Filed under: Commerce
After budget negotiations between the House and Senate broke down last week, Gov. Lynch and the Executive Council called lawmakers back to Concord for a special session on June 9. House and Senate leaders Terie Norelli and Sylvia Larsen are scheduled to release a bill the afternoon of June 7 that will get a public hearing June 8 and go to the House and Senate for debate on June 9.
They didn’t start from scratch in writing this bill. It includes $270 million in budget cuts and adjustments that were already agreed to by a joint House-Senate conference committee in recent weeks.
That committee walked away from budget talks, however, over the remaining $30 million and the issue of expanded gambling.
Continue June 8, 2010
New Hampshire’s Liquor Commission keeps a close eye on the 6,100 liquor license and permit holders in the state, but at least one lawmaker thinks someone should be keeping a closer eye on the commission.
Rep. Rip Holden (R-Goffstown) sponsored three bills this term to do just that. They didn’t make it far, but a fourth bill, sponsored by Sen. Lou D’Allesandro (D-Manchester) is close to becoming law.
“There’s no immediate checks and balance, and there is no balance, to my knowledge, from any branch, in the commission itself,” Holden says.
Continue April 26, 2010
In his 14 years as a New Hampshire legislator, Rep. David Bickford (R-New Durham) has seen efforts to re-calculate child support come and go. Many—about a dozen each year—make their way through the House or the Senate, but few succeed.
“We’re just Johnny-come-lately to make a change,” Bickford says. “We hire people, they work like dogs and come out with good reports, and the legislators say, ‘It’s over my head. We’ll study it and then get back to it maybe,’ and then we don’t. … I’ve just never seen anything move so slow.”
Bickford sponsored six of the 11 bills relating to child support this year, including House Bill 1474, which passed the House March 17. It would create a commission to move child support guidelines toward an “income shares” model. Other bills that have passed the House would tweak the support formula for multiple children and for shared custody.
Continue March 19, 2010
March 25 this year marks Crossover, the deadline for the N.H. House and Senate to vote on all bills that originated in those respective chambers.
Bills must pass the chamber in which they’re introduced before “crossing over” to the opposite chamber. Legislation that’s still alive after Crossover receives a second public hearing and potential floor debate before the second deadline in mid-May.
And some notable legislation is either still up for its first vote, or on its way to the other side.
Continue March 13, 2010
Gov. John Lynch’s Gaming Study Commission is nearing its end, but the time for public comment is just beginning. A new online forum for “deliberative” discussion opened Feb. 25, and organizers are optimistic about the opportunity it gives the public to inform decision-making.
Lynch formed the Study Commission in 2009 to conduct a review of various models of expanded gambling and their potential impacts on the state. Proposals for expanded gaming in New Hampshire range from bringing in video slot machines to full-fledged casinos to upscale casino resorts.
The forum, put together by the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire, is the final piece of a program called “What’s at Stake? Community Conversations to Weigh the Benefits and Risks of Expanded Legal Gambling In New Hampshire.”
Continue February 26, 2010
Unused prescription drugs could soon be donated to some uninsured or underinsured patients in New Hampshire. The Board of Pharmacy is working with three test sites in Hanover, Rochester and Exeter to roll out the Unused Prescription Drug Program created by the Legislature in 2006.
It’s a social cause that could save the state a lot of money, too.
Continue February 19, 2010
New Hampshire could see new jobs and renewable energy initiatives this summer, if a newly proposed amendment to a Senate bill is approved. But, that amendment also presents a number of complications.
The Senate Energy, Environment and Economic Development Committee will hold a public hearing on Senate Bill 334 and the amendment on Thursday, March 4, in room 102 of the Legislative Office Building in Concord.
Continue February 12, 2010
It was a landmark year for New Hampshire government in 2009—not only for the size of its budget deficit ($250 million) and the number of state layoffs it induced (200), but also for legislative action on some controversial social issues, like gay marriage, the death penalty and medical marijuana.
But these scores are far from settled, as evidenced in the new round of bills up for debate in Concord’s 2010 legislative session, which officially kicks off on Wednesday, Jan. 6
Continue January 4, 2010
Gov. John Lynch has—for now, at least—snuffed out New Hampshire’s medical marijuana bill. Lynch had remained tight-lipped about his stance on the legislation’s latest version until Friday morning, when he vetoed House Bill 648 just hours after it landed on his desk. It will now go back to the House and Senate, where a two-thirds majority could override the veto.
Continue July 16, 2009
In two separate cases, courts last week temporarily froze $119 million critical to the state’s brand new budget. This won’t leave the Granite State to issue IOUs like California has resorted to. But, it could mean a summer session for the Legislature.
And that could mean a second chance for gambling, another go at business and other taxes, or deeper cuts to services.
Continue July 9, 2009
Previous page
