By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org
CONCORD – A large gathering of Democrats came to the State House lawn Wednesday, the day before the House of Representatives is expected to vote on a Republican-led, two-year budget for the state with leaders saying they will fight for a “Better Budget” on Thursday.
State Rep. Alexis Simpson, D-Exeter, the House minority leader, said Republicans claim they had no choice with this budget than to cut programs and services.
She said they argue that they “had to” eliminate the arts, services for the most vulnerable including children, reproductive health care and funding for university system and “fired hard working people across state government.”
“Let me be clear, every action that Republicans took in writing this budget was a choice. It was a choice to cover up years of poor decisions and a choice to double down on a regressive strategy of cutting costs for the ultra wealthy at the expense of everyone else,” she said.
Simpson said this budget contains new insurance premiums for children on Medicaid and for Granite Staters in New Hampshire’s Medicaid expansion program.
She said these are people with incomes under $20,000 a year who can barely afford to make ends meet who will now be forced to fork over five percent of their income to keep health care.
And this comes at a time when Republicans are willing to spend $32 million to remove the income gap on private school vouchers, she said, which had the crowd shouting “Shame! Shame! Shame!”
“So yes, if this Republican budget were to become law, a single mom whose children are on Medicaid would have to start paying a new income tax just to keep health care for her children while an executive with a million dollar salary who sends his kid to private school will simply ask his accountant to secure the $10,000 in new taxpayer subsidies that he is eligible for,” Simpson said.
Gov. Kelly Ayotte, a Republican, while talking to the press minutes after the rally, said the idea that this insurance premium is a new tax for people is absurd and it is really a co-pay that many employers ask their employees to share with them in terms of costs.
Simpson said there will be a “better budget amendment” offered on Thursday when the House votes which would put the state on a path to succeed.
“By investing in our state’s economic drivers, by rolling back the expansion of vouchers, and reversing the GOP’s inexplicable decision to reduce the state’s share of casino revenue, the better budget restores funding to programs across state governments without adding or increasing a single tax,” Simpson said.
She added restoration of funding to the University system, restoring funding for the arts and cuts to tourism development, restoring the office of the child advocate and keeping 100 employees at the department of corrections whose positions would be eliminated under the GOP plan.