Latest news with #HouseBill639
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
New Hampshire Senate halts cryptocurrency deregulation bill, hoping to return to it next year
The New Hampshire Senate in session, Thursday, May 15, 2025. (Photo by Ethan DeWitt/New Hampshire Bulletin) A bill aiming to deregulate cryptocurrency mining in New Hampshire and forbid local officials and state agencies from placing limits on the practice was set for a final vote Thursday before state senators sent it back to committee to give supporters time to work on it and whip up more votes. 'I think the bill's ready to go, but I understand we need more time to convince all of my colleagues,' Sen. Tim McGough, a Merrimack Republican and supporter of the bill, said on the Senate floor Thursday. 'And we'll take that time over the summer.' If enacted, House Bill 639 would forbid New Hampshire state agencies and local officials from banning cryptocurrency mining in their city, town, or elsewhere in the state. Under this bill, they also couldn't regulate cryptocurrency mining based on sound, electric use, or as an investment vehicle. They'd also be unable to prevent or impair people from using cryptocurrency to buy or sell goods and services. McGough likened the current moment with cryptocurrency to the 1990s, when the internet was in its infancy and people were trying to understand it. He said he was 'a little bit afraid' of some aspects of the internet, such as 'putting all your personal information online.' However, he's glad he listened to a friend who told him to adopt the internet. 'Can you imagine if we prohibited internet servers and data centers as we know them today,' he said. 'Running powerful computers to solve equations that end in blockchain currency wealth will not end the world, will not be bad for our economy.' Cryptocurrency mining is how people generate digital assets like Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Dogecoin. Miners use high-energy supercomputers to attempt to solve a puzzle through trial and error and unlock the cryptocurrency from what is known as a blockchain. These virtual assets can be bought and sold for U.S. dollars or other currencies, making them lucrative. Proponents of crypto argue it could one day be used as a regular currency and some buyers and sellers have already adopted it in this way. The bill was written using model legislation created by a crypto industry group called Satoshi Action Fund. Satoshi Action Fund also consulted with the Commission on Cryptocurrencies and Digital Assets, which provided lawmakers with policy recommendations. The group works to promote cryptocurrency nationwide and boasts on its website that its model legislation has been implemented in four states: Arkansas, Louisiana, Montana, and Oklahoma. The bill's sponsor, Rep. Keith Ammon, a Goffstown Republican, has portrayed the bill as antidiscriminatory legislation, arguing cryptocurrency mining needed to be protected from moratoriums similar to those that have happened in other states. He's also dismissed environmental concerns about the practice as misinformation. Environmentalists opposed to this bill, including the New Hampshire Sierra Club and the National Coalition Against Cryptomining, are concerned about the carbon emissions these supercomputers are responsible for producing and their impact on the state's electric grid. (The electrical energy consumption of one Bitcoin transaction is equivalent to what an average U.S. household over 45.60 days consumes, as of May 2025, according to one analysis done by a Dutch doctoral student.) They're also concerned about the noise for neighbors of the facilities. Cryptocurrency mines in New York, Arkansas, and other states have generated uproar and noise complaints among their neighbors. Arkansas went so far as to repeal deregulatory legislation it passed that was very similar to this bill over these complaints, though that is now tied up in the courts. At least one New York community has put a moratorium on cryptocurrency mining. Regulators, including with the state Bureau of Securities Regulation, are concerned that provisions in the bill to preclude cryptocurrency mining from being considered a security or investment contract are concerned it could hamper their ability to protect New Hampshire investors from bad actors falsely offering services. If the Senate eventually passes the bill, Gov. Kelly Ayotte will decide whether to sign or veto the bill. She recently signed pro-cryptocurrency legislation into law when she approved House Bill 302, which allows the state treasurer to invest state funds in cryptocurrency and precious metals as an investment vehicle. She subsequently boasted on social media that New Hampshire was 'First in the Nation' to do so. Still, in this law, the state treasurer is limited to placing 5% of state assets in Bitcoin and gold, and she is not required to do so but simply allowed to. However, speaking to reporters last week, Ayotte said she was in favor of the cryptocurrency industry operating in New Hampshire, but she didn't signal support for a completely self-regulated industry. 'Having opportunities for economic development with crypto, certainly we would welcome that,' she said. 'But you have to have, obviously, guardrails in place, because we have had examples. Because it's not regulated federally, there would have to be regulatory measures put in place to make sure that's done responsibly, like we would with any kind of issue like this.'
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
New Hampshire lawmakers to vote on deregulating cryptocurrency mining
If enacted, House Bill 639 would forbid state agencies and local officials from regulating cryptocurrency mining. (Photo by) A bill that has passed the New Hampshire House of Representatives and is set to be voted on by the state Senate Thursday would tie the hands of anyone trying to regulate cryptocurrency mining — a move heralded by libertarians and the crypto lobby but decried by environmentalists. When introducing the bill, Rep. Keith Ammon, a New Boston Republican and the bill's sponsor, said it would 'give confidence to the industry that we're not going to discriminate against them because it's happened in other states.' Ammon pointed to North Tonawanda, New York, which The Buffalo News reported in 2024 banned crypto mining for energy and noise concerns. If enacted, House Bill 639 would forbid state agencies and local officials from regulating cryptocurrency mining. It enshrines into law a protection for people to conduct in-home cryptocurrency mining. State agencies and local officials would be unable to ban cryptocurrency mining in their city, town, or elsewhere in the state under this bill. They would be unable to place sound limits on cryptocurrency mining, though miners would have to obey other sound ordinances. They also wouldn't be able to charge cryptocurrency miners additional money for any outsized impact they have on the electric grid. Finally, they'd be unable to prevent people from using cryptocurrency to buy or sell things. Cryptocurrency mining is the process of generating cryptocurrencies — which are digital assets such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin — using high-energy supercomputers. The computers essentially use trial and error until they've guessed the solution to a puzzle that unlocks the cryptocurrency from what is known as a blockchain. These virtual assets are often bought and sold for U.S. dollars or other currencies, making mining lucrative. Proponents of crypto hope it will one day be used as a regular currency, and some buyers and sellers have already adopted it as such. 'The benefit for projecting that we're friendly to mining is that it can help incentivize future generations,' Ammon said at a recent Senate hearing. 'We want to get out of this scarcity mindset that there's only a fixed pie of so much energy to go around.' Ammon — who said he owns digital assets himself and is the chair of the nonprofit New Hampshire Blockchain Council — dismissed environmental concerns about cryptocurrency's effect on the planet and electric grids. 'There's some folks that believe Bitcoin mining is gonna raise the oceans, we're all gonna drown, or we're gonna boil the seas or something like that,' he said. 'All this section does is prevent municipalities from discriminating against the energy use.' Ammon said this bill is based on the work of the Commission on Cryptocurrencies and Digital Assets, which was established by former Gov. Chris Sununu to study regulations for these digital assets, as well as model legislation circulating in other states. That model legislation was created by a Mississippi-based industry group called Satoshi Action Fund. The group seeks to promote cryptocurrency nationwide and boasts on its website that its policies have been implemented in four states: Arkansas, Louisiana, Montana, and Oklahoma. The Satoshi Action Fund was also a consultant to the governor's cryptocurrency commission. The bill also specifies that cryptocurrency mining and other operations are not considered securities or investment contracts. This has sparked concerns among regulators, including Katie Taylor, with the state Bureau of Securities Regulation, who said in a Senate hearing, 'It would prohibit the bureau's ability to protect New Hampshire investors.' The bill has also drawn the attention of environmentalists in New Hampshire and elsewhere. 'What this bill says is shocking,' Cathy Corkery, chapter director of the New Hampshire Sierra Club, said. 'It devalues and demotes communities from being able to zone and govern the enterprises within its own borders.' Corkery and her colleagues have several gripes with cryptocurrency mining. First, it's loud and usually runs 24/7, which in other communities has drawn intense ire from neighbors. It's highly energy intensive, so it causes carbon emissions and could become a strain on the electric grid. (Analysis from a Dutch doctoral student found that, as of May 2025, the electrical energy consumption of a single Bitcoin transaction is equivalent to that of an average U.S. household over 45.60 days.) And many operations use lots of water to cool down their equipment. (Another analysis from the same researcher found that an average Bitcoin transaction uses enough water to fill a small backyard swimming pool.) They're afraid this will raise utility bills and the hot water the facilities expel will hurt wildlife. 'The reality is that this isn't just some guy with a computer,' she said. 'These are supercomputers that suck up a lot of energy.' Corkery is concerned how this will impact climate change, the state's electrical grid, and quiet communities unaccustomed to loud industrial noise. Most of all, she dislikes how it hinders local government oversight. 'It takes away a town's sovereignty,' she said. 'And it says you must allow this in your town.' Corkery said she'd heard about this legislation in other states from her national partners and so 'had sort of an understanding of the experiences in other communities that had accepted this bill' before it came to New Hampshire. As such, the Granite State has garnered attention from people who have been fighting Satoshi Action Fund-endorsed legislation elsewhere. Cyndie Roberson, a founding member of the National Coalition Against Cryptomining, called New Hampshire's HB 639 'a boilerplate piece of legislation written by one of crypto mining's biggest lobbying firms' and said Satoshi Action Fund 'shoot(s) this legislation out shotgun approach across states.' She pointed to Arkansas, where Satoshi Action Fund was successful in enacting the policies, as 'a cautionary tale.' When Arkansas enacted the Arkansas Data Centers Act of 2023 and a slew of crypto mines came to the state, it was met by intense uproar, Little Rock Public Radio reported. In an interview with CBS News, Gladys Anderson, who lived near a cryptocurrency mine in Bono, Arkansas, described the 24/7 sound of roughly 17,000 computer fans running in the mine 'like a form of military-grade torture.' In 2024, responding to the blowback, a bipartisan group of Arkansas lawmakers approved legislation to reverse the unconditional protections miners had from local government regulation. However, a federal judge ordered the state to pause that legislation because a provision of the bill bans foreign ownership of crypto mines (legislators were also worried about mines' potential ties to China), which may violate the 14th Amendment. 'My cautionary tale to legislators in New Hampshire who feel pressured to do this, it's a very hard bell to unring,' Roberson said. 'Once they pass this and it's a done deal, it's very difficult to get parts of it changed or repealed once it's in place.' Satoshi Action Fund did not respond to the Bulletin's request for comment and an interview. Corkery, with the Sierra Club, called Ammon's worries about cryptocurrency miners being discriminated against 'a farce.' 'He has no examples of it being discriminated against in New Hampshire,' she said. 'He characterizes this bill as a welcome sign for the cryptocurrency industry. This is not a welcome sign. This is a come-plow-through-our-state flag.'
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Louisiana legislators to consider college athletics subsidies
The new video display scoreboard in Tiger Stadium's north side as seen from the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on Sept. 13, 2024. (Matthew Perschall for Louisiana Illuminator) The Louisiana Legislature is considering several proposals that would create tax breaks and new revenue streams for college athletes and their sports programs. If passed in their current state, the proposals would exempt college athletes from income taxes on their name, image and likeness (NIL) deals and would create a new fund to give tax dollars to NCAA Division I athletics programs like LSU's. But critics say the Republican-backed proposals are doing something antithetical to their party's free-market philosophy. They also argue the bills could further widen the divide — cultural and fiscal — between academics and athletics. The change could also come at the expense of priority services the state provides, such as early childhood education House Bill 639 by Rep. Neil Riser, R-Columbia, would increase the tax on sports gambling from 15% to 32.5%, aligning it with the tax on video poker machine wagers. Increasing the tax rate on sports gambling has support from both conservative and progressive corners, both of whom want to use the revenue to offset the 'social ills' of gambling. But Riser's bill goes further, altering the revenue split and putting 25% into a fund that would benefit student-athletes at public schools that compete at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision and Football Championship Subdivision levels. That includes UL Lafayette, UL Monroe, Louisiana Tech, LSU, Grambling, McNeese, Nicholls, Northwestern, Southeastern and Southern. The University of New Orleans, which does not have a football program, would be left in the cold. 'The need is so high,' Riser said in an interview with the Louisiana Illuminator and Tiger Rag. 'When you start talking about the SEC, talking about any level of athletics right now, it's changed so dramatically.' 'Even like ULM … just to be competitive [in recruiting], it takes facilities, when you're dealing with [athletes] they require you to have all those things,' Riser said. A frequent adage about LSU athletics is that it doesn't get any state funding, which isn't strictly true. The department notably received $1 million in cash from the state in 2023 to plan for improving or replacing the Pete Marravich Assembly Center and occasionally receives small-dollar amounts for various state-funded projects. But Riser's fund could change that. The state currently brings in approximately $54 million annually in sports gambling revenue. If his bill passes, the state's take would increase to approximately $116 million, with about $30 million dedicated to college athletics. That's a huge amount of money in the context of college athletics in Louisiana. Only LSU has a budget larger than that, with most other FBS and FCS schools in Louisiana bringing in only half or a third as much. Even with heavy subsidies to small programs like Nicholls and Grambling, you can expect LSU to line up to receive its share of the revenue. Presently, the state's split for sports gambling tax revenue calls for 25% to go toward early childhood education, 10% to local governments and the rest goes to gambling addiction programs and other projects. Under Riser's bill, after college athletic departments get their 25%, an additional 3% goes to the Louisiana Postsecondary Inclusive Education Fund, which finances programs for students with disabilities, and the rest goes into the state general fund that can be used for a variety of government needs. Taking money away from early childhood education and gambling addiction programs is certain to ensure a fight over Riser's bill. 'Legalized mobile gambling has created or exacerbated many social and cultural problems, including addiction, bankruptcies, and even increases in domestic violence,' said Peter Robins-Brown, executive director of the progressive organization Louisiana Progress. 'New tax revenue should be used first and foremost to address some of those problems before we talk about spending more money on college sports.' And dedicating state money to college athletics might be a hard sell at a time when lawmakers are digging into couch cushions to find the change necessary to prevent a K-12 teacher pay cut. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Two pending bills would exempt athletes' NIL compensation from state income tax. The most notable proposal is House Bill 166 by Rep. Dixon McMakin, R-Baton Rouge, which would exempt the entirety of athletes' NIL income from the state taxes. McMakin, an LSU alum whose father played baseball for the Tigers in the 1970s, said he proposed the legislation because LSU is competing for athletes against states like Texas that don't have a state income tax. McMakin said the measure is appropriate in light of the economic impact athletes have on the state. LSU athletics generated $500 million for the state in the 2021-22 academic year, according to a university study. But what might be considered the academic parallel to paid student-athletes — graduate assistants — would still be subject to state income tax. Several graduate students interviewed raised objections to this double standard, which Jan Moller, executive director of Invest in Louisiana, said is a valid concern. His organization advocates for policies that benefit lower- and middle-class citizens. LSU covers tuition for graduate assistants and pays them a stipend for the work they do, such as teaching freshman classes and conducting research. Unlike student-athletes, grad assistants have to pay for their own housing, meals and health care on their meager stipends – expenses that are all paid for college athletes on full scholarships. 'They are subsidizing entertainment over academics at the expense of academics,' said biology graduate student Cullen Hodges. 'It's not the government's role to subsidize millionaire college athletes when we can't provide basic services to our citizens,' Moller said. McMakin said if graduate assistants wanted to present evidence of their economic impact, he'll 'happily' add them to his bill. In 2022, LSU research, much of it done or assisted by graduate students, had a $1.3 billion economic impact. The proposal is bad tax policy, Moller said. 'It's conservatives who will always say that we shouldn't pick winners and losers with our tax policy,' Moller said. 'What is this if not picking winners and losers?' A second proposal, House Bill 168 by Rep. Rashid Young, D-Homer, would exempt the first $12,500 of athletes' NIL income from state taxes. That aligns the exemption with the standardized deduction offered to every other Louisiana resident. It's not clear if this legislation is necessary for the athletes to receive the deduction, but Young said he wanted to make sure they get it. Young, a former Grambling football player, said he also supports McMakin's bill. 'Top athletes are leaving the state of Louisiana because they're getting better deals in other states that … don't have any income tax,' Young said in an interview. 'We need to start trying to get in the game.' Young's bill also creates an income tax deduction for taxpayers who enter into NIL deals with college athletes. It was designed to encourage small businesses to get in the name, image and likeness game, he said Young has also proposed a resolution that would create a task force to study the need for increased transparency on NIL and related issues. LSU Athletic Director Scott Woodward, and other Division I athletic directors in Louisiana, would be members of the task force, as well as student-athletes, state legislators and three representatives of the private sector. Sen. Jeremy Stine, R-Lake Charles, wants to 'Make American Athletics Great Again.' His proposed Senate Bill 200 would prohibit athletic departments in Louisiana from giving more than 25% of their scholarships and financial assistance to international athletes. About 23% of LSU's scholarship athletes are international students, according to data LSU athletics spokesman Zach Greenwell provided. Just three schools — McNeese, ULM and UNO — are above the proposed 25% rate. Stine's bill does not address what would happen to these athletes. He did not respond to an interview request for this report. House Concurrent Resolution 13 by Rep. John Illg, R-River Ridge, calls on the Southeastern Conference to schedule LSU home games in September after 6 p.m. to account for the intense heat. Illg's resolution only mentions LSU, ignoring the other football programs in Louisiana that also compete in the heat. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
