NH Legislation

Do Ray Buckley and the New Hampshire Democrat Party Lie?  See for yourself.  Here is an excerpt from an NHDP press release that quotes Mr. Buckley directly.

SB1459, which is before the state senate this afternoon, would hold foreign entities accountable for spending money intended to influence the outcome of domestic political campaigns. ...

Skip has done a great job piling on this Hassan HB1459-political speech issue, and I'm not sure how much more we can add today, but this quote caught my eye, Skip didn't take it in the direction I expected. (So I will) Maggie Hassan is quoted as saying...

I must confess to a feeling of near bi-partisan enthusiasm when I glanced at the headline to Kathy Sullivan’s Tuesday morning UL Column—“Why Municipal executives records must be kept public.”  Without having yet read it thoughts of typing up one of the rarest of blog posts, one in which I can say without reservation that there was something Dame Sullivan and I could both agree on, danced like aisle-crossing sugar plums in my head.  I actually thought, “Wow, what are the odds?”  Then I found time to read it. 

The passage of the New and Improved New Hampshire Right To Know Law (as yet unsigned by Governor Lynch) redefines "public body" in a way that makes it more difficult for taxpayer to observe the inner workings of their government.

An individual executive or administrative officer of a political subdivision shall not constitute a public body, and staff members of an agency or department of a political subdivision meeting as a group shall not constitute a public body.

I’ve got mixed emotions about the variable rooms and meals tax (R&M).  On one hand it is the microcosm of federalism.  Every town would be the master of its own demise.  Durham would be like New York State, Keene might be like Michigan.  On the other, starting at 9% is way too high to begin with, raising taxes always means more government—which we simply do not need--and there is also the matter of the resulting confusion from having dozens of different rooms and meals taxes all over the state.  But like the story of the father who locked his son in a closet and made him smoke an entire box of cigars—to make him hate them enough to never smoke them again—sometimes hard lessons are the only ones learned. 

SB 450 passed 182 to 173 with forty reps not voting.  Of all the votes to miss, or to dismiss, this is probably the one you should take a stand.  It’s about adding taxes, cutting some of the budget, and bonding debt.  It defines the nature of how New Hampshire does business its.  So is it just me or does 10% of the NH House voting present (or absent) on the bitter budget battle bill seem a bit high?  

Fourteen Republicans and Twenty-seven Democrats failed to cast a vote.  Skimming through the 15 or so floor amendments there are at least 30 reps absent throughout the day.  And while this is not unusual, sometimes you really want to be represented and this would be one of those times. 

In the words of Mary Jane Wallner (D-Concord), "“Many aspects of this bill are painful, (but) it is the responsible action to take,” to avoid painfully deep budget cuts later, she said.""  MJ is quoted by this morning's Union Leader on the passage of SB 450, the Bob The Builder Budget repair Bill.  SB 450 passed 182 to 173 with 40 House reps not voting. 

SB 450, the omnibus, mix and match, fix and patch, how do we cover all that unnecessary spending democrats had to have, budgetpalooza bill, is up for a vote today.  But it poses an intentional problem for Republicans.  It would repeal the LLC tax, but while adding another boat load of taxes, fees, and if I’m not mistaken more bonding (which is borrowing, which is what Obama is doing and what Greece did before it turned into the post-fiscal, apocalyptic, pyrotechnic backdrop to another Die Hard Movie with a little Dawn of the Dead mixed in.) 

Maggie Hassan has taken the bit on the issue of corporate speech and written an amendment to HB1459 that would shove her jackbooted hoof down the throat of any corporation that might want to make a public comment on any matter…

When the NEA and NEA-NH push hard for a bill, I get suspicious.  HB 1411 is just such a bill.  It came up on my radar when an NEA email appeared in my wife's in box with all those "hey we really need to you to read this email" attention getters.  "VOTE ON TUESDAY," is the subject line and I'm thinking, vote on Tuesday?  What vote is on Tuesday?

HB1411 is described by the NEA like this...

In the smoldering ruin of SB 489--this years gambling bill, even after a massive campaign by Millennium gaming and its big-money FixItNow NH campaign quarter-backed by their Public relations goo-roo Richard Killion, (whom I suspect is this guy), we get comments like this, from this morning’s Union Leader.