Representative Jason Bedrick

Yesterday I participated in one of the strangest sessions of the term, but before I get to that, I have an announcement to make: I will be seeking a second term as a state representative for the towns of Windham and Salem!

I’m told that there will be upwards of 25 people vying for the 13 seats, so getting the word out about the good candidates will be crucial. Please visit my new website at www.jasonbedrick.org!

Also, make sure to check out the House Republican Alliance legislative scorecard at the end of the update. Windham/Salem legislators received 5 As, 5 Bs, 2 Cs and an F — find out who scored what!

Tax, Borrow, and Spend!

Yesterday, the Speaker of the House ordered the doors barred, keeping legislators under House arrest until just after midnight to pass a bill to “balance the budget” by filling the gap with debt. Democrats have abandoned NH’s traditional “pay-as-you-go” fiscal responsibility, paying for their new programs with what amounts to a credit card (and we don’t even get Sky Miles!). A recent Union Leader editorial called this the “tax, borrow and spend” plan.

Using debt to finance a budget is essentially placing a tax on the future. Unless fiscal sanity is restored, our grandchildren will still be paying off the $80 million in bonds the legislature authorized yesterday.

Moreover, the “special session” bill had no public hearing, no committee work, and a mere 24-hour notice. In fact, the bill itself wasn’t drafted until the morning of the session, so all amendments had to be drafted in the same day. What ever happened to careful deliberation? What ever happened open government?

This is not the New Hampshire way.

Report Card Time

Here are the House Republican Alliance Scores for the combined 2007-2008 session. We’ve broken them down for you in this chart.

The first percentage under Total reflects the total of the combination score for 2007-2008, the second number under Voted indicates how many votes out of 122 possible votes were cast. The Platform number indicates how many votes were in alignment with the Republican Party and the final percentage reflects the overall Attendance record, which one should compare with overall scores when evaluating platform support. For example, someone could have voted only 10 times out of the 122 possible votes, yet always voted with the Platform, thus scoring a 100%. However, their attendance score would have only been an 8%.

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