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.
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.
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.
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.”
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
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.
Gambling on slot machines instead of two new taxes, the N.H. Senate Finance Committee last week completed its proposed two-year state budget, making significant changes to a House version. The full Senate will vote on the budget Wednesday, June 3, after which a Committee of Conference will be formed between the House and Senate to hammer out compromises and get a final version to Gov. John Lynch. His power to veto the whole package because of parts he doesn’t like is already holding sway.
Scratch tickets, Megabucks, Powerball—check. Texas Hold’em, Lucky 7, Bingo—well, check, but only for charity. Slot machines, baccarat, casino resorts? Jackpot. At least, that’s what some New Hampshire lawmakers are betting on this year with their bills to bring in more money by rolling more gambling into the Granite State.
Budget cuts won out as the focus of Gov. John Lynch’s budget address on Feb. 13, when he unveiled his proposal for how New Hampshire should tax, spend and mostly save in the next two years. But some groups of lawmakers are wagering that budget reductions alone won’t fix the budget, and new money from more gambling is the state’s best bet for a sound fiscal future. While the governor remains clear in his message that he would veto any bills calling for a broad-based sales or income tax, he implied that he just might be willing to bargain on gambling.
