CONCORD – Today Deputy House Republican Leader and member of the House Ways & Means Committee, David Hess (R-Hooksett), offered the following comments relative to Governor Hassan’s claim that business tax reforms passed during the previous legislative term, “are having a negative impact on the state’s budget.”
Deputy House Republican Leader David Hess (R-Hooksett)
“Not even the Department of Revenue Administration is ready to attribute any change in business tax or interest and dividends tax revenue to any one or particular set of causes at this time. During several meetings in the month of August, DRA officials said it is currently impossible to tell if any prior legislative changes will have any effect on our overall fiscal balance.”
“The Governor has a solution in search of a problem. Her solution is to potentially make our business tax climate less favorable than it already is, or rely on revenue from a non-existent casino when a casino is not something we could even realistically propose for this budget cycle. This is not how to encourage long term economic growth, or responsibly address what experts suggest may be a temporary revenue anomaly.”
“What we can address immediately is state spending. Until we have an more accurate picture of how our state agencies are managing the resources we’ve allocated to them, I think hitting the panic button on revenue is premature.”