It looks likely that the Finance Committee of the New Hampshire House will divert yet more of the fee revenues that are dedicated in statute to the Land and Community Heritage Program (LCHIP) to balance the state budget. As this e-news went to press, the subgroup of the Finance Committee responsible for deciding LCHIP’s funding was preparing to vote on an amendment that would divert an additional $2 million dollars to the state’s general fund, on top of the $3 million that Governor Hassan’s budget proposal would already take from LCHIP to pay for general government. If the amendment is adopted by the full House Finance Committee next week, LCHIP would receive a little more than $3 million of its dedicated fund over the next two years, and the state budget would absorb the other $5 million.
Making matters worse, the House’s action would also undo the Governor’s statement of principle that the diversion of Land and Community Heritage Investment Program funds for other purposes would stop after one more year. The House proposal would divert funds in both years, with no end in sight. The House Finance Committee’s proposal also comes on the heels of five public hearings around the state, where they heard repeatedly that restoring LCHIP was a top priority.
The New Hampshire legislature has repeatedly raided LCHIP’s dedicated funding source – a $25 fee paid on document recording at the county registries of deeds -- since it was put in place five years ago. To date, more than $10 million of the “dedicated” LCHIP fee has been diverted to the general fund, or almost two thirds of all the funds collected from the fee since its inception. During the same five years, only $5.8 million of the LCHIP fee – a fee that has been paid by literally hundreds of thousands of New Hampshire citizens -- has gone to its intended purpose. This “bait and switch” on taxpayers has eroded the credibility of the state’s elected officials, and if ever challenged in the courts could also prove unconstitutional.
If you would like to register your opinion on the House Finance Committee’s proposed action on LCHIP, click here for more information: http://gencourt.state.nh.us/house/committees/committeedetails.aspx?code=H34
For more information, email Chris Wells at cwells@forestsociety.org.
For more on the LCHIP dedicated funding issue, here are two editorials that appeared this week.
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