Latest news with #DanInnis
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Senate pulls a U-turn on bill to get rid of auto inspections
The state Senate took a sharp U-turn Thursday, kicking back to committee a controversial bill that would eliminate mandatory safety inspections for all cars and trucks in New Hampshire. Keeping leaders of groups on both sides of the issue in suspense for five hours, Sen. Dan Innis, R-Bradford, the lead senator on the issue, declared at day's end that he lacked support for his compromise program. 'I am going to make a motion to re-refer this bill (HB 649), much to my dismay,' said Innis, who chairs the Senate Commerce Committee. Innis said the state Department of Environmental Services weighed in late in the process, saying that it still had problems with the language of his proposal. 'I think it is better to re-refer and revisit it when we come back' in 2026, Innis said. A clearly frustrated Sen. Tim McGough, R-Merrimack, said he had worked with both sides on his own proposal to seek a middle ground and thought he had found it. Senate takes U-turn, punts repeal of inspections bill back to committee State Sen. Tim McGough, R-Merrimack, standing at left, was one of only three senators who opposed the move to kick back to committee the House-passed bill to eliminate annual safety inspections for all cars and trucks. 'After months of work on this with many stakeholders, countless thousands of emails, we all expected an 'ought to pass' on this and to get real progress down the road to get rid of this onerous inspection process,' McGough said. 'This ongoing yearly parade into the mechanic to try and chase problems with your check engine light — people want action now. They need action now.' Sen. Howard Pearl, R-Loudon, said he also wanted to vote on the bill, but he agreed with Innis. 'When a bill isn't ready, it isn't ready, and that's the hard part. We have to make that hard decision to slow things down a bit,' Pearl said. 'It was a disappointment to me as well. We don't have an agreement within the 24 of us in this room that we have a positive path forward.' The re-referral vote was 19-3, with Sens. Keith Murphy and Victoria Sullivan, both R-Manchester, and McGough the lone opponents. Sen. Kevin Avard, R-Nashua, was absent Thursday. Gov. Kelly Ayotte has avoided taking a position on the bill. Innis's compromise would require inspections only every other year for new cars and to eliminate the unpopular annual emissions tests for most vehicles. That plan deadlocked, 3-3, before Innis's committee. While the legislation has been a popular topic for debate, previous efforts have failed to get far due to the opposition of the New Hampshire Auto Dealers Association lobbying group and the New Hampshire Municipal Association. House Deputy Speaker Steven Smith, R-Charlestown, became a convert after he changed the law to reduce inspection failures due to rust only to have state officials and the auto industry restore it in agency rules. The House passed the full-repeal bill overwhelmingly, 212-143. This does not end the debate. The trailer bill to the House-approved state budget would get rid of all the jobs in the Division of Motor Vehicles and Department of Safety related to the inspection program. What's Next: The Senate Finance Committee is expected to strike changes to vehicle inspections from its version of the budget trailer bill. Prospects: Thanks to the House's state budget trigger, the issue will only be resolved when the Legislature and Gov. Ayotte come together on a compromise two-year spending plan. klandrigan@
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Bill expanding access to ADUs gets final nod
A bill to increase the size of accessory dwelling units and to allow them to be detached from the home cleared its final legislative hurdle Thursday. 'This bill will remove confusion, produce uniformity and eliminate unnecessary barriers,' said House Commerce Committee Chairman Dan Innis, R-Bradford. The passage of HB 577 came after the state Senate soundly rejected a move from Sen. Donovan Fenton, D-Keene, to water down the House-passed bill, which had the backing of the New Hampshire Municipal Association. 'I was trying to find middle ground but clearly this wasn't the day for that,' Fenton said. 'In my view, ADUs have a place and work great in many communities. Trouble is, I heard from many officials in small towns very wary of this.' Municipal Association lobbyist Brodie Deshaies confirmed his group could have lived with Fenton's amendment, which would have made several changes including restoring a local-control requirement that it would be up to each town to approve an ADU ordinance and a delay in the effective date of the law to July 1, 2026. 'The amendment surely would have made a bad bill better, but we would have preferred the Senate reject it outright,' he said. The Senate turned down Fenton's amendment and passed the bill on voice votes. Bigger with more bedrooms The legislation, which would take effect July 1, increases the allowed size of an ADU from 750 to 950 square feet and expressly allow two-bedroom units. Sen. Tim McGough, R-Merrimack, said the bill addresses two of the state's critical needs. 'Not only does the bill allow property owners to enhance asset value, but it also enables them to give their family members a jump start on living at home when they're young and age gracefully,' McGough said. 'By removing unnecessary red tape and making it easier to build small homes like backyard cottages and garage apartments, we're helping seniors stay close to loved ones and giving young people a foothold in the communities they grew up in,' said Nick Taylor, executive director of Housing Action N.H. 'This legislation means more affordable, right-sized home choices for Granite Staters at every stage of life — and that's a big step toward tackling our housing shortage.' +++ What's Next: The bill will soon head to the desk of Gov. Kelly Ayotte. Prospects: While Ayotte hasn't commented on this legislation specifically, she said expanding ADU access was one of her priorities while campaigning for governor last fall. klandrigan@
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
The week ahead: Senate budget writers toil while rest try to clear the decks on others
As state Senate budget writers plow through a mountain of paper with possible amendments, other legislative policy committees and the full Senate are seeking to dispense with their remaining non-money bills this week. This includes some final public hearings, one on the controversial issue about how much to increase rates provided to ambulance companies for transport under commercial insurance and another to create a new, two-year pilot program to cope with a growing backlog in the courts of petitions to restore a defendant's competency to stand trial. The Senate Commerce Committee on Tuesday will tackle and make a recommendation on one of the top lobbied issues of 2025 — the House-passed bill to get rid of annual safety inspections for car and truck owners (HB 649). The committee's chairman, Sen. Dan Innis, R-Bradford, said he's preparing an alternative proposal that would keep in place the safety inspections for every other year while getting rid of the most unpopular checks, the on-board diagnostic checking of tailpipes for harmful emissions. Last month, a caravan of ambulances surrounded the Legislative Office Building to protest as inadequate a House-passed bill (HB 316) to raise the rates for ground transport to 202% of the federal Medicare rate. In response, the state Senate has responded with its own bill (SB 245) that has the support of the ambulance carriers to raise that rate to 302% of the Medicare standard. On Tuesday, the House Commerce Committee will take testimony on the Senate measure that Chairman John Hunt, R-Rindge, has charged treats those with insurance like 'suckers' and would 'screw them' because Medicare and Medicaid make up 80% of transports and reimburses companies pennies on the dollar of their actual costs. The Senate Judiciary Committee will take testimony on the House-approved bill (HB 480) from Rep. Mark Pearson, R-Hampstead, in response to a 75% increase since 2015 of petitions to restore mental competency for defendants to stand trial. The bill would allow one court branch to hire a forensic liaison to test out whether this expert could reduce the backlog of cases caused by an average of 66 new cases every month. Prospects for this bill in the Senate remain uncertain; it has sat in that body for two months and is one of the last non-money bills to come up for a public hearing. Gov. Kelly Ayotte supports a moratorium on new landfills being permitted and proposed in her budget a new site evaluation committee that would review all future requests for new dumps. Sponsor seeks another home for landfill moratorium bill The House attached this to its trailer bill of the state budget but a key supporter, Rep. Kelley Potenza, R-Rochester, worries it could be jettisoned as the House and Senate compromise on a final spending plan. That's why Potenza will ask her House Environment and Agriculture Committee to add it again Tuesday to an unrelated bill dealing with solid waste facility owners (SB 302). The House completed work on its non-money bills and it doesn't have to meet in session this week. The Senate does this Thursday and is expected to again approve legislation (HB 361) to ban mandatory mask policies in public schools. Some studies showed the requirements contributed to student learning loss during the pandemic. Former Gov. Chris Sununu vetoed identical legislation last year and the House sustained that decision. Another priority bill for Ayotte that looks primed to get to her desk would require all school districts to adopt policies that ban students having access to cellphones during hours of instruction. A Senate panel is recommending the Senate pass on to Ayotte this bill (HB 781) just as the House endorsed it. Other bills before the Senate up for approval include: • Open Enrollment (HB 771): This expands the right of parents to enroll their child in any public school, this one for a specific program or course of study. The Senate Education Committee is offering a full rewrite of what the House passed on this topic. • Limit breast surgeries for minors (HB 712): The House had bipartisan support for this bill that limits surgeries that aren't medically necessary. Advocates for trans students charge it would be a blatant form of discrimination against them; a Senate panel has its own amendment here as well. • No room in schools for illegals (HB 71): A Senate panel narrowly recommended this one to prevent schools from opening their doors for temporary housing of anyone in this state illegally without proper documentation. The Senate is expected to kill one bill (HB 433) social conservatives in the House want, to add an exemption to the five-month-old ban on minors getting married. The House-passed bill would make an exception if one of the parties was 17 years old and at least one was an active-duty member of the military. klandrigan@
