AFT-NH | AFT Stateweb

AFT-NH Legislative Bulletin, 2017-14

In the aftermath of the House’s stunning failure to pass a budget (due to Republican intra-party feuding), the Senate becomes the focal point of attention, as it works to develop a budget proposal. Using Governor Sununu’s budget proposal as a starting point, the Senate will craft a budget and attach it as an amendment to a House bill. That amended bill will then be sent back to the House, which will of course reject the bill, forcing a committee of conference to hammer out the final details of the State’s 2017-18 biennial budget. So, much remains to be done, but much of it will occur behind the scenes, in negotiations between the Senate, the Governor, and the House. Stay tuned-this will not be finished until June 2017.

AFT-NH Legislative Bulletin 2017-13

House Budget Fails The deadline for the NH House to pass a state budget was April 6^th. Despite having a 53-vote margin majority, the NH House Republicans failed to pass a budget to send to the NH Senate by the deadline for the first time in at least 50 years. The House met over two days and recessed on Thursday, April 6^th with no budget. Speaker Shawn Jasper was unable to garner the votes of the republican caucus to approve a budget after the so-called Freedom Caucus in the House balked at the budget citing too much spending. The NH Senate begins the process of dealing with the budget.

AFT-NH Legislative Bulletin, 2017-12

In a final flurry of action, the NH Senate completed action on its bills this past week, setting the stage for the next round of activity at the State House. One of the bills passed by the Senate was SB3, which is another in a long line of attempts at voter suppression. With some newspapers continuing to give front-page coverage to claims of massive voter fraud in NH (even as the stories themselves admit there is no evidence to back such claims), NH Republicans voted to impose new restrictions upon individuals registering to vote. Under this proposed legislation, the applicant will need to

AFT-NH CALL TO ACTION-STOP SCHOOL VOUCHERS

Stop the effort to divert money from public schools to private schools, home schoolers and others. We need to protect public education. SB 193 is a voucher bill under the guise of “Education Freedom Savings Accounts”. A hearing before the House Education Committee has been scheduled for Tuesday, April 4^t^h at 10:00am at the Legislative Office Building, Room 207, 33 North State Street, Concord, NH.

Please Support Public Education

Defeat SB 193

Stop School Vouchers

Each school district receives $3,560 +/- for each student enrolled in K-12. This bill would divert 90% of that amount to an account for a child who attends any private school, charter school or for home-schooling expenses. Another 5% in administrative expenses can be diverted to the administration of the “scholarship account”.

This bill will cause a significant impact on local property taxpayers as money is diverted away from funding our public schools and into a system with little or no accountability.

A hearing before the House Education Committee has been scheduled for Tuesday, April 4^t^h at 10:00am at the Legislative Office Building, Room 207, 33 North State Street, Concord, NH.

Please attend the hearing and show your opposition. If you do not wish to testify, you can sign a card showing your opposition.

If you are unable to attend, you can email the full House Education Committee directly at HouseEducationCommittee@leg.state.nh.us.

For more resources on this issue, please visit our web site at:

http://nh.aft.org/2017-nh-state-house-news#

For breaking news, follow us on Facebook at AFT New Hampshire or Twitter @AFTNewHampshire.

AFT-NH Legislative Bulletin, 2017-11

After concluding business in a rush back on March 10, the NH House reconvened this past Thursday for a short session. The most notable action of the day concerned HB 647, the so-called voucher bill for children with disabilities. The bill had previously passed the House on policy grounds, but on Thursday, came to the floor with a strong, bi-partisan recommendation of “Inexpedient to Legislate” from the Finance Committee. Nevertheless, in what looks to have been a party-line vote (it was not a roll-call but a division vote, meaning only the totals are recorded, not individual votes) the bill was tabled rather than killed. The motion to table came from Republican leader Dick Hinch, who asked the House to table on grounds that voting to kill the bill would prejudice the fate of SB 193, the broader, full-scale education voucher bill. With a vote of 193-161 (closely resembling party numbers in the House) HB 647 was tabled. The bill itself is essentially dead for 2017 but can be revived in 2018, and may also make an appearance in the 2018-19 budget bill still under construction by the House Finance Committee.

Statement by AFT-NH President Douglas Ley on the passing of State Senator Scott McGilvray

Statement by AFT-NH President Doug Ley on the Passing of State Senator Scott McGilvray.