The Truth About New Hampshire Governor’s Deceptive New Budget

  This editorial from the New Hampshire Union Leader calls Governor Lynch’s latest budget a “shell game that amounts to inter-generational theft.” Harsh words to be sure but the editorial then goes into just what a shifty man Governor Lynch has become with his budget, from the editorial:

Gov. Lynch claims he cut general fund spending by $40 million. But that’s not exactly true. What he really did was some creative accounting. For example, he “relabeled” the State Liquor Commission budget so that it is no longer called general fund spending. This is not a cut; it is a name change. He is going to increase the agency’s spending from $71 million to $91 million. But with a little creative accounting, a $20 million spending increase instead looks like a $71 million spending decrease.

Gov. Lynch also proposes bonding $83 million in school building aid — money that used to be part of yearly general fund operating costs. The program isn’t going away. The state will still send $83 million to communities for building aid. But with another sweep of Lynch’s magical budget wand — poof — “level funding” an existing program looks like an $83 million spending cut. The reality is that the aid dollars were put on a “credit card” that our grandchildren will end up paying.

Here’s another creative way to make it appear that you’re cutting state spending — announcing a state agency reorganization. However, is there an actual plan to do this? And if so, where is it? And can a plan of this magnitude really be implemented over the next two years? How much could we actually save if there was a plan that could be implemented over the next two years? Who knows? Yet Gov. Lynch’s budget includes a $28 million cut in general fund spending due to reorganization. This is not a way to reduce our obligation going forward and demonstrates a worrisome pattern.

  The governor also wants to steal money from a private group and use it to balance the state government. You read that right, he wants to take money from a private group and use it for the state government.

 Lynch wants to take money that belongs to the New Hampshire Medical Malpractice Joint Underwriting Association and use it to balance the state budget. Remember, this is not government money and never has been. It is money that was paid by doctors and health care facilities to private insurance companies to help keep their malpractice premiums low, and it also helps retain and attract physicians and nurses. The money belongs to them.

  While Governor Lynch is claiming to make budget cuts we can clearly see here that he is using accounting gimmicks to make it appear as though he is cutting spending. He is increasing spending, he still hasn’t learned his lesson. He spent New Hampshire into this budget crisis with his unsupportable budget of two years ago with its 17.5% increase in spending. He was warned that his revenue projections were overinflated and he didn’t care, he spent anyway. These budget gimmicks are beyond deceptive, they are downright dishonest.

Mine, mine, mine, all mine

He is being dishonest with the voters of New Hampshire. He is not cutting the budget, this new budget actually ADDS $1.2 billion in spending over the next two years and amounts to an 11% increase over the last budget. He just doesn’t get it. He can’t help himself, he sees our money and he just has to take it. He thinks that he can spend it better than we can.

  Yet his approval ratings remain high, people just don’t seem to be paying attention to what this man is doing to our state. Massachusetts residents are beginning to wake up to the fallacy of  their governor, it is about time for New Hampshire residents wake up to the fallacy of ours.