Coverage of the Spending Summit

From the Union Leader:

The spending summit, attended by about 100, came just a week after a two-day discussion of state tax policy that the House Ways and Means Committee held. Republicans said taxes are only half the discussion, and that spending has to be talked about too.

Timing for state spending controls is off a bit, since a new two-year budget just took effect in July. But speakers yesterday said this is actually the ideal time to start examining what state government should be expected to provide, and how to best organize and pay for it.

Arlinghaus warned that Republicans and Democrats have to work together on the difficult task of reshaping budget priorities.

"If all you want to do is snipe at the other side, you're not going to get anything done," he said. Arlinghaus cautioned that it may take more than one election to turn the ship of state spending "It's a big problem and you can't fix it if the election is first and foremost in your mind," he said. "It's going to take a long time to fix this." ...

Over the past 20 years, spending of state revenues has increased by an average of 9 percent for every biennium Budget increases vary from a 30 percent jump in 1994-95 to a 1.9 percent decline in 1996-97, according to data from the New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Studies.