This week, the Finance committee met to recommend 29 bills to the House. We did 20 before lunch, then settled in on the more difficult ones. Since these bills had been heard, debated, and in some cases amended, in the divisions, the committee tended to accept the judgment of the division; bills that were contentious in division remained contentious in committee. The vote for these bills was 25-0 unless otherwise noted; a purely partisan vote in Finance is 14-11.
We started with the bills from my division. HB 241, health insurance coverage for chronic pain; HB 629, raising the boat decal fee to fund dam maintenance; HB 1197, technical corrections to insurance laws; HB 1426, requiring the department of environmental services to employ certified personnel; and HB 1457, natural organic reduction of human remains, all passed without much comment.
HB 1458, licensing proprietors of massage and bodywork establishments, had an amendment to update the language of the criminal background check to ensure the FBI would give us the complete data we wanted. HB 1576, enforcement of criminal restitution obligations, had no comment; HB 1600, access to the voter registration database had our amendment to ensure “direct or indirect” access on election day, and was briefly discussed.
HB 1622, requirements to increase solid waste disposal capacity, had no comment. HB 1633, providing information on their rights to survivors of sexual assaults, had one member concerned about the quoted costs to collect and analyze physical evidence. I pointed out that rape and sexual assault are already crimes, and collecting and preserving evidence is something the attorney general is normally responsible for. We don’t worry about the costs of lab tests when we require the state police to crack down on drunk or drugged driving; it’s part of the job. We voted 24-1 to recommend this bill.
HB 1710, procedures relative to child abduction, had some discussion of the problems with the bill, particularly the cost of training and implementation quoted by the judicial branch. We felt we needed to verify the extent of any problem with child abduction, and why this change requires so much training, before we authorized the spending. Therefore, we voted to send it to interim study.
HB 1718, on energy storage in net metering, passed without comment.
HB 1421, modifying title exemptions for vehicles manufactured before 2000, and HB 1466, on title certificates for some trailers, both passed without comment. HB 1492, on towing regulation and prohibiting a license suspension for non-payment of a towing fee, also passed quietly.
HB 1563, on the special education aid formula, had an amendment to completely replace the text. It was explained as lowering the threshold of expenses where the state started to reimburse towns from 3.5 times the average cost of education to 2.5 times, increasing percentages of reimbursement as the cases became more and more complex, peaking at 90% for the most expensive cases. The bill also adds more audit requirements to the claims, hoping to find some of the reasons special education is so expensive. It, and the bill, were recommended after some talk.
HB 1130, on judicial performance audits, had the minor amendment I proposed in division passed unanimously – deleting scheduling as a performance factor and moving out the effective date. Then we debated the concept. The costs were an issue, but some members were concerned that the legislature was inappropriately meddling in the judicial branch’s affairs. We voted to recommend the bill 13-12, so I expect a debate on the House side.
HB 1571, requiring the department of education to review academic standards and curriculum every ten years, had a division amendment to delay the effective date to July, 2027, in the next budget. This and the bill passed with minimal discussion.
HB 1827, requiring a criminal record check on all educational personnel, also passed without comment; the vote was 24-0 because I had stepped out for a moment.
HB 1720, requiring notice for providers of child care scholarships, had the unusual recommendation of “recommend but laid on table due to funding.” I’ve never seen this before, and it’s peculiar here since Finance deals with spending. The division explained that it was a nice thing to do, but not the highest priority if there is any limit on funding. So we tried out that motion and passed it unanimously.
HB 1477, permitting and regulation of anchored seasonal platforms, was a problem. With little or no information on the numbers of these platforms, and a fear that the administrative and enforcement costs would soak up the fees, leaving little or nothing for cyanobacteria remediation, the motion was to kill the bill. One member was opposed, citing a source that 25% of shorefront properties have some anchored float, and she thought that anyone installing their personal property in public waters should be paying a fee for the privilege. Another member pointed out that floats do not cause cyanobacteria blooms; if anything they help prevent it by shading the water. Cyanobacteria blooms are caused by shorefront erosion, fertilizer runoff, and leaky septic systems that provide nutrients to the lakes.
Finally, one side of the committee was convinced that we need to raise money to deal with cyanobacteria, and people with seasonal platforms are obvious lake users who don’t currently contribute to the fund; others didn’t care for the mechanism, and either wanted another funding source or a surer way of raising funds. The vote was 14-11.
HB 1775, utility ownership of small gas and nuclear generators, had very minimal costs and the chance of improving reliability on the electric grid. Some members thought nuclear was too risky, or that this bill would prevent the utilities from investing more in solar or wind; the vote was 15-10 to pass.
HB 112, requiring public university graduates to pass a civics test, was argued that it was too much trouble to the university to keep track of the many exemptions and waivers! More sensibly, another representative questioned the balance of effort to reward, and yet another posited that setting a graduation mandate was the start of a slippery slope. We finally voted for it, 14-11. I don’t think this is as vital as the sponsor does, but public ignorance of civics is great and rising.
HB 1469, licensing massage establishments, had a minor amendment to delete the one added position. Since the town of Derry was pushing hard to get this passed, the vote was 15-10. I was opposed, because of the likely effect on legitimate massage establishments, and the incongruity of using licensing clerks to enforce the laws.
HB 1602, battery recycling program, had an initial motion of interim study because of technical problems with the bill and concern about shutting down non-affiliated recyclers and battery manufacturers. That failed, 12-13. A minor amendment to fix a typo passed unanimously, and the vote was 13-12.
HB 1483, creating a special license plate for amateur radio operators, was argued at some length. An amendment to delete a separate fee, leaving the standard vanity plate fee, passed without argument. Then we debated the appropriateness of this plate, and also whether it should have simply been added to the decal plate program. According to one member whose hobby is license plates, the previous radio plate was widely available in the 60’s through 80’s, then dropped when an agency wanted to claim the prefix “W.” After the dust settled, we recommended it 19-5, one absent.
HB 1555, administration and enforcement of the state fire code, was debated on the policy, not the cost. Several representatives thought it infringed on local control, and they dragged all the Democrats along with them, 14-10.
HB 1705, enlisting local first responders in the state employee assistance program, was recommended for interim study, which is the same recommendation the first committee gave! There are problems with it: it’s in a totally inappropriate section of statute, for one, and many of the PTSD afflicted first responders would not be eligible to join since they are now former employees. The supporters insisted that something needed to be done, and that the state program costs only $38/person/year, so it’s affordable. The vote was a partisan 14-10.
HB 1809, authorizing medical use of psilocybin, was recommended to kill. The sponsor and many proponents seemed to be confused as to whether psilocybin (commonly called “magic mushrooms”) was rated as schedule 1 or 3. In addition, the bill sets up a research program on its use, and many of use questioned whether the state should be doing such a thing. (Dartmouth Medical School, sure, if they want to pay for it – or the VA!) I co-sponsored the bill, but hadn’t considered these issues – or the cost, including at least two employees in HHS to support just the advisory committee. It doesn’t seem like something the state needs to do right now. The vote was 13-11, with one Republican joining the Democrats to amend the bill to a narrower focus.
Having completed our agenda, the chair then moved to reconsider the vote on HB 1602, battery recycling. All votes were identical: the 10 remaining Democrats plus one Republican who had given his word to support it, versus the 14 remaining Republicans. We voted to reconsider the ought to pass motion, then voted it down, then reconsidered the first motion of interim study, and passed it. This is definitely going to be a floor fight.
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