Embarrassed by My State

I always used to do this, and I still do.  I bet you do the same thing.  I look at license plates and rank the states.  Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Florida - uncool.  Iowa, Arkansas, Kansas, South Dakota – where are they?  Colorado, Montana, Washington, New Hampshire – cool.

I have always been proud and happy to be from New Hampshire. Even among the cool states New Hampshire has been one of the coolest, a great state to come from. A proud license plate on my car.

But that bubble has burst.

New Hampshire is perhaps the richest community on earth. Of the fifty United States, New Hampshire ranks first in median income. Of the fifty United States, New Hampshire ranks fiftieth in the tax burden on income – that is, the fraction of income paid in local, state, and federal taxes. In other words, in the richest country on earth, we make the most money, and we pay the least in taxes. We are the richest of the richest.

New Hampshire is also among the most homogeneous communities on earth.  New Hampshire is 94.9% white. That’s the third whitest state in the U.S. (right behind Vermont and Maine). The U.S. average is 74%.

That makes us from New Hampshire the richest, whitest people on the face of the earth. The richest people who have ever lived on earth. If any community should be able to find ways to get along, to care for the (relatively few) sick and disadvantaged and vulnerable among us, to think beyond the narrowest self-interest, you would think that the richest people on Earth might be able to do that.

But let’s see.

The State of New Hampshire makes something like $350 million in gross profit selling alcohol. We are in process of cutting by 55% (to $3.3 million, less than a percent of gross profit) our funding for alcoholism prevention and treatment.

Every year, New Hampshire receives about $50 million from cigarette companies as part of the 1998 Tobacco Settlement. That money was supposed to be used in large part to pay for initiatives to discourage tobacco use. We spend about $1 million a year on anti-tobacco programs. Proportionally, we spend less of our Tobacco Settlement money on anti-tobacco than almost any other state.

As a state, we contribute proportionally less to our children’s education than all but four other states in the Union. That being too generous, our legislature is pushing for a constitutional amendment that would strip the State of essentially all responsibility to fund public education.

Our governor and legislature are in process of cutting by 60% the aid the state provides to build schools for our children. The cuts will affect not only new schools, but projects already under construction. That is, communities that planned and budgeted based on the state’s promise to help pay construction costs will be left holding the bag.

We are planning to cut $80 million in funding to the state university system. The higher tuitions that result won’t mean much to the richest of us rich people in New Hampshire, but will mean a lot to the kids and their families who will be unable to afford college, or who will be forced to take on outrageous debt to do so. New Hampshire’s in-state state tuition to attend a state school, by the way, is already the third highest in the country.

We are enacting budget cuts that will leave about 8,000 of New Hampshire’s disadvantaged citizens, including about 3,500 children, without access to mental health care.  We are eliminating $115 million in aid to hospitals that they use to care for folks who otherwise can’t pay for healthcare.

And in our infinite fiscal prudence, we are eliminating entirely our funding for the New Hampshire Arts Council.  Back in 1931 New Hampshire was the first state in the U.S. to recognize the value and provide funding for the arts. In 2011 we may become the first state in the country to completely eliminate public support for the arts. Seems to me the most indelible names in history are people like Rembrandt, Beethoven, and Picasso.  They are not people like Kurk, Lynch and Blevin.

We are the richest of the rich. We are the least taxed of the richest of the rich.  We have more material wealth than any other human beings on earth.  And what do we do when times get a little tough? We cut off those who are most in need of help from their community – our kids, the poor, the sick. We wrap our arms around our money sacks and tell the community around us to get away.

I am embarrassed by my license plate.  I am embarrassed by my state and those who “lead” it. They lead us in a race to the depths of meanness, and we follow.  That is very sad indeed.