We appear to have dodged a bullet regarding the debt ceiling and going into default on our bills and avoiding a worldwide Depression. Consequently this has resulted in my thinking about the impact of government on our daily lives. Basically, the system is set up so we do not always recognize the cause/effect, or the entity responsible. This led me to the recently passed State Budget and its impact locally. During the NH legislative session, I worried about the budget’s affect on the ‘least among us’, and local government and area agencies’ ability to respond and pick up the pieces. Here’s a sampling of what I learned.
As the parent of a recent college graduate – tuition & school loans are especially sensitive and high on my radar screen. The legislature cut UNH’s budget by nearly 50%, so I was not surprised to learn that this $33 million dollar loss has caused a $650 dollar increase in tuition. Area students and parents will now pay this increase on top of previous increases raising the cost of attending UNH by 8.7 percent. This puts UNH among the costliest of any land grant university nationally. Interestingly, UNH was established by the Legislature to provide a quality, affordable education for NH youth to compete on the national and world stage.
I next focused on the impact to the City & School District, especially in light of the concern that costs would be downshifted to the locals resulting in increased property taxes. Feedback appears to be primarily speculation and concern over the unknown resulting in planning for the worst. The State has informed the City that road maintenance, especially this winter, will operate under different criteria thus potentially impact public safety, not to say anything about wear and tear on personal vehicles.
Among the big issues are increased retirement costs to the city, school district as well as individual public sector workers. According to Mr. Allan Damren, Assistant Superintendent of Schools, the increased retirement rates enacted this year by the legislature has spawned a law suit – so until everything is settled – no one knows what will happen – thus the challenge is this great unknown! When asked how you run a school system that way – his response was you have to plan for the worse and be ready to hold back and not fill vacant positions. Note that six collective bargaining contracts will be negotiated this fall for the following year – so in light of these real budget constraints the public should expect intense negotiations. Related to increased retirement costs, many towns are expecting a mass retirement exodus of workers (police, firefighters and teachers) that will cause a chain reaction resulting in workers jockeying statewide for the more lucrative positions.
Next on my journey was Hospitals – the state is now taxing hospitals 5.5% on net patient revenues while reducing payments for care to the poor. Hospitals estimate they will be taxed $250 million over the two-year budget. Nearby Dartmouth-Hitchcock estimates it will be assessed $40 million this year alone and could pay more to care for Medicaid patients than it gets in reimbursements. Since this decision affects the larger hospitals, the ten largest are suing New Hampshire in Federal Court. Services that could be closed or suspended to Medicaid patients include neonatal intensive care at Dartmouth-Hitchcock's Children's Hospital and possibly the helicopter rescue program at Dartmouth-Hitchcock. Needless to say – stay tuned.
My informal sampling next queried the status of children services in Sullivan County and led to Ellie Tsetsi, director of Good Beginnings. This is an agency recognized in NH and New England as being in the forefront of child health services – innovation and creativity is their trade mark. Unfortunately, the budget eliminated the infrastructure for Family Centers and cuts to Good Beginnings represent a loss of $130,000 dollars. Since their total budget is only $700,000, this is substantial! Specifically that translates into closing their visitation center since prevention funds were also eliminated. Sadly, according to feedback from the NH Department of Health & Human Services, more cuts are projected in January regarding Medicaid and child health services. This could limit services to only first time moms. Consensus statewide among children service providers is that NH is in such disarray – it is scary what will happen to children at risk. However, always the professionals, the staff at Good Beginnings are exploring how they can continue to manage in the least harmful manner as possible? Our conversation ended with her saying “children don’t have a voice, as they don’t vote, so we will have to be their voice.”
I could go on about Mental Health, Private Nursing Homes, Highways, City Welfare and Seniors, but hopefully you get the picture. Robert Reich, the noted economist, recently voiced concern how “Americas wealthy are now taking home a larger share of total income and wealth, and their tax rates are lower than they have been in 80 years.” He is concerned about the impact to the nation’s safety nets and how public investments are on the chopping block – perhaps he should come here and see the future firsthand.
