Democrat Maggie Hassan, 53, who recently announced her candidacy for governor, said one of her major goals is to focus on creating jobs in New Hampshire, and suggested that gambling in the state ought to be expanded in order to boost state revenue.
The former Democratic Senate majority leader spoke to the Portsmouth Press Herald:
“We will be developing more policy proposals as the campaign proceeds, but what we do know is that the best way to attract businesses to a state is to have a work force that is well-educated and ready with the skill sets that businesses need,” she said. “What we need to do is create jobs and to be innovative, both in terms of job creation and in terms of how we run state government and the best way to approach that is to come together with people and find out what they need to create jobs.”
Yesterday, along with a group of business folks from across New Hampshire, I learned about the difference between “soft” and “hard” infrastructure. “Hard” is the obvious: roads, bridges etc. “Soft” infrastructure is human capital and institutions that cultivate it, such as community colleges and universities. Apparently, the state has deficits in both areas. Continue Reading →
The New Hampshire Lottery has struggled with declining revenues over the past few years.
As we reported yesterday, New Hampshire’s lottery revenues have been steadily declining over the past five fiscal years. Since the lotto funds the state’s education system, lower sales translate into less money for schools. (You can read our first post here.)
Still, the lottery isn’t exactly generating chump change. In FY 2011, the education system raked in $62.2 million. It’s big money. Just not as big as it could be.
So we wanted to know, what’s driving lotto sales?
(If you’ve ever worked at a gas station, grocery store, or other lottery retailer, you probably already know the answer…) Continue Reading →
Businesses in the North Country are joining forces with other area groups to oppose the Northern Pass transmission proposal. The project is a joint venture of Northeast Utilities and NStar and seeks to build 40 miles of power lines through Northern and Central New Hampshire. The company has already purchased thousands of acres of land -a move that has angered environmentalists and many area businesses as reported by Kathleen Callahan for the New Hampshire Business Review:
“This would absolutely destroy the tourism business up here, without a doubt,” said Wayne Charron, who owns a gift shop and mini-mart in Campton, among other businesses. “People don’t want to float down the river looking at high-tension wires and towers.”
The owners- Northern Pass LLC- are fighting back with a major public relations campaign, writes Callahan:.
Among its claims — of which it also has many — it contends Northern Pass would beef up New England’s long-term energy portfolio with a steady source of renewable, low-cost power, create up to 1,200 construction jobs for New Hampshire workers and bring in millions in tax revenue for towns and the state.
Opponents of the project say they intend to use their campaign as an issue for the race for Governor.
Callahan writes:
“I invite other people in office to come out against Northern Pass,” said longtime North Country Executive Councilor Ray Burton, who last December announced his opposition to the project, which he equated to “an extension cord dragged over the top” of the region. “It’s an economic issue.”
Washington DC and 43 states use lottery games as a way to boost revenues.
Traditionally, New Hampshire hasn’t looked kindly on taxes. Overall, there’s a sense in the state that people like their government lean and their taxes low. But even without a large social safety net, the government has to fund basic services somehow. Higher property taxes help make up for having no sales or income tax. Other taxes, like the Room and Meals, shift some of the burden to out-of-state visitors.
But StateImpact is interested in an alternative slice of the revenue pie–we want to know how the state uses gambling, liquor and cigarette sales to fill its coffers. How much do these sources rake in? And how–if at all–can the state get even more money from them? In short, we want to know:
What does the Economy of Vice look like in New Hampshire?
So starting this week, we’re launching a series of short, data-driven posts focusing on the New Hampshire Lottery. Once we’ve introduced you to the basics of how the lottery works, and how it stacks up compared to the rest of the region, we’ll wrap-up with a longer, in-depth post next week.
For today, we’re focusing on what the state lottery funds. Continue Reading →
StateImpact's got a lot of vittles in the news frier.
It’s been a couple of months since we first launched StateImpact New Hampshire, and now…we’re turning up the heat. Here’s just a taste of what we’ve got cooking:
We’ve got another Herman Cain post that’s just about ready to come out of the frier. We briefly mentioned it in a post about his 9-9-9 plan here.
Starting next week, we’ll launch a series of posts focusing on the New Hampshire Lottery: Where it’s strong, where it’s weak, and why.
We’re also interested in state taxes: What gets taxed, what doesn’t, what they fund, and where the holes in tax policy are. Periodically, over the course of the year, we’ll be dropping in with this occasional series. Some will be more like beginner’s guides, while others will dig into the wilds of tax policy wonk-dom.
Starting next week, we’ll be keeping track of which posts draw the most clicks. And on Friday, we’ll clue you in to the Essential StateImpact New Hampshire–the five posts that get the most traffic or the most comments.
We’ll also be doing more of this: Telling you what you can expect from StateImpact in the near future.
Republican presidential front-runner Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan is generating a lot of buzz, but what will it do to New Hampshire and other states without sales taxes?
New Hampshire is one of a small minority of states without a sales tax.* So when Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain announced his 9-9-9 Plan — 9 percent corporate tax, 9 percent income tax, and a 9 percent national sales tax — residents of New Hampshire started feeling a bit nervous. While the Cain plan is a federal tax overhaul that he claims is low impact for most Americans, it would essentially force residents of New Hampshire to pay a brand-new tax.
So we wondered how the Cain plan could affect businesses and individuals in the Granite State. As the only New England state without a sales tax, New Hampshire is a major force in regional retail sales. So could 9-9-9, a plan designed to spur business and job growth, actually have a negative effect on businesses in New Hampshire? Continue Reading →
This word cloud illustrates the overall focus of the Fed report.
In his report, Clifford uses mainly New England examples to explain why some state foreclosure mediation programs work, why some don’t, and how states can fix their systems and prevent more foreclosures. Mediation, by the way, is when a neutral third-party helps negotiate an agreement between a lender and a borrower to prevent foreclosure. (And just FYI, Massachusetts is the only state in New England that doesn’t have some sort of state or city-headed mediation program).
StateImpact read the whole Fed report, and came back with Nine Essential Takeaways: Continue Reading →
Although the price of a degree in New Hampshire continues to go up, residents are better at making their student loan payments than most of the country
Despite recent legislative budget cuts that have forced the state university system to ratchet up tuition–and student debt load–New Hampshire residents are actually pretty good at paying off their government loans. That’s according to US Department of Education numbers collected by USA Today. The feds report only 5.07 percent of Granite Staters failed to pay their loans.
That stands in stark contrast to Arizona, which has seen the highest rate of defaults–15.96 percent. New Hampshire’s situation also differs from the overarching national picture, reported on by several outlets when the Department of Education released figures for FY 2009 earlier this fall. Continue Reading →
More specifically, the Department of Labor wants DeMoulas to pay $589,200 in fines for violations at stores in Rindge and Concord, New Hampshire.
As Jenn Abelson reports at boston.com, one incident sparked federal action: Continue Reading →
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