(CONCORD) The Department of Resources and Economic Development will ask the Legislative Fiscal Committee tomorrow to increase fees for the New Hampshire Park System. The proposal, submitted by Parks Director Ted Austin and DRED Commissioner George Bald, would raise nearly $133,000 for the Park Fund. Nearly half of that revenue would come from increased parking meters on Hampton Beach.

By Charles M. Arlinghaus
From the print edition of the Union Leader

The governor and the legislature are sending mixed signals on the possible repeal of the controversial LLC tax. The governor has said he is working on a plan to repeal the tax but we haven’t heard about any details of the negotiations with legislative leadership. Complicating matters, the House leadership today is planning on rejecting a bill to do precisely what the governor says he and the leadership want to do.

(CONCORD) New Hampshire’s Unemployment Trust Fund is out of money. Employment Security Commissioner Tara Reardon says that the fund reached a zero balance yesterday. In an exclusive interview with New Hampshire Watchdog, Reardon says the state expects to receive a $50 million no-interest loan from the federal Department of Labor within a week, in order to pay benefits to the 35,000 Granite Staters currently receiving unemployment.

(CONCORD) The New Hampshire Senate has approved a bill that would require state officials to post online any payments made by state government. The bill, SB 359, cleared the full Senate on a voice vote yesterday, and now heads to the Senate Finance Committee for a review of its potential cost.

By Charles M. Arlinghaus
From the print edition of the Union Leader

The current legislature and governor are pushing us to establish a new government agency to control hospitals by setting prices and overseeing hospital management. Similar bureaucracies have been abandoned in more than thirty states that tried them. That model cannot be replicated here without spending more than $100 million that we don’t have.

Guest Post by State Representatives DJ Bettencourt and Carolyn Webber

In last Sunday’s Eagle-Tribune article: DOT commissioner committed to I-93 toll, New Hampshire Transportation Commissioner George Campbell reiterated his support for installing toll booths on Interstate 93 in Salem and his intention to continue the authorization application process with the federal government. While his sentiments are not new, they were his most explicit. In response to this story we have received hundreds of inquiries and concerns from the public. Many are rightly outraged and bewildered as to why their communities along the I-93 corridor, which represents a Golden Goose of revenue production for New Hampshire, would be subjected to this burden.

By Charles M. Arlinghaus
From the print edition of the Union Leader

If Washington’s health care fiasco isn’t bad enough, Sen. Maggie Hassan wants to create a new state agency to set and control hospital prices and manage health care. The new Health Services Cost Review Commission is based on the belief that the secret to better, more cost efficient management is to create a new government agency.

(CONCORD) Congressman Thaddeus McCotter calls next week’s White House meeting on health care reform “an infomercial for government run health care” and a “fraud upon the American public”. But he says if President Obama is really interested in talking to Republicans about fixing the nation’s health care system, his party has plenty of ideas. The six-term Michigan Republican is stumping across New Hampshire this weekend to try to help his party retake the Granite State’s two Congressional seats currently held by Democratic incumbents; both considered up for grabs in November.

By CHARLES M. ARLINGHAUS
In the Print Edition of the Union Leader

With the state budget in crisis, the governor has announced he intends to cut the state budget in every department and use his management team to achieve the cuts. This is the first step in a long process but it’s the right step and the right approach.

BY CHARLES M. ARLINGHAUS
From the print edition of the Union Leader

Each week that goes by brings us a fresh piece of bad budget news, another
foolish act of the legislature – this past week’s was bipartisan – and no
evidence of movement toward a solution.

Without question, the current two-year budget is out of balance. Tax
revenues are coming in well below the amount budgeted for. The state lost a
lawsuit, spent a federal grant last year that was in the budget for this
year, and faces much higher costs in eligibility-based programs than the
budget assumed.