New Hampshire doesn’t have a voter fraud problem, and Republican lawmakers want to keep it that way by requiring photo ID from voters.
Expect a spirited debate when the House votes on Senate Bill 129 in its full session Wednesday…
There’s been a lot of debate about liberty this legislative session. But one never knows how the ideal will emerge — or in what legislation.
Case in point: A proposed law about residential fire sprinklers provides an intriguing confluence between personal liberty, public safety and local control. When the N.H. House votes later today on Senate Bill 91, it will offer one perspective on the cost of liberty.
What would you do with a few extra nickels?
If it seems like politicians want to cut the gasoline tax every time fuel prices begin to skyrocket, as we’ve seen during the past month, well you’re right.
You may recall, for example, how the massive gas price hikes during the summer of 2008 (during a presidential election season, by the way) brought out urgent political calls for a gas tax cut. Last week, the N.H. Republican House leadership said one solution to today’s high gas prices is a temporary 5 cent per gallon cut in the tax through June 30.
Naturally, Gov. John Lynch disagrees.
In many ways, House Bill 71 is a case study in successful bipartisan legislative work. Ring a bell?
The often adversarial nature of politics — this session in the New Hampshire Legislature being no exception — begs the question of what it takes to find common ground. The reality is complicated. For all their public bickering, lawmakers often do get along, especially at the committee level. But that fact of life doesn’t make many headlines.
Enter the pharmaceutical drug take-back program.
The next two-year budget is setting off political fireworks even before it’s written, but that day will come soon. The House Finance Committee is scheduled to complete its budget work next week, with executive sessions on Monday and Tuesday, March 21 and 22.
The Committee has been holding budget hearings for the past month. In the meantime, sparks have flown.
The N.H. Senate is in session today to vote on more than 40 bills and amendments. Here is a sampling of the proposals we are keeping an eye on — retirement system reform, expanded gambling and car registration.
On Friday, House Speaker William O’Brien (R-Mont Vernon) threw his support behind a measure that would make the Legislature – not the courts – the final authority on educational standards and funding.
The move comes midway through an extended public hearing on one of New Hampshire’s most challenging public policy debates: a constitutional amendment on education funding. The public hearing continues Wednesday …
Another casino proposal will take the stage for a public hearing on Monday, when the N.H. Senate returns to work after their own February break.
Last month, we tracked a different gambling proposal in the House that would create casinos with video poker, slots and table games. After a public hearing Feb. 22, the House Ways and Means Committee voted to retain the bill in committee. The same fate is unlikely for a much more expansive effort currently underway in the Senate.
Our midstream progress report continues today, checking up on the status of some featured legislation we’ve covered so far this session.
For more background on each bill, click the links to the corresponding dispatches in the bolded heading.
A new standard for local control — letting towns and cities establish their own revenue options such as an income or sales tax to replace the property tax — will have a public hearing this morning in the House Ways and Means Committee. The committee will also consider two bills which would turn back the clock on scores of taxes and fee increases enacted since 2006 (House Bill 646) and 2007 (House Bill 645) and would impact every generating office in state government.