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Demand is up for mental health services in New Hampshire, but resources to provide them are dwindling. And more are on the chopping block, including the Anna Philbrook Center, the state’s facility for treating children and adolescents with severe mental health needs.
Children would still be treated, but at the main wing of the New Hampshire Hospital, instead. Fourteen adult beds would be eliminated to make room for the kids. It is not clear at this point how the state’s obligation to educate the children would be met or who exactly would pick up that bill.
Continue May 3, 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
A new approach to parole is making headway in the N.H. Legislature.
If Senate Bill 500 passes, supporters say, less jail time and more community supervision could save the state money and help reduce recidivism at the same time. The Parole Board, however, fears for public safety if their authority is usurped.
The bill has passed the Senate and is expected to get a vote in the House sometime this month.
Continue April 5, 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
The state’s share of education funding could remain capped at 2009 levels, according to two bills awaiting floor debate in the Senate. Either measure would save the state about $70 million a year from current funding obligations.
How good that looks depends on what town you’re looking from.
Continue March 5, 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
With gay marriage now legal, a Constitutional debate gets underway. Plus: General John Stark weighs in on the helmet law, immunization exemptions may not just be for the religious anymore, and one former business owner sparks legislation to end unemployment taxes for the self-employed. It’s all in a week’s work, and it will wrap up with Gov. Lynch’s State of the State address on Jan. 21.
Continue January 15, 2010
Meeting for only the second time since it took summer recess in June, House Speaker Terie Norelli (D-Portsmouth) had to remind the 400-member chamber to behave on several occasions when collective boos, cheers and jeers followed various speeches and votes.
This may help explain why lots of activity resulted in definitive votes on only 11 pieces of legislation, by her count. The remainder will be taken up in subsequent weeks.
Continue January 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
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