CONCORD - Governor Maggie Hassan today issued the following statement after the Senate voted to pass Senate Bill 1, reducing the rate of the business profits tax, and Senate Bill 2, reducing the rate of the business enterprise tax:
“Because they are unwilling to consider reasonable revenue changes – including a modest increase in the tobacco tax – the New Hampshire House of Representatives is currently decimating critical economic priorities for our state, including cutting the Department of Transportation in half, taking away health coverage from tens of thousands of people, cutting services like meals on wheels for seniors, cutting funding for higher education, and even cutting travel and tourism promotion in half. These two bills would create even deeper holes in this and future budgets, negatively impacting our ability to invest in the shared priorities that are critical to the success of our people, businesses and economy. Further eroding the revenue sources that do exist is irresponsible and will lead to further reductions.
“While we must maintain our low-tax environment, which the Tax Foundation ranked as the seventh-best in its business tax climate index, we must also continue investing in priorities such as a strong and healthy workforce pipeline, a modern transportation infrastructure, and safe communities that businesses tell me are critical to their ability to grow, thrive and create jobs. As we face ever-tightening budgets, we must examine the fiscal impact of these tax breaks with the same scrutiny as any new spending, and supporters of these bills must address how the lost revenue would be offset.”
Governor Hassan's statements on the recent budget bills:
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The House overturned a committee recommendation and instead decided to allow medical marijuana patients to grow their own cannabis.Unlike many other states, New Hampshire’s medical marijuana law does not allow qualifying patients or their caregivers to grow their own plants. Instead, they have to buy cannabis from four state-approved dispensaries, none of which are operating and are not expected to be in the next year or so.Rep. Ted Wright, R-Moultonborough, the prime sponsor of House Bill 593, told the House two years ago it passed the bill establishing the medical marijuana program with the home cultivation provision, but it was eliminated at Gov. Maggie Hassan’s request.“That’s two years people have suffered without access,” Wright said. “DHHS could license a dispensary tomorrow, but it will be about a year before dispensing and another year before full capacity with people suffering all this time.”But bill opponents said changing the program now would only delay implementation even longer.“DHHS approved the structure and needs to roll it out and issue cards to approved patients,” said Rep. Joanne Ward, R-Stratham. “Introducing another system with a new set of rules and regulations will future delay the program.”The House voted down the Health and Human Services and Elderly Affairs Committee recommendation to kill the bill on a 188-148 vote before passing it 208-132.The bill now moves to the Senate where it faces an uncertain future. U.S. Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) presided over her first hearing as chair of the Senate Armed Services Readiness and Management Support Subcommittee. In her remarks today, Senator Ayotte discussed the importance of New Hampshire's national security assets to our nation, including the New Hampshire National Guard, Pease Air National Guard Base and the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. Ayotte also reiterated her opposition to the administration's request for another Base Realignment and Closure round. Senator Ayotte has joined Democrats from Virginia and Massachusetts to propose a bill dealing with the heroin and prescription pain killer epidemic: Senators Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), and Tim Kaine (D-Va.) introduced the Opioid Overdose Reduction Act to protect first responders, health professionals and family members who are educated in administering an opioid overdose prevention drug, such as naloxone (also known as Narcan) in an emergency situation of overdose. Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.) plans to introduce companion legislation in the House of Representatives in the coming weeks. Are New Hampshire Republicans for local control of public schools or not? It is an open question. As the Northeast U.S. gambling market becomes increasingly saturated, lawmakers in New Hampshire are again looking to get in on the action. The Union Leader's Drew Cline mumbled the following story into his cellphone while weeping in a pool of blood: Kelly Ayotte is running for re-election to the U.S. Senate, which is where she wants to be and where the Republican Party wants her to stay. She is not running for vice president, and both she and her staff wish people would stop mentioning her as a potential vice presidential pick. And yet, people keep doing that — a lot. Sometimes they can’t help themselves. Senator Shaheen is trying to round up support for a Senate bill that would deal with human trafficking. Paige Sutherland of NHPR posted the following information from a mailbox in Erroll before fleeing over the border: U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen was in the Granite State Friday making several stops in Manchester including to meet with law enforcement and statewide agencies to advocate for her new legislation on human trafficking. A human trafficking bill is stuck in the Senate, and Jon Stewart went ballistic -- in a preview of a fake C-SPAN2 show called "Hatewatch" he joked he would be joining after he left "The Daily Show." Radioactive super-geniuses at Dartmouth have been studying the spread of mercury leaking into the Androscoggin: Dartmouth scientists and their colleagues have found that periphyton—a community of algae, bacteria and other natural material living on submerged surfaces - is helping to transform mercury pollution from a Superfund site along a New Hampshire river into a more toxic form of the metal. |