The Portsmouth Herald argues that government spending has been rising without sufficient thought into the consequences.

Ideologies aside, the federal government has not taken the position that you control spending during tough economies; it has the opposite view. However, the federal government can, and often does, operate with an imbalanced budget. While accounting gimmicks and many other sources of tax revenue exist for the state governments of Maine and New Hampshire, they must have balanced budgets.

When you get down to the city and town level, budgets must be balanced and there are far fewer options of taxation. The primary revenue source is property taxes and increases in them are painfully apparent, especially for those with fixed and low to moderate incomes.