We were disappointed to see that 156 Republicans voted like SHEEP (YES) on HCR1, a call for a Constitutional Convention to AMEND the US Constitution. When confronted, many spouted the very talking points we have heard from the COS lobbyists.
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These lobbyists donate lots of money to candidates, who then are obliged to vote their way, despite our sending them good information as to why this is NOT a good idea. The bottom line is, while we would love to see a balanced budget and term limits, endangering our US Constitution is NOT the way to do it. The proponents of the COS claim that the constitution cannot be replaced, but if that is true, why then have more than three new PROGRESSIVE versions of it been written? This is the bottom-line argument that should overshadow any other in argument that favors this process. Liberals from Harvard started the movement, and this is their goal.
HCR4 is yet another push for the COS. This bill also must be defeated.
HB44 – DEFEATED
House Bill 44 would have allowed your current single-family neighborhood to be turned into a multi-family neighborhood if homes are connected to municipal sewer and water. Many traditional neighborhoods would have been at risk. In Bedford for example, some traditional single-family neighborhoods were forced to connect to Manchester’s system due to PFAS and transfer station runoff. Most had no idea what this bill could have done to their neighborhood.
COMMUTER RAIL – DEFEATED
Bringing the MBTA up to NH was squashed for now by a vote of 3-2 in the Executive Council. We have done plenty of research on this matter with guidance from a transportation engineer. One only needs to read about the problems with the MBTA of late to know that it would be a loss for NH taxpayers.
There is still another bill, HB110, which would block taxpayer funding of future rail projects. It is uncertain at this time where this bill is headed as it was retained in committee.
BAD NEWS
HB347 – PASSED
HB 347 is a bill that would create a Land Court. This gives yet a 3rd way for developers to run roughshod over your town vote. It does NOT eradicate the unconstitutional Housing Appeals Board (HAB) It would still have to be run through a Senate committee then pass the full Senate. The way the Senate has been jonesing for housing giveaways and takeovers, we are not optimistic it can be stopped. The Governor himself is big into AFFH (Obama’s Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing act) so we can’t depend on a veto from him either. When it comes to the Senate we can try, however.
COMING UP
SB231 is the mother of all housing doozies. It is a $75M giveaway in part to developers to build low-income, high-density housing anywhere in NH. NH Senators Dan Innis and Jeb Bradley think that NH doesn’t have enough apartment buildings and that your town vote should not matter when it comes to how you want to let your town develop. This is another push to eradicate local control. Did anyone tell these folks that the state should have no business controlling housing with regard to what is built and where? Having plenty of jobs is a NH Advantage, not a minus. It is not up to the government to provide places for workers to live. We are sure this bill will pass the full Senate but the question is, will they allow it to cross to the House for a vote or will they sneak it into the budget like they did to pass the HAB which had failed 3 times before? Stay tuned for the details.
WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS?
Stop Taxpayer Funded Lobbying! – Special government sectors such as the Office of Planning and Development and groups such as the House Special Committee on Housing are basically taxpayer-funded lobbying. It seems whenever the Governor can’t get his bills passed, he creates another ‘commission’ to grease the wheels in the legislature.
