says it “appears” the legislature would need to approve Medicaid expansion.

A similar story ran int the Concord Monitor entitled, “Top Democrats say it’s possible Hassan could expand Medicaid without Legislature’s okay.”

By Tuesday it was pretty clear Speaker Norelli and Sen. Larsen had gone way off message, when the Governor at a press conference offered the same concession as her spokesman, that the legislature “appears” to have a role.

From the Union Leader:

Gov. Maggie Hassan said Tuesday that Medicaid expansion “appears to need legislative approval” to proceed…

So just to review, here is what happened:

• Top Democratic legislative leaders show their hand by indicating the Governor, her staff and House Counsel are looking into how to bypass the legislature to implement parts of Obamacare.
• In the same story, and in other publications’ accounts of the press conference, the Governor’s comms director had to walk back those comments.
• The next day, the Governor herself had to verbally concede that legislative approval is needed.

Oops.

By the way, is anyone else wondering why Speaker Norelli is using “part-time, $70,000 salary” House Counsel Paul Twomey to figure out ways to bypass her own legislature?

In the end, at least we have everyone on the record now as saying that legislative approval is needed… at least it “appears”.

Thank you, Sen. Morse & Senate Republicans

The Senate Finance committee yesterday did what Gov. Hassan and House Democrats said was impossible: produce a balanced budget with no new taxes that increases funding to important education and health programs.

Here is the Senate’s press release following yesterday’s committee vote. The full Senate will vote on the budget proposal next week.

Senate Finance Committee Wraps Up Budget

$10.7B spending package for FY14-FY15 lower than House and Governor

Morse calls it a balanced budget that invests in education and critical services without raising taxes 

CONCORD, NH — After eight weeks of presentations and debate, the Senate Finance Committee wrapped up its discussion of the state budget today, voting to pass a $10.7 billion spending package for the next biennium.  The Senate’s version comes in some $400 million less than Governor Hassan’s proposed budget and $300 million less than the plan passed by the House without any reliance on increased taxes. The full Senate is scheduled to vote on the measure June 6^th.

Finance Chairman Chuck Morse, R-Salem, commended his fellow committee members for their hard work and willingness to compromise. “In the end, we found a way to build a budget for the next two years that is balanced and invests in education and critical services without raising taxes or fees,” he said.  “Overall, the Senate Finance Committee’s budget makes significant improvements over earlier versions submitted by the governor and passed by the Democratically-controlled House, including lower total and general fund spending, the use of realistic revenue estimates, and the removal of a number of unnecessary proposed programs.”

Other highlights regarding the Senate budget include:

• Revenues: The Senate budget relies on realistic revenue estimates that recognize an increase in business taxes over the House based on recent strong returns in the BPT and BET, but are more conservative in other traditional revenue categories, including a reduction of more than $100 million from expected Medicaid Enhancement Tax (MET) revenues.

• No Tax Increases: Senate budget writers removed the 12-cent gas tax and 20-cent tobacco tax passed by the House as well as House-passed tax increases on salt-water fishing and marriage licenses.

• Education: The Senate budget increases the combined general fund appropriation to the University and Community College Systems by over $100 million in addition to directing a total of $24.5 million to fully fund the UNIQUE Scholarship program.  The budget also increases adequate education grants to cities and towns by nearly $4 million over the biennium, removes the moratorium on new charter schools and provides funding for four new charter schools and stops efforts to repeal the School Choice Scholarship Program.

• HHS: The Senate budget provides nearly $24 million more to the department than was appropriated by the House.  This includes full funding for the DD waitlist,  restoration of the breast and cervical cancer screening and prevention program, and a significant increase in payments to county nursing homes.  In addition, the Senate maintained the House’s level of funding for the CHINS program, domestic violence prevention and mental health services.

• Uncompensated Care: After realizing honest MET revenues, the Senate increased funding for the state’s uncompensated care program by $20 million over the House’s budget to ensure both critical access hospitals as well as the state’s larger hospitals receive reimbursement for a portion of the uncompensated care they provide.

• Expanded Medicaid:  The Senate budget removes provisions expanding Medicaid in New Hampshire opting instead to study the long-term costs of expansion via a bipartisan commission.  The commission is charged with issuing a report by next December on a wide range of issues including the use of private insurers to cover New Hampshire residents and the impact expansion will have on taxpayers, patients, and providers.

• Dedicated Funds: The Senate budget removes provisions requested by the governor that would have granted her significant authority to raid dedicated funds to fill potential budget shortfalls.  The Senate also ended the governor’s planned raid of the Land and Community Heritage Investment Program (LCHIP) fund, allowing the full $8.5 million raised by the program to be spent on conservation as intended by law.
• No New Programs: The Senate took steps to invigorate the economy by continuing business tax reductions and incentives rather than repealing them and proposing new programs that grow government.  Budget writers believe strongly that the first priority should be funding the level of government we currently have before creating any new programs.