Is it an ethical violation for the Speaker of the House to break a mileage policy he set?
A spot of ethical controversy is brewing at the statehouse over austerity measures designed to curb politicians’ spending. Kevin Landrigan at TheLobbyNH.com reports:
“State Democratic leaders were livid Tuesday at learning House Republican lawmakers got paid mileage to see behind-closed-doors proposals for redistricting the entire, 400-person House of Representatives.
The Lobby confirmed that House Speaker William O’Brien offered mileage to members who attended redistricting sessions Friday and Monday despite a House policy against paying mileage on the first and last day of the work week to save money.”
And, Landrigan reports, the controversy is tied, at least in part, to taxpayer money: Continue Reading →
StateImpact: Your pre-game source for solid economic info
Tomorrow’s looking to be an interesting day in the New Hampshire statehouse. For most of the day, the Joint House-Senate Finance and Ways and Means committees will be hearing some serious economic forecasting on the global, national, regional and state levels.
So we’re going to liveblog it–or, at least, the New England and New Hampshire parts of it.
Yes, we’ve been keeping track of economic forecasts quite a bit lately. But what makes tomorrow’s event particularly interesting is that what these legislators hear could very well shape their arguments over the course of the session about which programs to fund, which to cut, and how (if at all), to raise revenues.
So if it helps, don’t think of it as an economic wonk-fest.
Think of it as the pre-game show for the legislative session.
And we’ll be there starting at 1:00 pm, giving you the facts, stats, and analysis you’ll need as we move into the New Year–and the new session.
Defense spending comes to states in many forms...including lobster.
Late last week, we posted a cool infographic, courtesy of the journalists at Stateline, taking a look at the percentage of each state’s GDP that’s made up by federal spending. The group then subdivided federal spending into defense-related spending and everything else.
All told, about 5 percent of the Granite State’s GDP comes from the feds. And the graphic shows that most states, like New Hampshire, rely more heavily on defense spending– ranging from salaries to procurement–than other federal money. (You can get a closer look at the infographic here.)
And “procurement,” definitely has a military ring to it. It brings to mind various Pentagon officers going about purchasing tanks, helicopters, and guns from heavy-hitting government contractors, who then hire subcontractors to make the various computerized bits and pieces that make the equipment operational.
Which bite-sized morsels of economic coverage made for the best brain food? More links after the jump
Every week, we like to offer you a roundup of StateImpact’s most popular posts. This is the stuff we think our readers are most likely talking about. So in the interest of keeping you in the loop, we are proud to present This Week’s Essential StateImpact. Just click on the story title to read anything you might have missed.
Losing The Lotto: Comparing NH’s Lotto Prizes To Massachusetts: We’ve been dropping-in a post here and there in our Losing The Lotto series over the past couple of months. This week, the posts picked up some serious steam. And it looks like you appreciated it.
Part 1: Which NH Counties Won New Residents–And Lost Old Ones: Besides our Lotto series, our county-by-county looks at the changing migration patterns into and out of the Granite State captured your clicks. This piece pulls apart the pattern in the North Country, White Mountains, Lakes Region, and part of Dartmouth-Sunapee. Continue Reading →
We're liveblogging a presentation of global, national, and New Hampshire economic trends...and how they could affect the legislative session
At StateImpact, it’s that time of year when various analysts assess economic trends that took root over the past year, what the economic landscape will look like in the future, and how those changes could affect the big budget decisions the legislature will be making in the coming session.
That’s the idea behind the event put on by the Concord Coalition, UNH School of Law, and Business and Industry Association titled “Next-Generation Matters: A Forum on the Future.” The event kicks off at noon with a keynote presentation by Mark Zandi, the Chief Economist at Moody’s Analytics. That will likely be a more nationally- and globally-based discussion. He’ll be followed by Concord Coalition Executive Director Bob Bixby. A media release for the event says Bixby “will examine the political challenges of passing fiscal reform legislation in the current environment.”
Given the budget battles last congressional and legislative sessions, this discussion promises to be pretty interesting.
We’ll be launching our event early, at 11:45. Liveblogging starts in earnest at noon, and the event’s set to wrap-up at 1:15. So if you’ve got a lunch hour yen for reading about how Granite State economic trends could shape the next legislative session, be sure to check back in with StateImpact!
In many states, defense spending outweighs other federal funds. Find out how New Hampshire stacks up after the jump.
Yesterday, we showed you a cool infographic created by a team of reporters at Stateline detailing, state-by-state, how a European recession could affect the US export economy. Although New Hampshire wasn’t among the “highest risk” states, it ranked as “high risk.” (You can check out that post here.)
And it seems that the folks at Stateline have been on a roll. Another state-by-state graphic has caught our eye, and we just had to share it.
How much could a Eurozone recession hurt New Hampshire? We explain after the jump
Recently, Wells Fargo Securities released a short report offering a state-by-state look at the places that could be hardest-hit by a potential European recession. Since New Hampshire has carved out a healthy niche for itself in the high-tech components export market, we thought this report might be of interest to our StateImpact readers.
For its analysis, Wells Fargo looked at each state’s exports to Europe by percent of GDP, and then ranked them on a scale of highest-to-lowest risk. Among the report’s key findings are:
Only 1.97 percent of overall US GDP is made up of exports to European markets.
States with the highest exposure to a possible European recession primarily export commodities. For example, Utah, with its gold and silver exports, and West Virginia, which sends coal across the Atlantic, depend much more heavily on European markets than many other states. More than 5.5 percent of Utah’s GDP is tied to European exports, and 3.9 percent of West Virginia’s GDP is tied to those markets. Continue Reading →
How much lotto revenue does NH really lose to Massachusetts? We asked state Lottery Director Charlie McIntyre
Recently, StateImpact’s been taking an up-close look at the New Hampshire Lottery. In our first post, we traced the gradual decline in lotto revenue transfers to the state’s education system. After peaking in FY 2006 at nearly $80.4 million, transfers have gone down every year. In FY 2011, the Lottery Commission transferred only about $62.2 million to the state for funding schools. (You can read that post here.)
Lower transfers to the state’s education fund means declining state lottery revenue overall. According to reports provided by the Lottery Commission, while the agency raked in nearly $264 million in 2006, by 2011, that figure was about $229 million. And although the economy could certainly be playing a role in this downturn, we’ve also reported that competition from Massachusetts is putting a dent in New Hampshire lottery sales. (You can read those posts here and here.)
But StateImpact wanted to find out how much this competition is really hurting New Hampshire’s revenues, and what, if anything, the state can do to offer stiffer competition. So we talked with New Hampshire Lottery Director Charlie McIntyre. Continue Reading →
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