After the blitz of activity last week, most of the action in the N.H. House now shifts to the main spending, revenue and capital budget bills for the 2012-2013 biennium. Meanwhile, the Northern Pass project is still getting attention in the Legislature, as the committee deadline for reporting on two related bills has been extended.
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.
We continue our today with our snapshot tour of some of the more the 250 bills and amendments that lawmakers will consider over a scheduled three days beginning tomorrow.
In this installment, we look at five bills that are part of the so-called Regular Calendar for the House this week — meaning they are subject to floor debate and roll call votes where every lawmaker’s vote is recorded. These are measures we’ve covered this session, encompassing issues including medical marijuana, abortion, the Financial Resources Mortgage scandal, and taxes.
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.
Numbers are out, and state revenue for February was, to put it politely, as dismal as the weather.
Overall, according to a release yesterday by the N.H. Department of Administrative Services, collections were more than $16 million below plan — $77.1 million was raised, but that fell 17.5 percent below the $93.4 million estimate for the month. February is typically one of the lowest revenue months in the state’s July to June fiscal calendar.
Overall, the state is $23 million, or about two percent, below revenue estimates, with four months remaining in the fiscal year.
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.
New changes to last year’s PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) law are being worked out to save the program from repeal.
Sponsored by Rep. Beatriz Pastor (D-Lyme), PACE became law last year, but hasn’t yet been used. A move to repeal it will be considered in an executive session in the House Municipal and County Government Committee today. But Pastor tells Front Door Politics that Republican committee leaders gave her a chance to change PACE in order to save it.
A scaled-down bipartisan proposal to revive gambling will have its first public hearing today. It comes a year after a bill to allow expanded gaming in New Hampshire passed the Senate but died in the House.
House Bill 593, sponsored by Rep. Edmond Gionet (R-Lincoln) would establish two casinos — “at least 100 miles apart” — offering video poker, slots and table games. The House Ways and Means Committee will consider how the bill proposes permitting the casinos, plus how it would distribute the state’s proceeds to offset the state education property tax and contribute to the highway fund.
A contentious debate is expected in Representative’s Hall Wednesday when the full House votes on a Republican-backed bill to repeal New Hampshire’s participation in the 10-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
By a party line, 13-5 vote, the House Science, Energy and Technology Committee gave House Bill 519 an “ought to pass” recommendation last week. The proposal, sponsored by Rep. Richard Barry (R-Merrimack) has moved quickly from its public hearing on Feb. 10 to an executive session on Feb. 15 to this Wednesday’s full House vote, with no further subcommittee or committee work sessions in between.