“Senate Education Funding Plan is Nightmare for New Hampshire ”

Yesterday on a party line vote of 14-10, the State Senate Democrats defied the position of their governor by passing an education funding plan totaling nearly $1 Billion.  This plan calls for the creation of new donor towns, reduces money to several working class towns such as Derry and Keene , and binds the hands of future legislatures, a practice that the General Court tradition rarely allows.

“This is the most egregious and poorly thought out education funding plan I have seen in all my years in the Legislature,” said Deputy Republican Leader, Rep. David Hess (Hooksett).  “This plan spends $100 million more than the state has in its coffers, spends an additional $20 million for state mandated kindergarten but still doesn’t fully fund construction cost, and worst of all brings back donor towns, far in excess of the amount that ever existed before at 37 towns with an additional cost of $15 million funded on the backs of those taxpayers.”

SB 539 would take effect for the 2009-2010 school year, well into the next biennial budget, leaving this Democrat controlled legislature free to campaign that they fixed education funding, meanwhile putting the next legislature into a frenzy over how to raise the money to pay for the plan.  

“This is an irresponsible plan and an absurd patchwork of one bill trying to correct a mistake on top of another mistake.  Communities that cannot afford to lose money are still losing money, wealthier communities still get more money and the disparity among our towns is ripe for the continued presence of lawsuits,” concluded Hess.

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