a dog-eared town

So the legislature, in it’s own inimitable way, decided to hand control over the states only salt water port to a group who runs an airport. Brilliant, but that’s the brilliance of the legislature in voting on things and making it worse.

Anyway, the governor was asked about the bill and it’s affect on the local people.

Gov. John Lynch says putting the Pease Development Authority in control of the state port chief is a good idea.

“It’s not an effort to give the PDA more power, and it’s not an effort to create an empire for Dick Green,” Lynch told about 150 people packing a Greater Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce breakfast forum yesterday at the Sheraton Harborside Hotel. “It’s part of good management.”

So, the people who redeveloped a former Air Force base are now magically supposed to know how to run a saltwater port? I’m thinking that’s not going to happen without hiring a lot more people that will go on the state payroll.

The bill has drawn heavy fire on the Seacoast because it would give the PDA power to negotiate very long leases over state port properties in Portsmouth, Rye and Hampton without direct governor and council permission.

Among other issues, the bill would also let the PDA name the port director, rather than the governor and council.

And there is the problem. Some no name group of people, originally hired to run an airport, are now going to have the power to run the only port the state has and the people hired will not be under direct control of the state.

If you want to know how that turns out, ask about the Big Dig to the south. You will see waste, higher taxes and fees and zero accountability. And that’s just going to be the first year.

But the governor shows why he’s such a good politician.

Lynch told the crowd that the only part of the bill he has focused on is that of the port director.

“I think of it not so much in a political context as a management context,” Lynch replied.

Well of course that’s the only part he focuses on. Otherwise he’d have to admit that he’s aware that he’s creating an agency that will have no accountability to the people of Portsmouth or this state. And really, he’s not that stupid of a politician.

The fact that Governor Lynch gets into these small little brouhaha’s without the republicans being able to do anything credible against him shows the utter incompetency of the republican party in New Hampshire. And because the republicans are so incompetent, I’m resigned to seeing New Hampshire turn more and more into Taxachusetts.

But of course the incompetency of the New Hampshire republicans is a whole ‘nother set of posts….lol.

Ideally someone would be able to pressure the governor into seeing that creating a new beaurocracy that is unanswerable to the people of New Hampshire is a bad thing. And it would also be nice to let the governor know that empire building ala letting airport execs run ports is not a good thing for New Hampshire. Hasn’t been good in other states and it won’t be good for New Hampshire.

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