Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jackie Cilley denied she’s advocating an overhaul in the tax structure.

Many who saw her attack against “simplistic pledges” considered it a signal she would come out for an income or sales tax during this campaign.

She won’t, but merely wanted to signal that she’d listen to any discussion as a candidate and as a chief executive about how to best meet the financial challenges the state faces.

“I don’t think that a refusal to take pledges means you will be out there advocating a certain thing,’’ Cilley, 60, told The Sunday Telegraph during her first interview as a declared candidate.

“That ought to be what a public servant is all about, out there listening to all views.’’

Cilley said she’s committed to trying to do all she can as governor to reduce the burden on the property tax for working families and small businesses.

This would start by eliminating what Cilley called “serial passing down’’ costs from state government to local taxpayer.

On casino gambling, Cilley said it’s “not a panacea’’ to the state’s fiscal woes, and like Gov. John Lynch, she’d look long and hard at any proposal that would have to have plenty of local control and better regulatory oversight.

“I think it deserves to be considered,’’ Cilley said.

What Cilley doesn’t like is the proposed amendment to the state Constitution pushed by GOP legislative leaders to require a three-fifths vote to raise any tax or fee.

“To get nearly a two-thirds vote to agree that the sky is blue is very difficult,’’ Cilley said, not to mention “to set that kind of obstacle over even closing a loophole. We don’t know what our state will face in the future. This would hobble us forever if this campaign was successful.’’

Soon, Cilley will announce her team of professionals to work on the campaign, including a media consultant, pollster and social media director.

Perceived conflict

Cilley also chose to go after the leading Republican candidate for governor, Ovide Lamontagne, after advocating for a Right to Work law in New Hampshire.

Cilley noted Lamontagne, a prominent lawyer, is a member of the New Hampshire Bar Association, which is mandatory for any practicing attorney.

“Is he going to lobby to dissolve the mandatory membership of the bar? Because that’s what he’s talking about trying to do to unions,’’ Cilley said.

Union supporters on the House Labor Committee confronted Lamontagne with this “conflict’’ after he testified for Right to Work.

“The bar association controls my license, sets standards for conducting oneself in court, sets privileges for us, that’s what it does,’’ Lamontagne said.

“It’s a professional association; it’s not an economic association. It has nothing to do with the setting of my salary or my working conditions at the law firm where I work.’’

Top dollar

The new executive director of the New Hampshire Retirement System is getting quite a bump in pay. The Retirement System board of trustees recently named George Lagos, of Bow, to be the next director, taking over for Richard Ingram, who left a year ago to take a similar post for education pensions in Illinois.

A “Right to Know Law” request revealed the new employment contract will pay Lagos $235,000 a year.

That’s $85,000 more than Ingram earned when he left the job.

It’s also at the top of the range that was advertised for the job, $180,000-$235,000 annually.

There was no mention in the contract or the standard state employee benefits package for Lagos about a big cash buyout the likes of which was given to a previous executive director that raised all kind of controversy.

Lagos is working at will of the trustees’ support and must be given at least four months’ notice before he could be let go.

The Sunday Telegraph confirmed the resumes that came to this job were not all home grown and that some leading pension administrators from the Northeast applied for the job.

What other credentials might Lagos have beyond his years as an insurance and financial executive?

Political connections don’t hurt, and he has them.

Although not mentioned in the press release announcing his appointment, Lagos had served as executive director of the Bridges House, the state’s executive residence.

The president to whom he reported in that role was none other than Susan Lynch, the first lady of New Hampshire.

Chairman of the Bridges House board is longtime lottery commissioner Debra Douglas.

Protesting policy

House Speaker Bill O’Brien, R-Mont Vernon, has jumped at the call the Republican National Committee put out to all like-minded legislative leaders to go after President Barack Obama’s policy on covering contraception.

O’Brien was reaching out to the state’s congressional delegation at the end of last week to attend a news conference tentatively set for Monday to endorse a new resolution that protests the Obama rule.

U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., became the first Republican woman to speak against the Obama policy, giving a speech on the Senate floor, and led a press conference of congressional GOP leaders Wednesday.

By the way, New Hampshire primary winner Mitt Romney enlisted Ayotte to do some more campaigning on his behalf as she stumped in Maine on Saturday for the caucus in that state.

It’s hot in here

The Legislative Ethics Committee has issued a ruling that it’s powerless to take any action against any legislator charged with bullying another.

In a nutshell, the committee’s ruling stressed that its job is to guide legislators toward acceptable conduct, but that no state law directs it to preside over whether lawmakers are too abusive with one another.

“We perceive no basis for us now to become judges of the political conduct of legislative leadership through clarification of the guidelines,’’ the committee ruled.

Manchester Republican Rep. Steve Vaillancourt asked for that finding after claims that O’Brien had placed too much pressure on Rindge Republican Susan Emerson last March over her plans to seek more spending in the state budget.

O’Brien and House Majority Leader D.J. Bettencourt, R-Salem, have denied even using loud language with Emerson, much less acting in any way that could be described as bullying her.

Last week, Emerson got to testify on her anti-bullying bill, as did the Senate sergeant-at-arms, who claimed he heard loud voices coming from the Senate chamber and had seen Emerson pressed up against a wall.

This didn’t impress the House Constitutional and Statutory Revision Committee, which not only voted 13-2 to recommend killing the bill, but also referred it to the consent calendar.

“Whipping is a fact of legislative life, whether it be simple polling or verbal arm-twisting,’’ said Bedford Republican Rep. John Cebrowski. “Disappointment is another fact of legislative life. The kitchen can sometimes get hot.’’

Protecting environment

U.S. Congressman Charles Bass, R-N.H., went to bat for the environmental community to protest drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska as a form of revenue for the federal highway bill.

Bass authored a letter to House Speaker John Boehner that received the co-signatures from at least five other House Republicans asking for that section to come out.

“Opening ANWR for exploration and development raises serious concerns from both a fiscal and environmental perspective,’’ Bass wrote in the letter obtained by The Sunday Telegraph.

“We believe that this measure can achieve broader support and better force Senate consideration if ANWR were removed.’’

This isn’t the first time Bass has campaigned against ANWR. He wrote a similar letter in 2005.

Catherine Corkery, with The Sierra Club, said Bass’ consistent opposition to drilling in the pristine area should be commended.

“He deserves his props on this issue, because he’s always been there and once again he’s one House Republican who’s taken a lead on it,’’ she said.

No tax? Not necessarily

The biggest surprise from a WMUR-TV poll last week was that a constitutional amendment outlawing a state income tax isn’t yet popular in no-tax New Hampshire.

The University of New Hampshire Survey Center poll found only 39 percent favored such an amendment, which is being championed by House Republican leaders; 41 percent opposed it and the other 20 percent didn’t know enough to say.

The rest of the results were predictable and consistent with less recent surveys.

Jobs and the economy remains the top issue, followed a distant second by the Republican control of the Legislature.

Now, that’s to be tempered by the reality most New Hampshire residents don’t know who House Speaker William O’Brien or Senate President Peter Bragdon, R-Milford, are.

While O’Brien’s negative rating isn’t pretty – 16 percent favorable, 25 percent unfavorable – well over half – 56 percent – don’t know enough to have any opinion at all; with Bragdon, 66 percent said they had no clue about him.

The state’s congressional delegation had the same profile it had last October, with only Bass holding a negative profile – 30 percent favorable to 35 percent unfavorable.

Targeting Bass

The state Democratic Party is taking great offense to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce bankrolling an expensive TV advertising campaign backing Bass’ support for reforming Medicare.

The pro-business group has taken a proactive approach, trying to help prop up vulnerable House GOP incumbents against inevitable attacks from Democratic candidates for trying to cut health insurance benefits for seniors.

For Bass, the corporate TV buy is worth $368,000, which is more than Bass has raised for his own re-election during the last six months.

“With an approval rating of just 30 percent, it is clear that big corporations are trying to bail out Congressman Bass with this expensive TV ad, but no amount of TV ads can cover up his votes to dismantle Medicare and explode the national debt over his 13 years in Washington,” said Harrell Kirstein, Democratic Party press secretary.

“The fact is, Bass voted for the hugely controversial Paul Ryan budget last year that would have ended Medicare as we know it and turn it into a private voucher system, and after his many votes for corporate tax subsidies and loopholes, the national debt has more than doubled on his watch.’’

Kevin Landrigan can reached at 321-7040 or klandrigan@nashuatelegraph.com. Also, follow Landrigan on Twitter (@KLandrigan) and www.nashuatelegraph.com/topics/livefeed.

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