The state of New Hampshire is a lot like any Granite State family looking at its budget for the coming year, state Sen. Molly M. Kelly said.
“Yes, we’ve got a crisis right now, but we cannot lose focus on the long-term,” the Keene Democrat said. “You have to fix the moment, and also look forward.”
Kelly told Sentinel editors at a meeting Wednesday she is proud of several things she has accomplished while in Concord for the past two years, most of all the progress on education funding.
However, she said, there are still long-term problems to resolve concerning how to define and fund an adequate education, and that is one reason she is running for re-election to the District 10 seat against Republican Thomas R. Eaton, also of Keene.
The district covers Chesterfield, Dublin, Fitzwilliam, Hinsdale, Keene, Marlborough, Richmond, Surry, Swanzey, Troy and Winchester.
“We’ve made great progress. We’re not done, we’re not finished, but we’ve made great progress,” she said.
The previous year’s work has been on “principle and policy,” Kelly said.
“Principle and policy doesn’t always get you what you want, but at least now we have a foundation we can keep going back to and we can figure out the way we can actually fund this,” she said.
In the coming year, the Legislature will re-examine the funding formula that in its current state would send $1.5 million less in state aid to the Keene School District.
“Those who know me know it’s not my intent to take $1.5 million from Keene,” she said.
When it comes time to examine funding sources, Kelly said she has refused to take a pledge against broad-based income or sales taxes.
“Everything is on the table,” she said.
She has four criteria for a tax to fund education: It must be fair, lower property taxes, provide relief for middle class families and be dedicated to education alone.
“If it meets those criteria for me … I have no problem with it,” she said.
The Legislature will be facing the task of finding funding for education at the same time members try to address a budget deficit of more than $200 million.
The deficit cannot be addressed solely through cuts or gambling or increased taxes on cigarettes, she said — the state should look at efficiency within programs rather than cutting them.
“Our biggest problem right now is the revenue, and where we are being hit the hardest is business-profit tax,” she said.
Kelly served as a member of the Senate Transportation Committee, but she said discussions about renewable energy and alternative fuels go far beyond the state’s roadways.
While building alternative transportation and using renewable resources will likely help the environment, both will also spark the economy, she said.
“The door’s been closed to these ideas for a long time,” she said.
Between the cost of gas and global attention to the environment, “we’re at a time in history, that when you open the doors, the ideas come, and the funding will, maybe from more sources than just state government.”
Renewable energy production and alternative transportation systems would help create job opportunities, something she has been pursuing, she said.
As a member of the Workforce Opportunity Council, a state agency that oversees the use of federal funds for workforce development, Kelly said she has helped secure $1.8 million in federal funding for a job training program for unemployed people.
If a person who has been laid off is willing to give at least a two-year commitment to a local precision manufacturer, he or she will be hired and sent to an eight-week, intensive training at the Granite State College campus in Claremont.
“We have employers saying ‘Molly, I have positions, but I don’t have workers,’ and we have workers who say, ‘I’ve been laid off. I’ll do anything, I just want to support my family.’ This brings them together,” she said.
Like a family, the state Legislature needs to be clear about its priorities by funding top needs in the budget, Kelly said.
“We can’t have everything. We are never going to have enough money,” she said.
For her, education and job opportunities should be at the top of the list.
“My responsibility and the state responsibility and the federal responsibility is to provide incentives and tools so (unemployed workers) can come back in the community,” she said.
“We are going to have a tough time with revenue so why not be smart with what we have?” she said. “Reinvest in the people.”
One other investment in the Granite State workforce would be more math and engineering classes in schools, and more time spent showing students what opportunities are available, she said.
“We need to get people excited about it, so that young people see this is an option and a career for them,” she said.
“Those are the kinds of things we need to be doing. We need to offer those possibilities and that hope to people.”
Sarah Palermo can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1436, or spalermo@keenesentinel.com
(Article originally published in The Keene Sentinel print edition entitled Kelly lays out her platform in Senate race.)
