New Hampshire policy, followed through to the outcome.
The State Ledger connects New Hampshire laws, spending, votes and local outcomes so claims can be tested against the evidence.
So New Hampshire has a formula designed to compensate for differences in fiscal capacity while simultaneously relying increasingly on the revenue source whose capacity varies most dramatically from town to town. That tension is at the center of the funding debate.
When government imposes additional costs on a business, politicians frequently discuss competitiveness, investment, employment and economic growth. When government imposes additional costs on someone poor enough to qualify for Medicaid, lawmakers defending the policy call it personal responsibility.
This isn’t a debate about saving homeowners $50 or $100. For Claremont, shifting even part of the state’s current contribution back onto the local tax base could mean four-figure annual increases for an ordinary homeowner.
Bedford sends seven representatives to Concord. Once there, those representatives vote on statewide budgets, education policy, housing policy, municipal authority and dozens of other decisions whose effects eventually return home.
So I care less about whether government spending goes up than I do about whether our total healthcare bill goes up. And CBO found that it doesn’t necessarily have to. Depending on how the system is designed, America could spend hundreds of billions less than we’re projected to spend under the current system.
The ethical question begins when there is a meaningful difference between what political leaders tell ideological allies and what they tell ordinary voters. And that is why Osborne’s “straight face” statement matters so much.
Investigation · Sullivan County
New data show where EFA money is being spent, but not whether it creates a new educational opportunity or replaces an expense a family was already paying.
