Over thirty years of working for social, economic, and political justice for all
New Hampshire Citizens Alliance 4 Park Street, Suite 304 Concord, NH 03301 603-225-2097
PrioritiesNH
NHCA has a long history of working for economic justice in the Granite State. In March of 2008 we merged with PrioritiesNH, a group that focused primarily on federal spending and defense overspending. The PrioritiesNH project at NHCA has built awareness about the government's out of control military spending through an intensive and innovative marketing campaign, which has helped educate and mobilize residents and legislators alike about the need to reinvest the $60 billion spent annually on obsolete Cold War weapons and other Pentagon waste in favor of programs that improve the lives of people and families.
JOBS FOR AMERICA NOW With the current crisis concerning the American economy, the need for reinvestment is more imperative than ever. More than 26 million Americans are either unemployed or under employed. Creating new jobs to battle the unemployment rate is a desperate need, but in order to truly change the financial situation of our economy, more must be done. Our economy must be one of shared prosperity:
Continue and expand unemployment benefits, COBRA, and supplemental nutrition assistance (WIC). The benefits families receive not only help with basic cost of living expenses, benefits also flow into the economy directly as cash.
Provide fiscal relief to state and local government agencies to preserve existing services. This will serve to provide millions of jobs, both within the public and private sectors.
Create jobs that serve communities that have pressing needs. This will employ the unemployed, and serve to direct liquid assets as well as services into communities devastated by the current economic crisis.
Improve infrastructure in schools, transportation, and energy efficiency. Simultaneously creating jobs while providing for long term money- saving policy for the future.
Encourage private businesses with innovative incentives and credits for small and medium sized businesses.
Five cities in NH would receive funding, along with 2 counties and funds set aside for smaller towns and rural communities. Manchester would receive 13.5 million dollars to create 247 jobs in the public sector. Nashua is projected to receive 10.1 million dollars to create 185 jobs. Dover is projected to receive 3 million dollars to create 55 jobs. Rochester is projected to receive about half a million dollars more (3.4 million) to create 63 jobs. Portsmouth is projected to receive a bit less than 2.5 million to create 44 jobs. In just these urban areas, NH is expected to receive around 32 million dollars to create almost 600 jobs.
Two counties are also expected to receive funding through this bill. Hillsborough County is expected to receive about 46 million dollars to create 843 jobs throughout the county. Rockingham County is also expected to receive funding, a little more than 33 million dollars to create 608 jobs throughout the county. New Hampshire will also receive money for smaller towns and rural areas. These areas are projected to receive 84 million dollars to create 1,606 jobs throughout these areas.
Overall, through the Miller Bill, New Hampshire is projected to receive almost 197 million dollars. This funding would then help create about 3650 jobs throughout the state. Out of this 197 million, 94.7 million dollars would be specifically targeted to help create jobs in education. Click here to learn more about the Miller Bill. More about the Miller Bill The Estate Tax
NHCA is for the estate tax since it is a very important source of revenue for our government that comes only from the top one half of one percent of Americans. The estate tax has been reduced significantly over the last decade and is set to expire next year, only to reappear in 2011. The President is proposing to extend the estate tax at its current (2009) levels, which NHCA supports due to the much needed revenue it will produce. In 2009, estates up to $7 million per couple or $3.5 million per individual are completely exempt from any tax, since only the value of an estate above those levels is taxed. While the tax rate is 45 percent, the amount paid by most estates is much closer to 20 percent once other credits and deductions are taken into account. Some Congressmen want to increase the threshold and lower the tax rate, but we believe that further raising the exemption level and lowering the rate at which estates are taxed undermines our nation’s ability to make needed investments and would make the federal deficit even worse.
Investing in health care, education, infrastructure and reducing the federal deficit are important for improving our long term economic outlook. Cutting the estate tax should not take precedence over these important programs that will benefit the other 99.5 percent of Americans as well as the top one half percent.
Additional Resources: United for a Fair Economy: http://www.faireconomy.org/ Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: http://www.cbpp.org/ Citizens for Tax Justice: http://www.ctj.org/
Want to help preserve the estate tax? If you are interested in getting more involved, please contact NHCA at the address or phone number listed below.