Republican Candidate for Governor Walt Havenstein
Posted by Ann Bellamy
on Sep 29, 2014
On September 29th, Republican Candidate for Governor Walt Havenstein addressed the Rotary Club of Nashua regarding his campaign for Governor of New Hampshire. He graduated from the US Naval Academy and is the former CEO of BAE Systems. She talked about his philanthropic work as well.
Walt paid two happy fines on behalf of his two granddaughters. He is a candidate for governor and has a military and business background, not a political background. His son took an opportunity in Texas, but did not have an opportunity in NH. It got him looking at the NH issues, and realized the #1 issue was the economy. When he came here 15 years ago NH was progressing, but not today. In 2000, Sanders was sold to BAE but the companies that were interested wanted to move Sanders out of NH. BAE agreed to keep Sanders in NH. It grew by 1500 jobs and the jobs are still here today. One of the goals was to outsource suppliers with preference given to NH based suppliers. NH has gone from being 14th in small business startups to 35th. Economic growth is .1%, below Vermont and RI. We’ve overtaxed and over-regulated ourselves to where young people are moving out of state. We have negative growth. Our demographics have been increasing in age to where we will have increased need for services with lower base to support it. 17% of our workforce works in MA. We should decrease our electric rates, we have the 7ths highest in the country. We need to be disciplined in restructuring our taxes and regulations to be pro-business. We can do it and become the best place to live and do business.
This is his 30th rotary meeting. He asked for our vote, and asked us to help spread the word. When he speaks to Republicans, they tell him he is preaching to the choir, and he said, yes, and I’m asking you to sing.
Government is over regulating our business, and the rules by which businesses operate are made in Concord. Walt doesn’t need to be governor to create jobs, but the government needs to support the business climate and that’s his goal.
Once tax benefits are provided to a business and then when the short term benefits go away, the business leaves. Business grow based on talent and taxes. Those drive the decisions on where to operate.
Small businesses face over regulation in starting up. The state needs money because they spend too much money. Casinos look good to people simply because the state needs too much money. Casinos should not be the cornerstone of our economic development.