NH HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES – WEEK IN REVIEW
March 21 – 25, 2011
The full House met on Wednesday (2/23) and a spectrum of issues was on the docket ranging from Education to the Portsmouth Naval Ship Yard.
Thankfully thoughtful minds prevailed in killing the bill (213/134) to repeal the requirement that all school districts offer public kindergarten. However, it is still a sad day that 134 representatives felt Kindergarten shouldn’t be part of NH’s core educational programming. Here is a sampling of your Nocialist legislature at work…
NO TO DRINKING LOCAL MILK, BUT YES TO PROTECT MEN
Interestingly – the present NH House of Representatives have the fewest number of women members since 1974. So it is only logical that a bunch of white men had no problem exempting the Commission on the Status of Men from going out of business in June. Apparently, allowing it to fade away would have been too hasty – regardless that no one knows what they do.
However moving us closer to a Nocialist state, the majority of the House overturned a committee report to appropriate emergency relief funds for NH Dairy Farmers. Despite a valiant attempt by committee members who pointed out that milk farmers cannot set the price for their milk and are at the mercy of a convoluted pricing system controlled in DC, the majority (239 Nocialists) felt that this takes money via taxes & fees from individuals and businesses and is a bailout. Forget if this might help the local economy and promote buying local. Forget about helping the local small business dairy farmer. NO Bail outs for regular people – NOCIALIST’S RULE!!!
NO TO BUSINESS DEVELOPERS – “WETLANDS = SACRED GROUND FOR FROGS, MOSQUITOES AND ENVIRONMENTALISTS”
The statement “Wetlands are sacred ground for frogs mosquitoes and environmentalists” was stated on the floor of the NH House, by a ranking republican in an attempt to make light and laugh at the Aquatic Resources Compensatory Mitigation (ARM) Program, regardless of the fact that the program offers significant value and advantages to land developers as well as being sensitive to the environment. Despite testimony, by NH DES, that lowering the administrative fee would threaten the viability of the program, the radical extremists in control of the House voted (261/90) to put at risk the viability of a program that has proven advantageous to NH Business. So much for building the economy...
NO THANK YOU – 2O MILLION $
Probably one of the more foolish acts thus far by these radical extremist libertarians was the defeat (246/104) of New Hampshire’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). Apparently, RGGI was too complicated for these proponents of a Nocialist state to wrap their heads around. Forget that savings to NH communities are in the millions of dollars – forget that RGGI provides solid protective measures and is good risk management – forget about NH losing 20 million dollars annually in funding – and forget about anything resembling the “common good.” The radicals in charge actually quoted from a 1941 study that refutes global climate change. One republican rep was quoted as saying “climate change is hype!”
NO PROPERTY TAX BREAK FOR REGULAR PEOPLE
Rather than assist people to find basic housing at an affordable cost and encourage small business which is the backbone of our economy – the NH House of Representatives said NO (255/91) to a property tax break for NH families. The bill would have provided an exemption of $100,000 from the State Wide Education Property Tax (SWEPT), which would have resulted in a reduction in taxes for small businesses and residents owning property assessed at less than $625,000, and a minor increase for those residents and businesses assessed at more than 625k. The argument being bantered around was that this was “class warfare” – of course the fact that wages for average NH families have not increased, since 1984, didn’t matter nor that costs are being shifted down to the cities and towns.
NO THANK YOU TO FEDERAL DOLLARS
This could have been titled EXTREMIST POLITICAL IDEOLOGY TRUMPS FINANCIAL AID – for this bill which passed (238/111) creates a committee to review every grant-in-aid program, at every level of state government (Municipal, County and State). This Bill will directly affect the ability of a city, town, school district, county and state agency to accept federal dollars. Forget that this would result in an increase in property taxes, or that it would render NH less competitive and less attractive to companies wanting to locate here. The majority view grants as “unconstitutional encroachments” on the sovereignty of NH and that grants amount “to all intents and purposes of bribing the state of New Hampshire.”
NO TO THE PORTSMOUTH NAVAL SHIPYARD
Among one of the more confusing acts this week was the vote 241/89 against supporting the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. As everyone in NH knows the shipyard is a vital economic interest to the State, and is always at risk of closure by the feds regardless of the fact that it is one of only four shipyards specializing in submarines. So why would the NH House of Representatives be on record as not supporting the shipyard is shocking and can only be explained as republican partisan ideologues not wanting to support something a democrat had sponsored.
NO INCOME TAX ON SENIOR CITIZENS - NOT YET!
Thankfully, calm heads prevailed and the attempt to impose increased costs on retired public employees was temporarily averted by sending the bill back to committee. The goal was to raise the cost to retirees for their health care – it doesn’t matter if the present system is a benefit earned by retirees for work provided. They almost had to pay more which could be argued is an income tax on retirees, but I’m sure there will be more on this issue as the session unfolds.
NOCIALISM RULES
Overall, this radical legislature is showing their true agenda – working for the common good is out. Extremist political ideology trumps helping people, creating jobs or building the economy. The NOCIALIST State keeps moving backwards.
