Sensible Spending -State: May 2008 Archives
Union Leader May 25th, 2008
GOV. JOHN LYNCH was supposed to be a kinder, gentler Craig Benson. He'd be the millionaire former business executive who balanced the state budget without raising taxes, but also without angering state employees by slashing jobs or upsetting the apple cart too much. Oops. During four years in office, Gov. Lynch has shown that he has no interest in cutting taxes, but lots of interest in raising them to pay for increased state spending.The governor cannot hide behind the excuse that he had to raise taxes because the economy is bad. He raised taxes his first year in office -- when the state budget was in surplus. In 2005, he proposed and got a 28-cents per pack cigarette tax increase. Last year, he got another 28-cents increase. This year he proposed a 25-cents per pack hike. That's three cigarette tax hikes in four years.Last year the governor proposed -- and got -- tax increases totaling more than $100 million. They helped pay for the largest general fund budget increase in 20 years -- 17.5 percent. Unfortunately, they didn't pay for all of it. ....
