Home » January 31st, 2011
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Please note the following corrections to today’s Daily Dispatch, “Overhaul Proposed for State Retirement System.” The complete story can be read here.
* The original Daily Dispatch mistakenly reported that Sen. Bradley’s proposed changes would affect vested employees. In fact, it affects primarily new hires and those current employees who will not have reached 10 years of vesting service by the time the legislation takes effect.
** The original Daily Dispatch mistakenly reported that the board is weighed with two employees for every employer member. In fact, the board is currently mandated to include only one employer seat and eight employee seats. The state treasurer, a senator, a representative, and two non-member trustees appointed by the governor and executive council would remain on the board under SB 3.
*** The original Daily Dispatch indicated that final compensation would be determined according to an average of the employee’s final five years of compensation. Technically, the bill proposes final compensation be determined according to the five highest years, not necessarily the final years.
We apologize for any confusion caused by these errors.
January 31st, 2011 | Posted in Front Door Politics, NH | Read More »
When it comes to the New Hampshire Retirement System (NHRS), Sen. Jeb Bradley (R-Wolfeboro) is ready for a major overhaul. He believes the situation demands prompt and decisive action.
“We need to get people off the dime,” Bradley told Front Door Politics shortly after he released details of his retirement system overhaul proposal late last week. “The problems are immense and the longer we wait, the worse it becomes.”
Sen. Jeb Bradley (R-Wolfeboro) will soon release his plan for a major overhaul of the NH Retirement System.
The measure will be known as Senate Bill 3. Bradley says it will be introduced within the next two weeks and it will require a detailed financial actuarial analysis by the NHRS. Bradley says it the bill is designed to stabilize and build up a retirement fund that is currently underfunded by an estimated $4.75 billion.
January 31st, 2011 | Posted in agencies & departments,cities & towns,Daily Briefing,Government,retirement,state budget,state employees,state employees,Work | Read More »
A year after a similar measure failed, a House committee will likely vote Tuesday on a proposal to postpone scheduled changes to education funding for New Hampshire cities and towns. The funding formula was settled on by the Legislature in 2008. It is due to change beginning July 1.
Sponsored by Rep. Kenneth Gould (R-Derry), House Bill 34 would maintain current levels of education grant funding to municipalities for fiscal years 2012 and 2013. The House Education Committee is scheduled to meet Tuesday in executive session and could make a recommendation to the full House about the bill at that time.
January 28th, 2011 | Posted in children,cities & towns,Daily Briefing,Education,Family,funding,Government,Money,Property,state budget,taxes,taxes | Read More »
An energy efficiency measure that passed just last year could be voted down by a House committee later today.
The Municipal & County Government Committee will hold an executive session on House Bill 144, which is sponsored by Rep. Carol McGuire (R-Epsom). It would repeal the law allowing cities and towns to create energy efficiency and clean energy districts.
January 27th, 2011 | Posted in Commerce,Daily Briefing,electricity,energy sector,Environment & Resources,Property,renewable energy,utilities | Read More »
Be honest: How well do you really understand the New Hampshire’s budget? What’s the difference, for example, between the general fund and education fund budget lines? How much is the state debt? How is the ten-year highway plan funded?
Don’t feel discouraged if the answers elude you. Even an avowed budget expert like Charlie Arlinghaus, president of the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy, admits he needs refresher points to keep up with budget developments. In an effort to help everyone — lawmakers, policy makers, the general public and media organizations such as Front Door Politics — better understand the mysteries of the state budget, The Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy is holding its annual “Budget 101” seminar Thursday at the State House.
January 26th, 2011 | Posted in bonds,Daily Briefing,Government,retirement,roads & highways,state budget,state employees,state employees,tolls & taxes,Transportation,Work | Read More »
Members of the public could be barred from serving on legislative study committees, with a new bipartisan proposal.
Sponsored by Rep. Laurie Harding (D-Lebanon), House Bill 190 follows a strong bipartisan House vote last year that approved a rule (not a formal law) limiting membership on House study committees to representatives. Previously, some study committees had allowed for public members or representatives from state government agencies.
January 25th, 2011 | Posted in committees,Daily Briefing,Government | Read More »
More than 120 unsolved murders in New Hampshire stretch back over four decades. Now, a bipartisan group of lawmakers wants to make the state’s temporary investigative Cold Case Unit a permanent entity.
The unit has been up and running since fall 2009, when House Bill 690 was enacted. Paid for with federal stimulus funding, bill created a cold case unit with a prosecutor and three detectives whose work has raised the public profile of a number of cases. So far,though, no cases have been solved, and the investigations could run out of time. The 2009 law that created the Cold Case Unit also gave it a sunset provision to expire July 1, 2013.
January 24th, 2011 | Posted in Daily Briefing,Justice,unsolved crimes | Read More »
Public employees and unions are keeping a close eye on big changes to the New Hampshire Retirement System that could be coming down the pike — and on a newly created House committee on pension reform.
When the recession hit, the state’s public employee pension system was already battered from a decade of chronic underfunding. Now, lawmakers are looking for ways to deal with more than $3 billion in unfunded liabilities for future retirees. The pension system serves over 75,000 active and retired teachers, fire fighters, police officers and public employees from more than 450 New Hampshire municipalities.
January 21st, 2011 | Posted in Daily Briefing,Government,retirement,state budget,state employees,state employees,Work | Read More »
New House Speaker William O’Brien (R-Mont Vernon) has removed the requirement that House committees provide advance notice of their executive sessions, when committee recommendations are decided.
January 20th, 2011 | Posted in Daily Briefing,Government,public hearings & public records | Read More »
Less than four years after a bipartisan measure in the Legislature met the New Hampshire Supreme Court’s order to define an “adequate education,” a Litchfield lawmaker has filed a bill to change that definition.
Republican Rep. Ralph Boehm, vice chair of the House Education Committee, will present House Bill 39 for a public hearing in the committee on Tuesday, Jan. 25. Among other changes, Boehm’s bill would eliminate education in the arts, world languages, health and technology as part of the adequate education requirement for school districts that was passed in 2007 as part of House Bill 927.
January 20th, 2011 | Posted in adequacy,Daily Briefing,Education,funding | Read More »
