NH State Rep Carol McGuire – Your State House 6/18/21 - Granite Grok

NH State Rep Carol McGuire – Your State House 6/18/21

Reps-Hall NH House

This week, the House and Senate worked together to finalize bills amended by each other. I was assigned to four of these committees of conference, and three went very smoothly. For SB 133 and SB 104, omnibus bills on professional licensing and state employees respectively, we merely explained our amendment to the Senate and they agreed with us.

HB 533, on how the lottery commission investigates gaming applicants, was a bit more complex: the Senate had (helpfully) expanded our language to charitable gaming operators, but inadvertently used the expired statute as a base rather than the current one. So we met to fix the reference and added some clarifying language on cost reimbursements as well. All very amicable.

HB 417, on the governor’s emergency powers, was also amicable but not as productive. We met three times, agreeing on the Senate language for fiscal oversight and notifications, with a few tweaks. It soon became evident that we disagreed on whether or not the legislature needed to vote to continue a state of emergency.

Everyone agreed that we could vote to end one – that’s current law – or a specific emergency order; the House position that the emergency would end without specific authorization was not agreed by the Senate (nor the governor, for that matter.) Since that position was strongly held by many House members (supported by a 328-41 vote!) the committee was unwilling to give it up. After making a final offer of 90 days before a vote was needed, we agreed to disagree.

Other committees had the same pattern. HB 1, the actual budget numbers, was agreed upon after a single meeting; HB 2, the statutory changes to support those numbers (plus some items not exactly necessary for the budget but included as support for the policy) met up until the deadline.

If we had agreed on HB 417, it would have been included in HB 2; as it was a version with the consensus language was in HB 2.

There is some disagreement with the budget, but most of the objections are that it isn’t as good as it could/should have been: that the anti-critical race theory ban and the emergency powers section had been “watered down.” Well, maybe, but they are present. There is quite a bit of concern about including family/medical leave, but it has been pushed out far enough that we can deal with it next year.

All in all, it’s a vast improvement over the current budget and includes enough of my priorities (tax cuts; property tax cuts; CRT control; using one-time funding for infrastructure – water and sewer projects, school buildings, roads – not operating expenses; some control over the governor’s emergency powers) that I’m happy to vote for it. Of course, I could have done better – but the actual negotiators could have done a lot worse.

Carol McGuireRepresentative Carol McGuire
carol@mcguire4house.com
782-4918

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