Politics is the process where groups of people make collective decisions relative to running government. So I am here to report that it has been an active week politically in New Hampshire.
HOUSE HAPPENINGS:
The legislature is attempting to get through the thousands of proposed pieces of legislation causing many to ask “who knew we needed so many new laws.” It’s slowly dawning on members that the thousands of bills submitted in January need to be assigned a committee, have a hearing, and then voted on by the full House and that this takes time. Furthermore, all this has to happen prior to March 29 – Crossover Day, which is one of those interesting built-in checks on the system requiring that bills from the House and Senate need to be acted upon and sent to the other body. Needless to say, reality is setting-in relative to schedules and there not being enough time in the day. At last Wednesday’s Session, Speaker O’Brien fearing an exodus of representatives late in the day and the subsequent loss of a quorum had the exit doors locked and stationed security, including state police, at the exits of Representatives Hall to ensure that no reps went AWOL. Among the more interesting side bars of the day was debate over HB-1666, referred to by a democratic representative as the “Devil’s Bill” which would require the legislature to approve all collective bargaining agreements entered into by the state. It was pointed out that this amended bill has never had a public hearing which caused the House Finance Chairman to immediately jump up and state that a hearing would just bring in “people who want to make a fuss!” Many readers may recall that the Finance Chair is Representative Weyler who came to Claremont earlier this year to explain the downshifting of state costs onto the city. He is the same guy who called firefighters “thugs” during the budget hearings. Sadly, the mindset of not holding hearings about something people might not like, so let’s not tell them prevailed and HB-1666, aka the DEVIL’S BILL passed 232 to 119! However, the latest legislative outrage is a bill by a libertarian-republican legislator which if passed would no longer require businesses to offer a lunch break for workers.
COUNTY BIOMASS:
On a less confrontational front – the Sullivan County Delegation held a meeting last Thursday that included a presentation and public hearing on a proposal by the County Commissioners to build a Biomass Energy Project at the county complex in Unity. The project will require the County to bond 3.2 million dollars for construction of the facility; however the project is estimated to save the County two hundred and ninety thousand dollars yearly in fuel costs. This energy saving project will utilize and burn wood chips provided by regional businesses. Estimated time to construct and become operational is about 18 months. In addition to savings in fuel costs, the project was touted as providing a variety of social and environmental benefits such as reducing our reliance on foreign fossil fuels, as well as a net reduction of carbon emissions by 1,200 tonnes per year. Additional benefits were how projected energy dollars of $80,000 per year would remain local as well as provide an opportunity to better manage county owned forests. The proposal was unanimously endorsed by delegation members.
COMMUNITY COLLEGES CREATE JOBS:
The week rounded out with my attending an excellent presentation by President Budd and staff of River Valley Community College. The new Chancellor of the Community College System – Dr. Ross Gittell – also participated in the morning meeting. It was very evident that River Valley Community College is no longer the Voc-Tech of years gone by. Due to a variety of partnerships and collaborations, they are quickly exceeding all expectations. Not only are they continuing to work with area businesses such as Hypertherm regarding turning out qualified machinists, but they have developed articulation agreements with Keene State College where graduates of the machinist program will be credited for two years towards a bachelor’s degree. Apparently due to rising tuition costs many area students are attending the community college to complete their first two years of schooling before transferring to the university system. River Valley is also working with the Dartmouth School of Medicine in producing workers for the health fields of tomorrow and successfully providing the occupation careers of the future. Another partnership with Dartmouth’s Center for Strategic Studies has resulted in River Valley being awarded a three year federal grant resulting in students receiving an associate’s degree in information-security, which will provide high paying jobs for workers in the field of cyber-security. Concern was expressed about decreasing support from the legislature and the subsequent impact which caused me to think just imagine what they could do if the NH legislature actually funded them at a functional level? New Hampshire’s Community Colleges are indeed the best kept secret in the state, as they are flexible and capable of responding to student and business needs. Kudos to River Valley for providing a place of second chances for area residents!
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Sunday, February 5, 2012
HARSHNESS IN THE AIR
Last Tuesday - Governor John Lynch gave his State of the State speech with the opening that “IT IS MY GREAT HONOR TO REPORT to the people of New Hampshire, for the fourth and final time on the state of our great state.” First elected in November 2004 and having been re-elected to a historic fourth term in 2010, Governor Lynch is the longest serving New Hampshire governor in nearly two hundred years. His record as New Hampshire’s chief executive is surpassed only by John Taylor Gilman who served as governor for 14 one year terms from 1794-1805 and again from 1813-1816.
The State of the State is an opportunity to showcase and highlight many of the wonderful aspects of New Hampshire, as well as focus substantively on where we are going and how we are going to get there. Not only is the General Court (House and Senate) in attendance, but the NH Supreme Court, Agency Commissioners & Directors as well as an assortment of noteworthy residents and supporters normally pack Representatives Hall. The Dartmouth Aires, a choral group from Dartmouth College –sang the national anthem as well as entertained those assembled with an amazing performance. This year, Governor Lynch made special reference to the 58 NH residents who died defending their state and nation over the past ten years in Iraq and Afghanistan. He also introduced a person from the NH Food Bank that provided over 7 million pounds of food to needy neighbors last year. He also introduced two Department of Transportation employees who accomplished the yeoman task of repairing the Kancamagus Highway after Hurricane Irene. This was, I later learned from DOT, a herculean task accomplished in 15 days by a few state workers which resulted in the Kanc being re-opened and ready for tourists at the height of the season.
Substantively, Governor Lynch didn’t miss the mark and reiterated how the statehouse is a place for people to make a difference, and urged us “to adopt the cardinal rule of medicine: First do no harm. We can build on our success, but overall New Hampshire has a strategy that is working. Let’s not mess it up…” Not messing things up was a key theme this year! Although NH has the fourth lowest unemployment rate in the Nation, “our first priority remains putting people back to work” – and keeping a strategy that works. Having an educated, accomplished workforce is vital to growth and economic development; therefore, he took the legislature to task for reducing revenues from the tobacco tax that cost us 13 million dollars. He pointed out how the 10-cent cut in the tobacco tax has wiped out much of the gains in the business tax revenues and urged us to recognize our error, contending that they could have been used to offset the 48% cut to the University System. The governor made the case how not only has this hurt NH students and families but has negatively impacted business trying to grow in NH and sent the wrong signal to the companies they are trying to attract.
Not pulling any punches, the governor articulated how the “current budget dramatically reduced uncompensated care payments to hospitals. As a result, hospitals have been challenging current and past Medicaid Enhancement Tax payments.” He was clear that the House & Senate must consider how “to repair this fractured relationship with our major health care providers.” While I don’t always agree with the Governor regarding tax policy, it was refreshing to hear that “there are tax reductions that can spur job growth here in New Hampshire.” Stressing how the research and development tax credit was established “to attract companies to create the products of the future”, he proposes we double the research & development tax credit this year. I especially liked his bluntness regarding how “this is a tax credit that works to help create jobs; the same cannot be said for the cut in the tobacco tax.”
Lastly, Governor Lynch didn’t shy away from addressing the destructive extremist antics that have become common place in the legislature. I especially appreciated it when he said “we hear from some a lot of anti-government talk – but that doesn’t make sense. Government after all, is all of us, the people of New Hampshire and it exists to serve all of us... Our focus shouldn’t be on attacking government. It should be on improving government.” He then proceeded to praise state employees, teachers, firefighters and police officers and how they are not the enemy! He expressed concern over the “rash of proposed legislation” relative to guns and public safety and clearly stated “these bills are wrong for public safety and they are wrong for New Hampshire.”
Governor Lynch ended his final State of the State maintaining there is>“harshness in the air, in the tone and nature of communication, and particularly within this building, that’s not healthy for our people or our democracy.” It may have been his final State of the State but last Tuesday was John Lynch’s finest hour where he stood tall for you and me – the people!
The State of the State is an opportunity to showcase and highlight many of the wonderful aspects of New Hampshire, as well as focus substantively on where we are going and how we are going to get there. Not only is the General Court (House and Senate) in attendance, but the NH Supreme Court, Agency Commissioners & Directors as well as an assortment of noteworthy residents and supporters normally pack Representatives Hall. The Dartmouth Aires, a choral group from Dartmouth College –sang the national anthem as well as entertained those assembled with an amazing performance. This year, Governor Lynch made special reference to the 58 NH residents who died defending their state and nation over the past ten years in Iraq and Afghanistan. He also introduced a person from the NH Food Bank that provided over 7 million pounds of food to needy neighbors last year. He also introduced two Department of Transportation employees who accomplished the yeoman task of repairing the Kancamagus Highway after Hurricane Irene. This was, I later learned from DOT, a herculean task accomplished in 15 days by a few state workers which resulted in the Kanc being re-opened and ready for tourists at the height of the season.
Substantively, Governor Lynch didn’t miss the mark and reiterated how the statehouse is a place for people to make a difference, and urged us “to adopt the cardinal rule of medicine: First do no harm. We can build on our success, but overall New Hampshire has a strategy that is working. Let’s not mess it up…” Not messing things up was a key theme this year! Although NH has the fourth lowest unemployment rate in the Nation, “our first priority remains putting people back to work” – and keeping a strategy that works. Having an educated, accomplished workforce is vital to growth and economic development; therefore, he took the legislature to task for reducing revenues from the tobacco tax that cost us 13 million dollars. He pointed out how the 10-cent cut in the tobacco tax has wiped out much of the gains in the business tax revenues and urged us to recognize our error, contending that they could have been used to offset the 48% cut to the University System. The governor made the case how not only has this hurt NH students and families but has negatively impacted business trying to grow in NH and sent the wrong signal to the companies they are trying to attract.
Not pulling any punches, the governor articulated how the “current budget dramatically reduced uncompensated care payments to hospitals. As a result, hospitals have been challenging current and past Medicaid Enhancement Tax payments.” He was clear that the House & Senate must consider how “to repair this fractured relationship with our major health care providers.” While I don’t always agree with the Governor regarding tax policy, it was refreshing to hear that “there are tax reductions that can spur job growth here in New Hampshire.” Stressing how the research and development tax credit was established “to attract companies to create the products of the future”, he proposes we double the research & development tax credit this year. I especially liked his bluntness regarding how “this is a tax credit that works to help create jobs; the same cannot be said for the cut in the tobacco tax.”
Lastly, Governor Lynch didn’t shy away from addressing the destructive extremist antics that have become common place in the legislature. I especially appreciated it when he said “we hear from some a lot of anti-government talk – but that doesn’t make sense. Government after all, is all of us, the people of New Hampshire and it exists to serve all of us... Our focus shouldn’t be on attacking government. It should be on improving government.” He then proceeded to praise state employees, teachers, firefighters and police officers and how they are not the enemy! He expressed concern over the “rash of proposed legislation” relative to guns and public safety and clearly stated “these bills are wrong for public safety and they are wrong for New Hampshire.”
Governor Lynch ended his final State of the State maintaining there is
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)