[Art.] 28-a. [Mandated Programs.] The state shall not mandate or assign any new, expanded or modified programs or responsibilities to any political subdivision in such a way as to necessitate additional local expenditures by the political subdivision unless such programs or responsibilities are fully funded by the state or unless such programs or responsibilities are approved for funding by a vote of the local legislative body of the political subdivision.
With that as a background, let’s us contemplate that in trying to “help”, the NH Senate “hurts”.
Senate kills proposed restrictions on plastic bags, straws
In that article, replicated at all of the NH media sites, it was told that the NH House Democrats’ effort to get rid of plastic drinking straws had the life sucked out of it:
In one vote, the body chose to kill House Bill 558, which would prevent restaurants and other food vendors from providing plastic straws unless asked by customers. That bill would have applied to vendors ranging from restaurants to food trucks to movie theaters to cafeterias, making exceptions for certain health care facilities.
The NH Senate also bagged the effort to eliminate “single use” plastic bags – making life much harder and less convenient for those of us in which “single use” doesn’t exist in our vocabulary (after all, don’t Democrats keep insisting on “reduce, reuse, recycle”?)
Soon after, Senate Democrats stripped bare House Bill 560, a bill to ban plastic bags from distribution at groceries and other businesses.
And most people, the “We are going to tell you how to live your lives” and the “Leave us alone Coalition” pretty much stopped there. For me, I was going “good, votes to leave us alone” – totally unexpected but I’ll take it. But it was the next line that really caught my eye:
An amendment by Senate Majority Leader Dan Feltes gutted the original bill and replaced it with a mandate that towns compile annual reports on their waste management practices.
So, what is the State now going to do? There is a Fiscal Note associated with HB560’s text but nary a word about paying for it – which means that the Towns and Cities are going to take it in the financial chops again. Are they going to now amend it to actually pay for the cost of those annual reports?
An associated question – where this bill is blatantly unconstitutional (Article 28-A), what will Gov. Sununu do with this bill? Will he sign it, believing “less bad, take advantage of it” or go “another ‘tax” downshifted by the State – you shall not pass”?
What will he do, what will he do?
(H/T: Concord Monitor)
