Latest news with #SB71
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Anti-sanctuary city bill heads to governor's desk
A decade-long campaign by Republican legislative leaders and governors to outlaw sanctuary city policies in New Hampshire reached the bill-drafting finish line Thursday. By a party line vote, the state Senate voted 15-8 to endorse a House-passed bill (HB 511) that would prevent any city or town from adopting an ordinance that stated its local law enforcement could not cooperate with federal Immigration, Customs and Enforcement officials inquiring about a possible, illegal immigrant. The final actions have presented Gov. Kelly Ayotte with three bills to sign on the topic which also include: • The Senate's cooperate with feds bill (SB 71): This would keep local officials from blocking police or correction officials from signing pacts with federal immigration authorities under Section 287G Task Force Agreement. • Senate's anti-sanctuary city bill (SB 62): Last week, the House of Representative decided to combine this bill with the one above dealing with cooperation with federal officials. In a statement, Ayotte suggested she's looking forward to signing them all. 'By banning sanctuary cities, we're ensuring New Hampshire doesn't go the way of Massachusetts and their billion-dollar illegal immigrant crisis,' Ayotte said. 'Thank you to the House and Senate for sending these bills to my desk — together, we're keeping our great state the safest in the nation.' State Police, sheriffs in three counties and police in six towns have already applied or received approval from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for the cooperative agreements with Gov. Ayotte's blessing. Legally, the governor could sign all of these and the last one she signed would undo any conflicts with the two bills she previously signed. Safety with justice and fairness House and Senate supporters insist all three bills are compatible with one another. Senate Majority Leader Regina Birdsell, R-Hampstead, recalled as a new state senator in 2016 she had authored one of the first bills against sanctuary cities. 'This Legislature has never given local authorities (the power) to ignore federal law,' Birdsell said. 'I never thought this would be controversial. I never thought this would take us nearly a decade to get this through.' Sen. Tara Reardon, D-Concord, said relationships local police departments have worked on for years with their legal immigrant communities could worsen. 'I believe in fairness, due process and human dignity and I am deeply concerned about the practices and policies that seem to try to sidestep these principles,' Reardon said. 'We all want safe communities, but that safety must be rooted in justice and fairness.' Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Bill Gannon, R-Sandown, has held down point for this issue in the Senate for the past four years. Former Gov. Chris Sununu had also supported the cause, but in 2023 the narrowly divided House of Representatives rejected a final deal on the issue by a small margin. What's Next: All three bills must go through the enrolling stage where legislative lawyers ensure there aren't any technical flaws in them before they go onto the Ayotte's desk. Prospects: The only unknown is the date and time that Ayotte will choose for a photo opportunity signing ceremony for the bills. klandrigan@
Yahoo
07-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
New poll: How do Utahns feel about the Legislature's tax cuts this year?
The Utah Legislature passed its tax cut package on Wednesday with a focus on young families and senior citizens. Legislative leadership prioritized keeping their four-year streak of reducing income taxes while making room for Utah Gov. Spencer Cox's requests to expand tax credits for children and Social Security beneficiaries. The House concurred with Senate changes to HB106, Income Tax Revisions, on Wednesday, giving final approval to the bill which would: Decrease the corporate and income tax rates for all Utahns from 4.55% to 4.5%. Give businesses a 20% tax credit for creating new child care options for employees. Expand the child tax credit to include children who are 5 years old and under the age of 1. The House also voted on Wednesday in favor of SB71, Social Security Tax Revisions, to expand the exemption for state income taxes on Social Security benefits for the fourth time since 2021, raising the income caps from $75,000 to $90,000 for a couple, and from $45,000 to $54,000 for individuals. This change fell well short of Cox's budget priority to completely eliminate Utah's tax on Social Security income. But it is the most legislative leadership said they could give in a tight budget year, where $230 million set aside for tax cuts had to be tapped to fund other new spending. 'Thanks to Utah's robust economy and our steadfast conservative policies, we're putting money back where it belongs — with the people who earned it,' Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, said. A new Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll conducted in late February by HarrisX among 805 registered Utah voters found that the most popular tax cut was to the state's flat income tax rate. When asked their opinion about four different potential tax cuts, 87% of Utah voters said they support reducing the income tax, 86% said they support reducing the sales tax on groceries, 81% said they support removing all taxes on Social Security and 75% said they support removing the income tax on Social Security benefits for recipients earning under $100,000 per year. Over the last five years, the Legislature has approved roughly $1.4 billion in tax relief for Utahns. Cox and lawmakers have referred to this as the largest collective tax cut in Utah history. 'The cost of living continues to rise; by continuing to reduce the tax burden, we're ensuring that Utah remains a place of opportunity and prosperity for generations to come,' House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, said. HB106, sponsored by Rep. Kay Christofferson, R-Lehi, will cost the state more than $103 million in annual tax revenue. SB71, sponsored by Sen. Wayne Harper, R-Taylorsville, will cost the state over $24 million in ongoing tax revenue. Senate Minority Leader Luz Escamilla, D-Salt Lake City, supported expanding child tax credits but felt that inserting them in the income tax bill was unfair and put big business over budget needs. 'Combining them with an income tax cut is a coercive and unfair move that mirrors a Washington, D.C., style of political tactics,' Escamilla said. 'This is a disservice to Utah's working families.' Escamilla and her caucus maintained throughout the session they would have preferred Cox's proposal to join the 42 other states who do not tax Social Security, giving an average of $950 in tax relief to over 150,000 Utahns. The Social Security tax credit expansion will impact roughly 90,000 Utahns, Harper said. The .05% reduction to the income tax rate will save a typical Utah family around $45 a year, according to the Utah Taxpayers Association.
Yahoo
04-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Is Gov. Cox's promise to kill the Social Security tax dead in the water?
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox told lawmakers a week before the 2025 legislative session that he had given them 'a gift' by pushing for the end of state taxes on Social Security. But in return for Cox making this proposal a 'cornerstone' of his budget, the Legislature appears ready to present Cox with a pebble. On Monday, the Senate Taxation Committee advanced a bill that would eliminate the state tax on Social Security but only under the condition that bill sponsor Sen. Wayne Harper, R-Taylorsville, narrowed his bill substantially to fit within the 'socks and underwear' budget this year. Instead, lawmakers are looking at another across the board income tax cut, and increasing the tax credit only slightly for Social Security recipients. In its current form, Harper's SB71 would build on Social Security tax credit expansions from 2021, 2022 and 2023 by completely removing the caps on income, which currently stand at $75,000 for households filing jointly and $45,000 for individuals. During the presentation of his fiscal year 2026 budget recommendations, Cox said it was an 'embarrassment' that Utah is one of only eight states that plans to continue taxing a portion of Social Security payments in the upcoming year. 'This is, I would say, easily the most popular proposal that I've made in the past four years,' Cox told a room full of legislators in January, adding jokingly, 'I lament what will happen to you if you don't do it.' While the policy change would give roughly 150,000 senior Utahns an average annual tax break of $950, doing so would cost the state an estimated $144 million in revenue for the upcoming fiscal year — money lawmakers are unwilling to part with. In Monday's hearing, Harper acknowledged there wasn't enough in the budget to fully fund the governor's proposal. But he said it was important to chip away at the Social Security tax to make sure individuals are not being taxed twice on money that was already taken out of their paycheck. Senate Taxation Chair Dan McCay, R-Riverton, spoke forcefully against Harper's bill, arguing that it would exacerbate the problem of consolidating wealth among those who are over the age of 65 in the country. 'I believe that this bill is morally wrong and we are hurting our children,' McCay said in explaining his 'no' vote. Budget committee members met in December to set aside new revenues to ensure they'd have enough for a fourth consecutive year of tax cuts. But the $231 million they set aside was placed under additional scrutiny when updated projections found that new revenues would be $100 million less than expected. Despite opposition from Democrats who have lamented the social services that will go unfunded, as in past years, legislative leadership have chosen to prioritize a blanket cut to income taxes. On Thursday, the House passed HB106, which would decrease the corporate and income tax rates for all Utahns from 4.55% to 4.5%, saving the typical Utah family around $45 a year. The bill was amended on the House floor to incorporate separate bills that would create a large tax credit for businesses that build child care facilities and that would expand the child tax credit to include children who are 5 years old and under the age of 1. The total cost of the new law, if it passes the Senate and signed by the governor, will be nearly $126 million in FY2026, leaving no room for Cox's elimination of the Social Security tax, according to legislative leadership. On Monday, Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, and Majority Whip Chris Wilson, R-Logan, said Harper's bill will likely be amended to increase the Social Security tax credit by $5,000-20,000, depending on how budget conversations go during the final week of the 2025 legislative session. Bill sponsor of the income tax cut, Rep. Kay Christofferson, R-Lehi, told the Deseret News that he had originally planned to sponsor the bill to end the tax on Social Security benefits. He predicted that the Legislature would be able to find enough funding to remove the Social Security tax for all those making below $90,000-100,000. But he said lawmakers will continue to prioritize income tax cuts for all Utahns. 'We can cut programs, we can do things that make government more efficient and give people that money to be able to use how they see fit,' Christofferson said.
Yahoo
10-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
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@
Yahoo
07-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Anti-sanctuary city bill cruises through NH House
Feb. 6—A compromise anti-sanctuary city policy bill (HB 511) cleared the House of Representatives with near unanimous support Thursday. The two parties broke along partisan lines, however, on a second bill (HB 71) to ban the use of public schools and colleges as temporary housing for illegal immigrants. Two years ago, when it was narrowly divided by party, the House voted, 203-168, to table an anti-sanctuary bill that the state Senate had passed. The vote effectively killed it. On Thursday, the House voted 351-6 to advance HB 511 and send it to the House Finance Committee for more review. No House Democrat spoke on the bill and the party leadership issued no statement on it. House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee Chairman Terry Roy, R-Deerfield, offered some modifications that won unanimous support in his policy committee. Those changes included carving out an exemption so victims reporting a crime could not be prosecuted as illegal immigrants and limiting local law enforcement's cooperation with federal authorities to cases of those held in custody and accused of violating state crimes. "I think the Democrats decided they didn't want to die on this hill, that the voters have spoken in favor of this policy change," Roy told reporters. The legislation is not as tough as one (SB 71) the Senate approved last week which makes no allowance for victims of crime and could subject a municipality that adopts a sanctuary policy to the loss of up to 25% of its state aid. "I haven't read the Senate bill yet but I don't think we have to legislate fines against communities in doing this," Roy said. House Republicans said banning schools from being used to shelter illegal immigrants would avoid the $1 billion in costs for migrants that taxpayers have picked up in the neighboring state of Massachusetts. "This will ensure our schools are dedicated to our primary purpose," said Rep. Juliet Harvey-Bolia, R-Tilton. The bill also includes a carve out for emergency situations caused by a "specified disaster," she noted. Rep. Peggy Balboni, D-Rye, said passing the bill could put the state at risk of losing $12 million to $18 million a year in federal funding. Rep. Muriel Hall, D-Bow, added, "This demonstrates a lack of basic humanity." The House passed the bill, 211-146. Gov. Kelly Ayotte has urged lawmakers to send her an anti-sanctuary city bill as soon as possible. klandrigan@
