A Gift To The Guv–$68,000 We Don’t Need
August 5, 2009Now that the state appears to be $110 million shy of revenues, based on the court’s medical insurance ruling, each and every one of us should feel obligated to come up with suggestions on how to save money.
Oh, I know, Dems will say that simply isn’t possible, that this budget is so tight, nothing can be cut without tremendous pain to the most meedy citizens.
Oh really?
I was just thinking today about redistricting. After the census, we are required to redistrict all 400 State Rep seats, 24 Senate seats, and all other voting districts (including Congresstional districts). In the past, the House has set up a special committee to make recommendations to the Election Law Committee.
It’s a lot of work, but with free labor (Reps are not paid based on the number of hours worked; it’s $100 a year whether you ever show up or not), there’s no cost involved.
Why then did the Democrats in control budget $68,000 for redistricting over the two years? There’s no good reason. Ten years ago, we ended up paying an outsider to do that job, but that was only becasue Jeanne Shaheen, in the worst decision of her six years, vetoed a perfectly sound plan and the matter went to the Supreme Court which couldn’t figure it out themselves.
$68,000 for redistricting? Not necessary unless Dems are planning to make this into a legal battle again!
Utter insanity, and it makes one wonder how easy it’ll be to come up with another $109,932,000 of savings?
One step at a time and we’ll be there.
Ernie hopes we don’t get gored again like we did with this little item slipped casually into a megabudget.
Fergus Cullen
Aug 6, 2009
Shaheen’s worst decision as gov was breaking The Pledge and introducing a sales tax in her third term after getting elected by promising she would oppose broad based taxes.
erniegore
Aug 6, 2009
Her decision to break the pledge meant nothing in actuality because she couldn’t even get her own Dems on board to help her pass a sales tax. It maybe cost her the Senate race against Sununu in 2002 but it had no real impact on the citizens of the state. Her veto of both the House and Senate redistricting plans, on the other hand, casued tremendous confusion right up to and after the filing period, needlessly involved the Supremes in a legislative matter; and eroded confidence in our system of govt. Much worse actual damage than a Madbury two step on the tax issue!!
Fergie apparently prefers to deal in politics incessantly; Ernie will stick to issues, and no matter how much revisionist history is thrown out there, the issue of redistricting was her biggest blunder, a totally unnecessary one at that, something she was lured into by the Fergie of the Democratic party, Ho Ho Ho Burling!!
And as the original point of this story, it cost us real dollars whereas redistricting should be without any cost to the state.