Today we began the day with a joint legislative session with the Senate to hear the Governor’s budget presentation. We learned that the Governor delivered to the House and Senate a budget that allocates more money to education and communities, contains no new tax increases, and focuses on the housing crisis and supports law enforcement. She is seeking legislation from us to fix bail reform. She is making a $98.8 million dollar investment in special education which is almost 50% more than in the last budget. She underscored the fact that we are not awash in COVID money and surpluses so this time around we have to “recalibrate” how we’re doing things and make sure that every tax dollar is wisely spent. She is proposing a reduction in general fund spending of $150 million in this budget from that of the previous budget.
She wants to fix the broken retirement system, appropriating $33 million to address the problems we have with pensions for law enforcement and first responders. She also pledged a moratorium on landfill siting in the Granite State. She thanked all the agency heads for their work and cooperation to find savings and to look at ways to do things more efficiently. From what I am hearing, the legislature will probably want to take this budget to the barber and do a lot more trimming – like maybe another $850 million. Yes, cell phones are a problem in classrooms and can be a distraction, but do we really need to spend a million dollars on cell phone pouches in our schools to provide a place to safely keep cell phones out of the classroom? There will be a lot more scrutiny of expenditures and various commissions and programs, by members of Finance and Ways and Means committees in the coming months.
We learned that 16 bills were on the menu for today with around 205 Republican and 175 Democrats in the House. A big caucus priority for the Republicans, was the Right To Work bill… or rather the “Workplace Freedom Law”. Right out of the gate Rep. Stephen Pearson (R- Derry) made a motion to Indefinitely Postpone HB238-FN. After the speeches were done, and after many emails to house members and many snail mail pieces were sent, and phone calls made, the result was a roll call vote of 200Y-180N with 25 Republicans voting against their caucus and joining with Democrats ultimately killing this bill with Indefinite Postponement. Union members in the gallery cheered and one screamed out, “Thank You”. So even though the Janus decision works out well for public union employees, the same choice now cannot happen for those in the private sector. Even the baby in the back of Reps Hall cried the rest of the day because of this Indefinite Postponement.
We learned that HB346-FN was ultimately killed with an ITL voice vote after the committee recommended OTP motion failed 183Y-185N. This bill would have raised fees on licensure for race tracks from a cap of $100 to $500. Testimony was that the fees have not been raised since the early 1970’s and the costs to municipalities (for code enforcement, fire and police coverage, inspections, etc.) has surely gone up since then. With fees remaining the same, taxpayers will continue to subsidize the costs of dealing with these private racetracks as the checkered flag was waved at the finish line of this House vote.
We learned that OHRV trails on the Connecticut River Headwaters property will be kept open from September 30 to Columbus Day (HB127) after an OTP vote of 198Y-180N. 10 miles of trails in Pittsburg, NH will have extended availability, bringing in more revenue to the area. Local businesses and a petition of 700 signatures showed great support for the passage of this bill. Live Free and Ride!
HB174 died on a voice vote after an OTP motion failed 188Y-190N. This bill would have increased the maximum weight of utility terrain vehicles to 3500 unladen dry weight. The bill was brought forward to pave the way for legal usage of electric OHRV’s that weigh much more than what is currently used. Proponents claimed that these electric OHRVs were less noisy and less polluting, but opponents claimed that not all stakeowners and local property owners input were taken into consideration for whether heavier vehicles should be using these current trails. Some people claimed the heavier vehicles damage the trails. People think this should be studied more and that there were still too many unaddressed concerns. It’s yet another weighty legislative issue.
HB203 was ITL’d on a roll call vote 215Y-162N. This bill mandated the use of coast guard approved flotation devices to be used while on NH State waters. A mandate such a this goes against “Live Free or Die” philosophy, so it was drowned.
We learned that we paused here to entertain a motion to suspend the rules in order for Rep. Belcher (R- Wakefield) to present a House Resolution. The House Resolution would have impeached a bail magistrate who released a man “despite the extreme violence and randomness of the crime” and this man went on to stab someone several times outside a city convenience store in Manchester. The motion to suspend the rules failed to get the 2/3 vote required 199Y-176N. This underscores the need for bail reform.
We learned that the next three “water bills” also took water and sunk. HB332 allowing for the establishment of a village district to protect and remediate surface water was ITL’d on a roll called vote of 196Y-171N because it added another layer of government where one is not needed. There are other methods – like working with the local selectboards – to determine how best to take care of water issues. Multiple towns can work together and there is no need for yet another governing body to create ordinances and regulations to protect local public waters. Additionally, we have DES enforcing water quality standards. HB334 was also ITL’d 199Y-171N, and that bill would have added language to the state development plan to include goals and policies for drinking water aquifer identification and protection of our lakes, rivers, estuaries, forest, wetlands, and shoreline uplands, coastal marshlands, wildlife habitats, yada yada yada….and to anticipate future threats to all that. Honestly, it’s not like we don’t care about these things but adding in all this extra language to the state development plan is really unnecessary, and it would cost DES almost a million dollars to implement. Existing regulatory authority already covers the protection of our natural resources. HB422-FN was the last in this series of bills to be ITL’d 196Y-175N on a roll call vote. This bill would have raised penalties for violations of the shoreland and water quality protection act from $5,000-$15,000. Seeing as the last fine was issued in 2013, it doesn’t seem necessary to raise the fines. Compliance has been achieved through education, not threats of exorbitant fines.
We learned that SB4 – or the C-PACER bill was passed on a voice vote. This bill expands and updates the existing commercial property assessed clean energy and resiliency (C-PACER) program that facilitates energy efficiency improvements to existing commercial housing stock. It’s usually used when rehabilitating older commercial buildings. The loan is paid like a monthly tax bill. It makes major improvements to the program currently in place by allowing municipalities to collect energy efficiency loan payments via property taxes. This change will permit such a loan to be attached to the building, not the building’s current owner. C-PACER may be a green loan program but it will now also save people a different kind of “green”.
We learned that HB55 passed on a voice vote. This bill originally sought to repeal four Selective Registration Awareness and Compliance sub-paragraphs under RSA 187-A. The Department of Military and Veteran Services (DMAVS) opposed the bill for several reasons. Repealing the entire section could result in military organizations being compelled to hire personnel felt to be incompatible with organizational missions and morale. DMAVS did not have issues with repealing the sub-paragraphs that concerned postsecondary education and the administrative requirements impacting financial aid and enrollment. So, the subsequent compromise amendment (0174h) repealed the provisions that postsecondary sought to have eliminated while leaving in place the language that DMAVS sought to retain.
HB64 also passed on a voice vote. This bill extends hiring preferences for military members and their spouses to the state and private businesses, and establishes purchase preferences for disabled veterans and military spouses regarding state supply purchases in certain circumstances. For example, some law enforcement organizations give hiring consideration points to veterans seeking civilian careers in law enforcement. This measure would extend certain considerations to military spouses as well.
We passed HCR8 urging Congress to find that the Piscataqua River and Portsmouth Harbor lie within the state of New Hampshire. The vote was OTP 250Y-123N. The majority believes that the decades-long dispute between Maine and New Hampshire over the boundary between our states re:Portsmouth Harbor and the Piscataqua River requires our federal delegation to take action and introduce legislation that could more clearly document that the entirety of the harbor lies within New Hampshire. For most of its history, the US Navy seems to have acknowledged that the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard was New Hampshire territory, but more recently it has taken a neutral stance. Some current tax estimates indicate the amount of Maine state income taxes collected from Portsmouth area Granite Staters working at the shipyard is as high as $6 million a year. More than just a border dispute – we’re also trying to keep the Maine pirates at bay!
We passed HCR9 OTP 204Y-163N to urge the United States to REJECT compliance with the European Union’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. CSDDD is filled with all sorts of DEI wokeism and business killing statist/socialist policies, so we needed to support this HCR. Rep. Lily ‘Let’s Be More Like Europe’ Foss (D-Manchester) spoke on the virtues of the European Union and how “the US needs the EU more than we need them”. But to be honest, the cadence of her voice and her virtue signaling was enough to have us vote Yes to the OTP motion. My suggestion is that if she loves Europe so much, there are planes that leave the US every day and she is welcome to move there.
We also passed HCR11 328Y-41N, urging the United States government to investigate allegations of abuse of minorities, especially Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, and other religious minorities by the interim government of Bangladesh. This resolution is meant to address recent reports of human rights abuses that appear to be taking place in the country of Bangladesh.
We learned that another cat fight was brought to the House chambers. HB201-FN was ITL’d 191Y-177N. This bill would have prohibited the removal of claws from cats. This was the 3rd time in the past 6 years that this bill has come before us. This bill is a solution in search of a problem. There is no real need to ban this procedure or codify harsh penalties to veterinarians. We do not have any reason to believe that NH has a problem with our veterinarians performing cat declawing procedures for non medical reasons. The overwhelming majority of NH veterinarians already discourage or do not offer cat declawing procedures and instead work with cat owners to use behavior modification and other techniques to prevent the cat from scratching family members or destroying property. The reality is that animal activists have been introducing these bills in legislatures all across the country and are fundraising off of it. When they get something passed they come back for more procedures to ban and keep fundraising. Most importantly, we as a legislature should not go down the road of removing autonomy from NH veterinarians and dictating to them what procedures they can and cannot offer. Our licensed veterinarians have the knowledge, experience, and wisdom to work with their clients to determine what procedures are the right ones for their pets and the legislature should not interfere with that relationship. I’m glad this bill was tossed in the litterbox where it belongs.
Lastly, we passed HB369-FN with a voice vote. This bill, as amended, provides protection for minors under 18 in misdemeanor sexual assault cases.
So kids… that’s it for today. We’ll be back on the 20th with more interesting and thought provoking bills. Until then, get out your scissors and let’s play “what should we cut from the budget!” See you then!!
