In this Friday the 13th installment of They Said It, there was a lot of talk about Gov. John Lynch’s veto of so-called right-to-work legislation, pleasure over the first tax cut of the session signed into law, and a newspaper speaking out for consumers.
When it meets in full session Wednesday, the Senate will decide whether to join the House in prohibiting state funding of New Hampshire Public Television.
House Bill 113, which passed the House 263-102 in February, has received closer scrutiny in the Senate. Sponsored by Steve Vaillancourt (R-Manchester), the measure would stop all state funding for NHPTV (Channel 11), including contracts with state agencies for educational and broadcasting services.
There was plenty to say this week about RGGI, federal health care reform, private prisons, and payday loans …
Should New Hampshire resurrect its in-state meat and poultry inspection service it abandoned more than three decades ago?
The issue has emerged in the past few years as a number of smaller meat and poultry farms have sprouted up throughout the state. Later today, the Senate will likely pass House Bill 339, which would establish a meat inspection services administrator.
They Said It this week features an attempted repeal of RGGI and a possible temporary cut in New Hampshire’s gas tax.
What quotables have you read or heard that you think help reveal the verbal tenor of the 2011 legislative session? Email suggestions for the Daily Briefing to NH@FrontDoorPolitics.com.
Remember the recent uproar over public employee unions in New Hampshire? The one about eliminating collective bargaining obligations when labor contracts end?
It was slipped into the House budget proposal, but the N.H. Senate has stripped the controversy from its version of the budget. And now, a Senate committee has reshaped House Bill 580, which also included a collective bargaining provision that organized labor strongly opposed.
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 our latest installment of They Said It, we hear people talking this week about the budget, the budget, and the budget. And right-to-work. And politics, of course.
Did we miss something? Submit your nominations for the next They Said It to NH@FrontDoorPolitics.com.
Later today, the Senate Finance committee will hear public testimony for the first time on the overall $10.3 billion biennium budget passed by the House last month.
Expect a long list of speakers to line up in Representatives Hall to support or oppose the myriad proposals for revenue and spending in 2012-2013. Senate budget writers have until June 2 to complete their version of the budget, at which point the House and Senate will have to hammer out any differences.
The committee is scheduled for two (2) two-hour sessions this afternoon and this evening on the main budget bills, House Bill 1 and House Bill 2.
Forget courthouses — New Hampshire’s entire court system may be getting rebuilt from the ground up, starting this summer.
The Senate votes tomorrow on a bill to bring the probate and district courts and the judicial family branch under one umbrella. The reorganization would bring lots of staffing and management changes and reductions, with an overall projected savings of almost $1.5 million in staffing costs in the next four years.
The idea behind House Bill 609, sponsored by Rep. Gary Richardson (D-Hopkinton), can be found in a major report by the Judicial Branch Innovation Commission. The report also called for New Hampshire courts to enter the digital age, and asks for $5 million to help them do it.