The week ahead: Lawmakers buried in own work but Ayotte grabs center stage
Feb. 9—The 2025 session of the New Hampshire Legislature rolls on this week, but Gov. Kelly Ayotte alone will grab center stage when she gives her state budget address to a joint meeting of the state Senate and House of Representatives.
Once Ayotte presents that much-anticipated speech in Representatives Hall Thursday morning, both legislative bodies will get right back to business. They'll be holding for the first time in 2025 simultaneous sessions later that afternoon.
The House is expected to have a passionate and perhaps close vote on whether New Hampshire should become the 27th state and the only one in the Northeast to pass right-to-work legislation (HB 238) that would prevent private employers from requiring any worker having to either pay union dues or fees to cover the cost of collective bargaining.
The Senate returns to its debate over an anti-sanctuary city bill (SB 71) and will debate whether to end a ban on the public wearing political clothing while voting (SB 43).
The latter bill from Sen. Tim Lang, R-Sanbornton, would still prevent election officials from wearing anything of a political nature while working at the polls.
Ayotte told reporters that while the state budget is expected to be the toughest one in at least a decade to complete, New Hampshire remains on sound economic footing.
"One of the things that I have come out of this process with is my optimism that we are in a good position," Ayotte said. "We need to continue to execute and live within our means. We aren't seeing the growth in state revenues that we have seen for the past several years, so our expectations must be recalibrated."
Ayotte, a new chief executive and a Nashua Republican, offered no details about her plan beyond the vow it will not lead to any increase in state taxes.
Veteran state budget observers will not only be looking at the more-than-1,000 page spending plan itself, but also poring over its companion measure.
This is the so-called budget trailer bill that must contain all state law changes needed to carry out the governor's budget goals.
Budget trailer bill: Christmas tree is an understatement
Calling this bill a Christmas tree is an understatement since it is expected to have at least a few hundred sections with impacts likely to affect all New Hampshire residents in some fashion.
In 2021 after Republicans took back control of the Legislature, then-Gov. Chris Sununu and GOP legislative leaders used that trailer bill to carry out an abortion ban after 24 weeks, a prohibition on teaching discrimination in public schools and a voluntary paid and family leave program for all state workers and any private firm that wished to enroll in it.
House and Senate committees will be holding public hearings on 158 bills, a big number but this is the first weekly decline in the pile of paperwork as legislative leaders race against the clock to finish up their own chamber's works by mid-April.
Senate Majority Leader Regina Birdsell, R-Hampstead, has Senate President Sharon Carson, R-Londonderry, on board with her legislation (SB 162) to be heard Tuesday that would block a "foreign country of concern" of owning any property within 10 miles of a "protected facility."
Government buildings coming under that protected class are the New Hampshire National Guard headquarters and the New Hampshire Army Aviation Support Facility, both in Concord; the Readiness Center of the 197th Artillery Brigade in Manchester, the New Boston Space Force Station and the Pease Air National Guard and Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth.
The countries blocked from this ownership under the bill were Russia, China, Iran, Syria and North Korea.
Rep. Bill Ohm, R-Nashua, is joining forces with Rep. Susan Almy, D-Lebanon and the former chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, on a bill (HB 247) looked at Monday that would allow any city or town to seek a referendum on whether to allow historic horse racing machines within their borders.
These machines that allow patrons to bet on randomly selected horse races that have already occurred has led to an explosion in profits for both owners and nonprofits at 10 charity casinos across the state.
On Tuesday, the Senate Education Committee takes testimony on a bill (SB 205) from new Sen. Pat Long, D-Manchester, to give universal access for all families to free school breakfast and lunch; currently only eligible, low-income families may receive the benefit.
State officials estimate the expansion would cost the state $1.3 million a year.
EFA bills going in opposite directions
House and Senate panels will on Wednesday consider bills on education freedom accounts (EFAs) that go in opposite directions.
New Sen. Victoria Sullivan, R-Manchester, is championing one (SB 295) that would end eligibility limitations and allow any family, regardless of income, to receive a taxpayer-paid EFA to send their child to a private, religious, alternative public or home school program.
Rep. David Luneau, D-Hopkinton and the ranking member on the House Education Funding Committee, is proposing to make EFA grants to parents taxable under the income tax code (HB 402).
Safety Commissioner Robert Quinn has prominent House and Senate GOP leaders co-authoring his proposal (HB 482) to increase the fines and punishments for anyone convicted of driving more than 100 miles per hour on state roads.
For anyone driving in triple digits, the bill would create an additional fine of $750 on the first offense and $1,000 for future ones and the loss of driving privileges of 60 days the first time and up to a year if it happens again.
Sen. Ruth Ward, R-Stoddard, has leading Senate Democratic members on board with her bill (SB 276) Wednesday that would raise what spending that businesses can claim for research and development as a credit against what they would owe under the state's two business taxes.
The measure would raise from $7 million to $10 million how much the state could award in credits during a single year and give individual businesses credits of up to $100,000, twice the cap under current law.
Rep. Janet Wall, D-Durham and serving in her 20th term, gets this week's quirkiest bill (HB 387) that would outlaw the release of balloons that have "lighter-than-air" gases.
Wall said these balloons always fall back to earth and become not only litter but a potential health hazard to both animals on land and sea.
klandrigan@unionleader.com
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