April 12, 2021 ~Bow, NH
When the NH House adjourned near 7pm on Friday, April 10, it marked the end of three grueling days of legislative work, each lasting around 10 hours in duration. Even so, the House failed to act at all on over 60 bills on its calendar, thereby putting to rest the oft-cited claim that “all bills, no matter how inconsequential, are brought to a vote in the NH House.” In a break with all precedent, Republican leadership divided legislation into the budget (Day 1), bills recommended for passage by a committee (Day 2 & 3) and bills recommended to be voted down (whatever time remained on Day 3). Since Friday was the deadline for sending bills to the NH Senate, the 60+ bills not acted upon are now dead for the year, unloved and unvoted.
The Republican ploy to put off bills that they, the majority, opposed until the last hour or two of the three-day marathon was perfectly legitimate in terms of parliamentary procedure but unprecedented in how the House operates. Even more oddly, the Democratic minority waited until the very end of the final day before expressing any complaint or concern over this clearly partisan structuring of the order-of-business. Many good bills supported by thousands of NH citizens never had their moment in the sun, but the Democratic minority sheepishly accepted this and only voiced an ineffective complaint at the very end of the final day. Therefore, one can only conclude that Democratic leaders simply accepted this abuse of parliamentary procedure, and they should be held accountable for failing to have votes on a variety of sought-after legislation. Among these would be a committee to study the impact on families of deportation of primary earners, various energy efficiency proposals, bills to raise the minimum wage and to study a living wage, and numerous election law reforms (to broaden access and ensure votes are properly counted). None of these bills received the opportunity of a vote by the NH House, due to Republican planning and Democratic acquiescence.
On legislation that did reach the floor for a vote, the Republican majority won virtually all votes, which is to be expected. They passed their version of the biennial state budget, including cuts in public education funding, inclusion of the notorious HB 544 ban on discussion of divisive concepts, and a variety of limitations on the governor’s emergency powers. The governor has repeatedly stated he would not sign such a budget, but take that with the proverbial grain of salt. Remember, less than two weeks ago, the governor was adamant against vaccinating out-of-state college and university students, then swiftly did a 180 degree change on that when the volume of criticism got too hot. This is the typical Sununu strategy-make the big splash with the initial announcement then back off at a later date but move onto another issue where political points might be scored. So, we shall see how this budget process plays out.
Collective Bargaining Victories Elsewhere, sanity prevailed as a number of Republicans joined Democrats to vote down HB 206, which would have required all public sector collective bargaining negotiating occur in public. Previous bulletins have pointed out just how ludicrous and counter-productive this would be, and a majority of representatives, many with experience on school boards or as selectmen, agreed this was not a beneficial change to the negotiations process. Another bill, HB 348, requiring the posting of all tentative agreements, had a similar fate, given it was poorly written and did not carefully define the types of agreements to be posted or for what purpose. Contracts? Memorandums of understanding? Minor personnel agreements? The bill was defeated, as it should have been.
Lastly, HB 111, revoking qualified immunity for public sector personnel, was tabled. This was a close vote, and the lines were not strictly partisan. By tabling, the bill can be brought back next year and perhaps with some careful exclusions and limitations, could satisfy the town and city managers as well as the police and fire-fighters who figured strongly in opposing this bill.
So now the NH House will be on a bit of a hiatus for the next two weeks, with only a scattering of committee hearings scheduled. Each chamber will take up the work of examining, amending, and ultimately voting upon legislation sent by the other chamber (House deals with Senate bills and vice versa). Actual legislative sessions are unlikely to occur until sometime in May, which is when SB61, the so-called “right to work” legislation, will come to the floor of the House for a final decision. Meanwhile, the Senate now takes on the state budget. If the governor is correct and the House-passed budget is DOA in the Senate, then the Senate will craft their own budget and ultimately send it to the House for more negotiation in a committee of conference prior to final House and Senate votes. It is during this process that education voucher legislation (SB130) may once again make an appearance, inserted by the Senate into the biennial state budget. By doing so, there will have been NO hearings on the negative financial impact of vouchers, and what is the biggest single change in NH education funding since the Claremont decisions would be implemented without full hearings or even direct policy votes by both chambers of the legislature. Not the way the people’s business should be done. Why, you would almost think they have something to hide when it comes to education vouchers and the impact on your property taxes.
Spring arrived in glorious fashion this past week, and while cooler temperatures are predicted for the next ten days or so, the seasons have changed. Enjoy the weather as much as possible, don’t be planting too early, get yourself vaccinated, and stay safe & healthy.
For breaking news and other legislative information, please be sure to like us on Facebook at AFT New Hampshire or follow us on Twitter @AFTNewHampshire to receive the latest news. Please share this with friends so they can sign up for this bulletin at www.aft-nh.org.
NH Retirement Security Coalition The NHRSC will be tracking all bills related to the NH Retirement System and continuing advocacy for our members. You can find the legislation tracker following retirement bills by clicking on the following link NHRSC UPDATES. AFT-NH is a member of the NH Retirement Security Coalition (NHRSC).