“RIGHT TO WORK” BILL BLOCKED IN STRONG BIPARTISAN REBUKE
The New Hampshire House of Representatives voted to kill SB 61, “Right-to-Work” legislation. After the series of votes that resulted in the bill being defeated, Representative Brian Sullivan (D-Grantham), Ranking Democrat on the House Labor Committee said, “today the New Hampshire House of Representatives upheld a long history of beating back dangerous right to work legislation. This result shows that no amount of arm twisting and berating could dissuade Democrats and our Republican allies from standing up for workers across the state.
The result of this legislation would have been to suppress wages and decrease workplace safety standards. By defeating Senate Bill 61, House Democrats again led the charge to stand with workers, families, and businesses to block out of state special interest groups from their assault on unions.”
PROPERTY TAX RELIEF LEGISLATION
The House of Representatives voted 208-165 to pass enabling policy that will create property tax relief incentives aimed at helping our communities and citizens. It allows municipalities to adopt property tax exemptions for renewable generation and energy storage systems if they decide to. SB 102 also helps to incentivize the repair and rehabilitation of unused or underused residential units in order to increase the amount of available housing. These changes will help address our state’s housing shortage and move us towards increased renewable energy usage, all while putting money back in the pockets of our constituents.
SMALL BUSINESSES GET TAX FORGIVENESS
On a voice vote today, the New Hampshire House voted to pass SB 3, which excludes income created by forgiveness of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans from calculation of Business Profits Tax (BPT) liability. The bill now goes to the governor’s desk for signature.
SB 3, which passed unanimously out of the Ways and Means committee, is critical to supporting businesses still laboring to recover from the COVID recession. Because current law requires it, many have had to pay Business Profits Tax on forgiven PPP loans from the federal Paycheck Protection Program. Forty other states have followed the federal lead already and forgiven taxation of these PPP loans.
LOWERING TAX BURDEN ON SMALL BUSINESSES
The New Hampshire House voted unanimously to pass SB 101, to increase the business income threshold at which businesses must file a business profits tax return. Ways and Means Ranking Democrat Rep. Susan Almy (D-Lebanon) said, “SB 101 is extremely important to New Hampshire’s small business community and is a priority of Democrats in the legislature. There has been no change in the filing threshold for the BPT in 27 years, resulting in thousands of small businesses being uplifted into filing and accounting to the state simply because of inflation.
PROTECTING STATE PARKS FROM LANDFILLS
The House of Representatives amended Senate Bill 103 to include language similar to House Bill 177, a bill relative to protecting state parks from landfills. After the vote, Representative Edith Tucker (D-Randolph), prime sponsor of House Bill 177 said, “the amendment added onto Senate Bill 103 mirrors language passed by the house in a bipartisan vote in April in the form of House Bill 177. This language will establish a 2-mile buffer zone protecting New Hampshire State Parks from the harmful effects of landfills. Our State Parks are an instrumental part of the natural beauty of New Hampshire and help anchor our thriving tourism industry. This policy will help protect these parks from the detrimental effects that landfills can have like increasing cancer-causing risk factors, harming wildlife, contaminating water systems, and more. I am happy the House upheld our support for this important policy and again passed it with bipartisan support.”
MAJORITY UNDERMINES CONTROL
The House Republicans passed Senate Bill 52, legislation that targets the city of Nashua and undermines local control. Following the vote Representative Michael O’Brien (D-Nashua) said, “Senate Bill 52 was born out of a few disgruntled individuals upset that they lost a court case not reflective of the popular opinion of the Nashua community. Instead of cutting their losses, this group seeks to completely restructure local government and impose the State House in decisions that should be up to the local community. If we have learned anything during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is that when critical needs arise, the community should be able to expend the resources to address them. This bill would even prevent grant monies from being spent if they exceeded the imposed “cap,” essentially throwing money away that could help our community thrive. It is disappointing that the majority of House Republicans stood firmly against what could have been a bipartisan effort to stop an attack on local control.”
MAJORITY FREEZES MINIMUM WAGE FOR TIPPED EMPLOYEES
The House of Representatives voted 201-171 to pass an amended version of Senate Bill 137, which would freeze the minimum wage for tipped employees at $3.27 per hour. Following the vote, Representative Josh Adjutant (D-Bridgewater) said, “Senate Bill 137 is bad for workers, and bad for the businesses in the hospitality industry. Our tipped minimum wage is currently set at 45% of the applicable minimum wage, which in New Hampshire comes to a pathetic $3.27 per hour. This bill would freeze the minimum wage for tipped employees at $3.27, blocking the possibility of an increase if there were to be a raise in the minimum wage at the federal level. Our hospitality workers do hard work and ought to have the full protection of minimum wage laws, but Senate Bill 137 makes it even harder for them to have the pay they deserve. This is an unnecessary and cruel move that harms workers and businesses across the state.”
MAJORITY CREATES EXPENSIVE, CONFUSING TWO-TIERED SYSTEM FOR STATE AND FEDERAL ELECTIONS
The New Hampshire House voted 200-174 to pass SB 89 with amendment 2021-1445h, which would create a two-tiered system for state and federal elections if the “For the People Act” currently being debated in the U.S. Congress were to become law. Deputy Democratic Leader David E. Cote (D-Nashua), Ranking Democrat on the House Election Law Committee said, “in their continuing display of contempt for the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution, the pocketbooks of New Hampshire taxpayers, and the hard work of New Hampshire’s election officials, House Republicans passed SB 89 which would turn our election process into a logistical nightmare by creating an entirely new process separating state and federal elections. This bill proposes an entirely new election system for New Hampshire that would double the work of election officials, skyrocket costs to taxpayers, and create vast, unnecessary confusion for voters throughout the state.
Even though creating separate voting lists, separate ballots, and different laws to govern state and federal races would be extremely costly to New Hampshire taxpayers, the Secretary of State’s office could provide zero information about the cost of implementing this bill.