MANCHESTER — Republican Ovide Lamontagne, making his fourth run for political office in the past 20 years, says he is running for governor “because New Hampshire needs leadership for a change, and a governor who believes in core New Hampshire values.”

Those values, says the 54-year-old attorney, husband and father of three, include the state's focus on local control, limited government and “living within our means.

“It means keeping a check on spending, keeping taxes as low as possible and making sure we have minimal government interference with the job creators of our state,” he said in a recent interview.

Lamontagne, who since 1986 has been with the Devine Millimet and Branch law firm in his native Manchester, where he still resides, first ran for office in 1992, losing in a Republican primary for the 1st District U.S. House seat to then-U.S. Rep. Bill Zeliff.

Four years later, he defeated Zeliff in a GOP gubernatorial primary but lost in the general election to Democrat Jeanne Shaheen.

Two years ago, Lamontagne lost by only 1,500 votes in the GOP U.S. Senate primary to Kelly Ayotte, who went on to win the general election.

With Gov. John Lynch stepping down after four terms, Lamontagne is promoting a conservative agenda focusing on cutting spending and business tax reform. He has taken the traditional “pledge” to veto broadbased sales or income tax legislation.

Like his primary foe Kevin Smith, Lamontagne does not shy away from his strong conservative stance on social issues, such as his opposition to abortion but says this election is about the economy.

His “pro-business agenda” proposes cutting the business profits tax from 8.5 to 8 percent over two years. He proposes a new business enterprise tax credit that would be based on compensation paid to new full-time employees in new production or manufacturing jobs as a way to encourage such employers to hire new workers.

Another key component of his multi-pronged plan is to increase the BPT and BET filing thresholds so that no business is required to file a return for either tax until their gross receipts exceed $200,000.

Lamontagne said pledging to veto a broadbased tax is not a political gimmick, but rather a way to “promise to keep spending in check.”

He proposes zero-based budgeting, which, he said, means “looking at the budget not from the maintenance budget approach, which is the way the current law is written when you ask your department heads to tell us what it will cost to do what they did the past two years.

“What you absolutely have to spend should determine the fees and taxes you are collecting,” he said. “I think we should look on the spending side in terms of how we deliver services.”

Lamontagne said he would try to consolidate what he believes are many duplicative functions in state government and privatize where possible.But, despite recent problems of missing wine inventory at the State Liquor Commission, which he said is a “serious issue” and “breach of the public trust,” he would not try to privatize that operation.

Lamontagne “generally” opposes expanded legalized gambling but would support legislation “that has a specific designation of Rockingham Park as the one place for it if it's going to take place at all.”

Although his law firm has long represented the racetrack, Lamontagne said he is not playing favorites and would “sever my ties” with the firm if elected.

“I'm a person that can exercise independent judgment on a matter that comes before me,” he said.

Lamontagne would “focus like a laser beam” on promoting the state nationally and internationally to attract more business and industry.
“We don't do a good job in terms of branding New Hampshire and we don't have a statewide economic development plan,” he said.

He said he would immediately issue an executive order placing a 90-day moratorium on new rules and regulations while each existing and proposed regulation is assessed.

“If the value of those regulations don't surpass the cost, then repeal them or pull them back off the table and re-do them,” he said.

“Health care in the end probably has the biggest effect on businesses,” said Lamontagne. “Having to be able to develop an insurance plan working with an insurance carrier to satisfy state requirements is very onerous and time-consuming.

“We need a free market approach with more flexibility at the business level to offer health insurance that will work,” Lamontagne said.
He supports having the federal government block-grant Medicaid and Medicare funds to the states “and let us design a delivery system that works for us.”

On education, Lamontagne supports a constitutional amendment to effectively overturn the Claremont and Londonderry school funding decisions, but would also “fight to have the federal government fully fund its special education commitment,” which he said is now less than half of what is required by statue.

Lamontagne said he would “work for education reform to restructure SAUs to reduce bureaucracy and move to site-based management and greater school choice.”

“Regarding higher education,” Lamontagne said, “we should try to lower costs by reforming the delivery system beginning with the chancellor's office, restore the UNIQUE Scholarship program and launch my 'Learn to Earn' scholarship program to align education with business and retain skilled workers in New Hampshire at the post-secondary education level.”

Lamontagne said that although the state's unemployment rate is below the national average, the economy, especially in the North Country, remains “anemic.”

He said he would work with both sides to come to an agreement on the siting of the Northern Pass power lines “so it has minimal impact on our state's natural beauties.”

“We need the developers to provide a clear statement on how New Hampshire will benefit from this,” he said. “There has been no meaningful articulation of that.”