N.H. Rep. Marjorie Smith of Durham retires

Jun 7, 2010 — Foster's Daily Democrat

Adam D. Krauss

Jun. 3, 2010 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- DURHAM -- Upon announcing her retirement from the Legislature, Marjorie Smith was a little nostalgic and dusted off the literature she prepared for her first run in 1996.

"The first item says the budget deficit must be addressed in a fair way, and here I am, 14 years later, and I would write my valedictory with the same words," the Durham Democrat said Wednesday.

Smith spent 12 of her 14 years representing Durham, Lee and Madbury on the House Finance Committee, and she has been chair since Democrats swept the Statehouse in 2006.

"It's a tough post to give up because my own personality is that when there is a job that needs to be done I want to do it, and so in that sense I want to make sure that I am living up to my obligations to myself and more importantly to my constituency," she said.

The post has put her in the throes of debate over balancing the budget and what she calls the "reliance on the inequitable property tax."

"We continue to have a structural deficit and we ask our state agencies to deliver the moon but we do not given them the resources to get to the moon," she said.

Though challenges remain, Smith said, it's time for "someone else with new ideas, or different ideas and skills, to come and join the citizen Legislature."

Smith said she has given no thought to life after lawmaking.

"I have not spent one hour thinking about what I will do next, because my job here has been a full-time job and all of my energy and all my intelligence has gone into trying to address these very difficult problems," she said. "And when I'm finished here I'll take a deep breath and see what makes sense next. But I am not leaving in order to go onto something else."

Smith, 68, said she's leaving the Statehouse proud of what she was able to help accomplish: passage of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday as a state holiday, approval of civil unions and then gay marriage and an increase to the minimum wage.

"Not that it's a living wage, but at least we understood the importance of looking at people again at the lowest end of the scale," she said.

Smith said the state has also made progress in education funding. She said funding formulas "are far from perfect," but the state "is living up to its responsibility to define an adequate education, determine the cost, fund it and construct the means to evaluate the program."

Regarding health care, she said the state has taken steps to increase access and created parity for those suffering from mental illness.

Then there are those things that Smith says aren't likely to earn her an award, even if they did open access to government.

During her tenure as finance chair, budget hearings were held across the state, committee hearings became available on the state's website along with proposed laws and agency audits are parceled out to policy committees for further review.

"The policy committee spends time with the auditor and agency identifying strengths and weaknesses and seeing if there are things the Legislature could do to make it possible for the agency to do its job better," Smith said. "That had never happened before."

Outside the Legislature, Smith has been involved with several local community efforts, including at the Durham Public Library and the Durham Historic Association.

Newstex ID: KRTB-1268-45800590