Molly Howard did not mince her words in describing the spending priorities that some of her colleagues at the State House have put forth this session.

“This budget is cruel,” said the Democratic state representative for Greenfield and Hancock.

Howard cited a number examples from the budget proposed by the House, including eliminating the Office of Child Advocate, which has been restored by the Senate, as was an $18.8 million cut to services for people with developmental disabilities that the House proposed. Legislators agreed to a two-year, $16 billion budget deal June 26, and Gov. Kelly Ayotte signed it June 27.

“It was like kids in a candy store,” said Howard, referring to how her GOP colleagues in the majority kept gutting and eliminating programs. “They're taking programs away from people and adding premiums to medicaid.”

Howard also cited House Bill 10 and Senate Bill 272, which promote a parental bill of rights that Ayotte signed into law in June.

“If a kid is telling a teacher something and not telling a parent, there’s a reason,” said Howard, referencing the law’s requirement that educators disclose information that a child shares with them.

She also noted what she saw as some ironies in Concord.

“They’re big on parental rights until a parent takes a child to a doctor on a transgender issue,” she said. “There are lots of libertarians in Concord, yet they pass laws that take away people’s rights.”

She lamented the $182.5 million lost as a result of the Interest and Dividends Tax being eliminated, noting that it is part of an effort to make New Hampshire seem business-friendly, and that this “doesn’t benefit the businesses here, but they think it will appeal to out-of-state businesses that they want here.”

Howard has also been disappointed in the way some in Concord conduct themselves and how the leadership in both houses does not lead. As an example, she cited an online chat in which Rockingham Rep. James Spillane of Rockingham suggested various consequences for party members who vote against the leadership.

“Whether by revoking committee (assignments), parking spots, flogging them in the State House square, egging their house, or slashing their tires ... whatever fits the crime,” was part of the chat attributed to Spillane, who has not denied it. She also noted comments by Rep. Kenneth Weyler disparaging victims of abuse at the Youth Development Center for years. Allegations of the abuse have been made by over 1,000 individuals.  

Asked about any bright spots from the session in Concord, Howard pointed to a three-year moratorium on new landfills in the state.

“This came out of the Environmental and Agricultural Committee,” said Howard, who sits on the committee.

Concern about landfills ran high in the North Country with the efforts of Casella Waste Systems to build a dump in the community of Dalton, just half a mile from Forest Lake and close to the Ammonoosuc River.

“Eighty percent of the bills from our committee went to the consent calendar, which is for bills considered noncontroversial. It’s perhaps the most bipartisan committee in the House,” Howard said. 

“There were a few votes when I didn’t vote with the (Democratic) caucus, because I thought that the bills would not have been good for people in Greenfield,” said Howard, noting that it tends to be a more conservative town. She offered an example involving tax bills.

“There was a vote to reduce the increase in Hillsborough County tax bills with $6 million from Concord,” she said. “The increase of the county portion of tax bills was due to be 22%, but now it’ll be about 19%. I voted with the GOP on that.” 

More recently, Howard was part of a Democratic delegation at a Hillsborough County meeting in Goffstown at which $734,781 was withheld from the county sheriff’s office due to  opposition to the sheriff’s agreeing to work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and desire to house detainees at the Valley Street Jail. 

Asked as to what drives some of the partisanship in Concord, Howard said, “There are people in and leading the GOP who are power-oriented, not people-oriented. Democrats work to make people’s lives better, but our language in trying to do so needs work.”