First, a hat tip to Grokster Beth Scaer, an ardent Rosenwald watchdog, because she called attention to SB 406, a $20M “appropriation” to Nashua for the purchase of the Daniel Webster College(DWC) property. Hey, what person of sound mind would NOT want DWC removed from CCP ownership? I’m sure Rosenwald, the sponsor, and all those blue Nashua rep cosponsors would ask any critic of the bill. To all the sponsors and their supporters, I say “not so fast!” Why should an embattled city get $20M of STATE money at the expense of the rest of the state? Why should DWC become CITY property if STATE money is being used to buy it? Either way, the property stops being taxable, which translates to that part of the overall burden being absorbed by the rest of the city.
There’s been plenty of discussion here, there, and everywhere about such things lately. If the STATE is going to fork over $20M to the CITY, it should become STATE property, but that’s just my opinion. I notified the LTW campaign and looked in the Senate Meeting Schedule link on NH.gov and noticed there is already a Senate Finance committee hearing scheduled for 1 pm on Tuesday, January 13, in Room 103 of the State House. Interestingly, only 20 minutes is allotted for that, as there’s a blue YDC property sale bill(SB 481) that you might consider staying for. I could go on and on ranting about all the enemy camp bills scheduled that afternoon in Senate Finance, which is all 4 of them, but let’s move on to the public service message on using the “remote sign-in” portal.
Bookmark it on a real computer. You can use a phone, but a real keyboard will help you work faster when registering your support or opposition to multiple bills at once.
I will use SB 406 as an example. Once in the remote sign-in page, select the date(January 13), then select the committee (Finance), then select the bill (SB 406), then select what you are (a member of the public) and representing “myself.”
Select your position and click on CONTINUE.
You will be prompted to populate your name and hometown and click on CONTINUE.
On the next page, you will review the information you supplied, click on the “I agree” box and the CONTINUE button.
That’s it, unfortunately, because the Senate’s webmaster doesn’t give you the opportunity to submit comments, such as the opinions and concerns I expressed earlier. The House, however, provides that opportunity through its counterpart portal, in addition to the ability to upload files if you already have a statement prepared to attach.
You can always email committee members of any committee in either chamber with your input, which I would recommend if you have a lot to say and a cranky committee chair that’s going to cut you off at the mic 3 minutes after you start speaking. If it’s a bill of great public interest and a lot of people are signed up to speak, but you’re too short on time to wait your turn to be called on, emailing is a substitute. You can always follow up with another email if you want to engage with a committee member, but there’s no guarantee you won’t be ignored.
Bookmark the House portal because all bills that survive the whole body vote in their original chambers will visit the other chamber and restart the committee process, and sometimes a 2nd committee is involved, which is usually Finance. So there you have it, Ladies and Gentlemen, as Chau Kelley often says. There are usually over 1,000 bills, but you can speak up about the ones that matter. And back to the senate, I will give you two practice exercises. Your assignment, should you choose to accept, is to register your SUPPORT for SB 418 in Senate Commerce on January 13 and SUPPORT for SB 616 on January 14 in Senate Health and Human Services. After all, like-minded people shouldn’t be supporting city pickle tyrants or SNAP/EBT being used for junk food.
