Granite State Taxpayers Analysis Concludes Governor-Elect Lynch’s

Education Funding Plan Fails to Comply With Claremont Decisions

Bedford, NH – Granite State Taxpayers Chairman Gary Daniels announced that Granite State Taxpayers ("GST") has completed an analysis of Governor-elect Lynch’s education funding plan and has concluded that it fails to comply with the New Hampshire Supreme Court’s Claremont decisions. Daniels explained that GST is releasing the analysis at this time to allow legislators and others interested in education funding to be aware of the pitfalls of the Lynch plan, because it will result in a $1.2 billion funding hole. The text of the analysis follows this press release.

Roy Stewart, immediate past Chairman of GST, who worked on the analysis along with GST Director Ed Mosca, commented that the Lynch plan would approximately double the cost of an adequate education required by the Claremont case from its current $805 million to around $1.6 billion. Stewart warned, "The GST analysis shows that, once the court strikes down the Lynch funding mechanism, there will be a $1.2 billion funding hole." Stewart pointed out that the only taxes capable of funding such a hole are an income tax, a sales tax or a state property tax, or some combination of these taxes and stated that "GST wants the legislature, and the public, to know that a vote for the Lynch plan would be the equivalent to a vote for an income tax or a sales tax."

When asked how GST could analyze a plan that hasn’t been announced yet, Mosca responded, "While Lynch was reticent about the particulars of his plan during the campaign, enough details were disclosed to surmise that it is based upon House Bill 717, which passed the House in 2003 but was defeated in the Senate." Mosca explained that the Lynch plan relies upon local property taxes to fund part of the cost of an adequate education and that, "as a result, a court applying the Claremont decisions would have to strike down the funding portion of the Lynch plan."