GOP Agenda: Jobs and Economy

Rep. DJ Bettencourt (R-Salem), the newly elected House Majority Leader, says GOP agenda is all about the money.

After a week of headlines about guns in the State House and the controversial attempt to remove a Democratic legislator, Republican leaders in Concord say it’s time to focus on the basics of jobs and economy.

They released a policy agenda roadmap Thursday that they say sets fiscal issues and not social issues — such as repealing the state’s equal marriage law — as the top priorities for 2011.

House Majority Leader D. J. Bettencourt (R-Salem) told Norma Love of the Associated Press, “The social issues must take a backseat.” Claiming that the potential deficit for the 2011-2013 biennium budget could reach $1 billion, Bettencourt said at a State House press conference that the voters “put us here to return fiscal sanity … to New Hampshire and this agenda is a giant step in that direction.”

Democratic leaders such as Gov. John Lynch, who will give his take on the fiscal crisis in his upcoming state of the state speech, likely take exception to the notion that they practiced fiscal insanity — especially given the state’s relative fiscal health compared to other states and having one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country.

Bettencourt said the Republican agenda breaks down into five legislative categories

• Government Spending & Regulations
• Business & Enterprise
• Retirement Reform
• Education Excellence
• and Personal Rights & Social Responsibility.

“Our intentions are to balance the budget without using accounting gimmicks, by cutting taxes, and delivering on our campaign promise of fiscal responsibility this past election,” Bettencourt said.

Details of the extent of budget and tax cutting have not been released, but those should emerge in the coming weeks as committees work to craft spending and revenue bills. Or, as is the custom, they may more likely emerge during the last days and weeks before the final budget is passed.

And while Republican leaders say they don’t want to expend political capital on issues such as repealing gay marriage, rank and file members who have filed bills with such social agendas may not share the same vision. Rep. David Bates (R-Windham), chair of the Election Law Committee, has filed a proposal to repeal the same-sex marriage statute that went into effect last year. He told Shira Schoenberg of the Concord Monitor that he will continue to pursue repeal legislation. He added, “To say we shouldn’t be focused on marriage is not saying we’re not going to deal with it.”

This Daily Dispatch was written by Michael McCord.

Posted by Hilary Niles on Jan 14 2011. Filed under Commerce, economy, Government, jobs & unemployment, Money, state budget, taxes, Weekly Briefing, Work. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry