Study gives NH government D+

When discussing the role of government, Granite Staters often pride themselves on the motto "smaller is better."

Yet, a recent study takes that motto head-on and gives New Hampshire a D+ in government management.

The Pew Center on the States concluded that the government must become more efficient and less bureaucratic.

"Meager cost and performance information and tortuous business processes create an institutional inertia that wastes much of the state's limited resources," the study said.

The study pinpoints a two-year term governor and the financial responsibility of the Executive Council has major problems.

"To be sure, such controls protect the state against fraud - and that's a good thing. But at what cost?"

The Governor's office disputed the claims of the report.

"It appears that the study does not like the New Hampshire Constitution. The roles the Governor and Executive Council are clearly stated in the Constitution," said Colin Manning, spokesman for Governor Lynch.

Manning also said areas of the plan "are simply not true."

"The report says the Department of Transportation plan is a 22-year plan. The fact of the matter is the Governor has submitted a 10-year plan."

When discussing the "tendency to push to tomorrow that which should have been done yesterday," the report cited Charles O'Leary's plan that concluded the state's 10-year transportation plan would take 35 years to complete.

The study also gave New Hampshire an "F" in campaign finance disclosure and an "A-" in educational opportunities.

"Our system of government has worked for over 200 years and we'll keep it despite what an outside group might say about it," Manning concluded.

In 2005 the same group gave the state a "C."