UPDATE! HB1397 has been killed. Success Leaders: NH State Rep/Belknap County Delegation Chair Mike Sylvia, NH State Rep and House Majority Leader Jason Osborne, GAC Commissioner Dave Strang, and NH State Rep Norm Silber, Diane Pauer and Speaker Sherm Packard.
UPDATE 2: It looks like Guida got a bit of comeupence like Kimberly Rice did on the Parental Rights bill. Except, however, Rice stayed on the Committee. Guida was replaced by the President of the NH Senate, Chuck Morse. Wow! Kudos to Morse on this!.
And this CoC just convened and I am waiting for an update soonest!
That would be HB1397 – what was originally a bill to extend the terms of Rockingham elected officials from 2 years to 4 years. Yeah, I dunno, either, why they’d have 4 years while the rest of NH goes every two years. But that’s beside the point. NH State Senator Bob Guida basically shoved that part aside and butted into the Gunstock Ski Area brouhaha by totally rewriting the bill such that it would isolate this county-owned recreation area from the rest of Belknap County governance, strip the Belknap County Delegation AND the Belknap County Commissioners of their authority and oversight of it, and made it financially without oversight – except for the Gunstock Area Commission.
Which was the point all along as the Gary Kiedaisch / Rusty McLear / Tim Lang’s of this cabal weren’t too happy that they lost their Power base on the GAC due to those “damn Conservatives in the Delegation that simply were Following The Law”. In doing so, new Commissioners were installed that actually are Following the Law (other than being late in responding to my Right To Know/RSA 91A demands but that’s another story). And in doing that, took their playtoy away and their delusions of creating a “mini-me” version of Loon, Waterville Valley, or other kind of “for-profit” ski areas that are destinations versus “ski for the day for the locals”.
So, it’s my understanding that Guida decided to throw his weight around and became the insufferable self that has been in process for the last couple of years (re: “do you know who I am??”). Things didn’t go well for him during yesterday’s Committee of Conference and, as one person put it, got up and angrily ran out of one of the CoC’s work sessions. It doesn’t help that he loudly called the House Committee Chair Tom Dolan an effing liar.
Well, that’s a GREAT way to destroy friendships and NOT influence people (makes it rather interesting for me, however, watching his self-induced political career implosion in real-time). Dolan knows of this outburst.
Now, I’m no expert on CoC’s but I’ve been told that if just ONE person doesn’t like the bill after trying to reconcile the House and Senate versions, the bill dies (like what NH State Rep Kimberly Rice tried to do to the Parental Rights bill yesterday). Unlike the Parental Rights bill, RSA 399 that governs Gunstock has worked well since 1959. Unfortunately, those that had the Power are acting just like the Left is doing with regard to the US Supreme Court in change from [il]liberal Democrat judge majority to now a Conservative one. Court packing, term limits, calls for intimidation tactics, even…insurrection! Their “Super-Legislature” was taken from them and they are ticked.
And Guida has now done the legislative equivalent and is trying to ram it through. I’m told, however, that his ham-fisted manner is going to end with a non-concurrence (right term??) and it will die.
