Report from the Legislature: Blurb Wars

The February 10 session of the House of Representatives took twice as long and accomplished half as much as could reasonably be expected, due to what would be described as a hissy fit if it had been carried out by an eight-year-old. Because it was engaged in by a member of the legislature, that member chose to call it "exercising his right to freedom of speech."

Read more.

Report from the Legislature: Water Bills

This week the Senate heard some bills directly related to local water issues. I was pleased to be involved as a sponsor on SB411 with Senator Cilley who at one point during the hearing expressed the crux of the issue when she remarked "DES is worried about pumping and communities are worried about quality."
Click to read all about it.

UPDATE: SB411 received some serious mangling when it reached the House. Because if changes it was killed when it returned to the Senate.

Report from the Legislature: A Good Man Honored

For over 60 years, the Honorable Robert A. Johnson served his community and his state, as well as being a great family man. On January 27, 2010 the New Hampshire House of Representitives honored his service by a unanimous vote naming Route 43 in Northwood the "Honorable Robert A. Johnson Memorial Highway. I was proud to be the prime sponsor of that bill.

Click here to read about some of Johnson's contributions.

Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics*

The results of the UNH Granite State Gambling Poll prepared by Andrew Smith have been released. The poll is part of data gathering by Governor Lynch's study panel on gambling created last summer; the final report is expected next spring.

The report can be seen as both good news and bad news for both proponents and opponents of gaming in New Hampshire, depending upon how one wished to use the data.

The 77 page report is available at NH.gov/UNH poll. For those who do not wish to plow through the entire document, the explanatory charts can be found near the beginning of the report.

*There are three kinds of Lies: Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics -Benjamin Disraeli

Report of the Legislature: Veto Day

The legislature is back in session for the second year of the 2009-2010 bienium. Most of the work being done is in committee where the more than 1000 bills filed get a hearing and a recommendation before they reach the floor.

But a full session was held this week to deal with the legislation passed by both the House and the Senate but vetoed by the governor. Some of the vetos were anticipated, some were not. Check out the results by clicking here.

Report from the Legislature: Education

For close to 20 years, education in New Hampshire was under the oversight of the courts. When a Democratic majority took control of the legislature after the election of 2006, high on the Party's agenda was to define, cost, fund and create a system of accountability for education of the state's children. After three years it has happened and the court is now out of the education business.

For a review of the final step click here.

Report From the Legislature: Marriage Equality

It took three House bills, multiple Senate amendments and some reluctance on the part of the Governor until he thought it was finally right, but on June 3, 2009, marriage equality came to New Hampshire. By a vote of 186 to 179 in the House and 14 to 10 in the Senate, we did the right thing.

Review the steps to equality here.