Sixty Million Cut From New Hampshire Budget

By Jim on November 22nd, 2008

But why are they leaving $89 million in the “rainy day” fund? I personally hate these “rainy day funds.” If there’s extra money the state should return it to the taxpayers not leave it sitting in some account somewhere.

Lawmakers chopped almost $60 million from the state’s budget yesterday, with wide-ranging cuts hitting school building aid, environmental programs and hospital reimbursements. The cuts stripped back many of the new programs lawmakers cited as accomplishments when they passed the budget in 2007, including a cancer screening program and conservation grants.

But yesterday’s trims, proposed by Gov. John Lynch and quickly approved by the legislative Fiscal Committee, will not close the state’s predicted budget shortfall for the fiscal year 2009, which ends in June. All told, state revenues are expected to fall $250 million short of original expectations, and yesterday’s cuts combined with previous efforts to trim spending and increase revenue will leave a $95 million deficit to close. The original two-year budget for 2008-2009 totaled $10.3 billion.

I like the fact that they are cutting newspaper and magazine subscriptions. Why on earth would any state agency need to get newspapers or magazines? All of that stuff is usually available free on the web. So if somebody at a state agency needs information let them pull up their browser and look it up via Google. Those newspaper and magazine subscriptions should have been cancelled years ago.