Fiery debates lie ahead for Legislature in 2023

Oct. 2—CONCORD — The bill filing season at the State House has only just begun, but it already is clear the 2023 Legislature will consider proposals across the spectrum on guns, property tax relief and labor rights.

Senate Majority Leader Jeb Bradley, R-Wolfeboro, said Republican legislative leaders are working now to identify other issues, but the top spot on their list is filled in.

"Our top priority for next year will be creating a budget that is balanced with no new taxes, lives within our means, while helping those that need it most. This includes mental health and substance abuse programs and families with disabled children," Bradley said.

The Senate GOP leader said the hope is that even with a looming recession, lawmakers can provide some property tax relief. The current two-year budget gave $500 million back to taxpayers.

House Democratic Leader David Cote of Nashua said recently one of his key goals is to undo what Gov. Chris Sununu and the GOP-led Legislature accomplished in 2021-22.

"For two years now, Granite Staters have witnessed the effects of a reckless and extreme Republican majority in the Legislature," Cote said.

"Their attacks include passing the first abortion ban in New Hampshire's history, preventing our law enforcement from engaging with federal agencies on firearms law, siphoning taxpayer dollars away from public schools to private and religious institutions, restricting public school curriculum, and threatening bounties on our educators who disobey their commands."

During an interview last week, Sununu agreed with Bradley that "fiscal management" should be top of mind.

"It's critical we pass a sound budget that incorporates and strengthens some of what we have already done, the veterans campus in Franklin, the new mental health hospitals that are being built, the New Hampshire doorways system for those suffering from addiction," Sununu said.

"We really need to make sure all these are sustainable, not for a couple more years but a couple more decades."

The window for House members to present ideas opened the day after Labor Day.

They have until Nov. 22 to update those plans with more complete information.

The filing period for the state Senate is later and often has not begun until after the November elections.

This especially should be the case this year, with at least a third of the 24-person Senate turning over because of retirements.

Speaker pushes parental rights

House Speaker Sherman Packard, R-Londonderry, previewed his priorities with authorship of a parental rights bill that stumbled in the state Senate last spring after Sununu raised objections.

House Majority Leader Jason Osborne, R-Auburn, wants the Legislature to double down on the state tax cuts of the past two years, which reduced business taxes a third time and created a four-year phase-out of the state's 5% unearned income tax on bank account interest and stock dividends.

Osborne wants to eliminate the state's telecommunications tax, a levy that over time will generate less and less money because it only taxes landline phones.

On guns, Rep. Melissa Litchfield, R-Brentwood, said her 10 years of experience on local school boards has convinced her that giving public schools access to guns would make them safer.

"The bill allows for small firearms to be securely stored on campus. The only people permitted near these are staff members who have volunteered, trained and had background checks done on them," Litchfield said.

"While every local law enforcement officer would race to a school with an intruder, they couldn't get there as fast as someone already inside the building."

Megan Tuttle, president of the National Education Association of New Hampshire, is no fan of that idea.

"We all agree that there are too many shootings in our nation's schools, which is why New Hampshire's elected officials should prioritize the safety of students and work to keep weapons of war out of our schools, not put our children at risk by bringing loaded guns into classrooms and hallways," Tuttle said.

On gun control, Rep. Marjorie Smith, D-Durham, wants to close a loophole and require background checks before all gun sales; Rep. Chuck Grassie, D-Rochester, wants a three-day minimum waiting period for any gun purchase; and Rep. Steve Shurtleff, D-Pembroke, wants New Hampshire to adopt the federal Gun Free School Zone.

"Right now in New Hampshire," Smith said, "convicted domestic abusers and violent criminals can purchase a gun online, at flea markets, in private sales and at gun shows without any restrictions."

Property tax freeze for seniors

Rep. Robert Healey, R-Merrimack, is promoting a tax break that would freeze property taxes once one resident of a home turns 65 if they have lived in the home for at least five years.

"There's just no doubt we are losing more and more seniors in this state who are forced to move because they can't afford their ever-bigger property tax bill," Healey said.

House Democrats want the state to make a permanent 7.5% payment of retirement costs for public employees. Last spring, the Legislature approved the idea but only for one year.

"For far too long, the state has reneged on its duties and unfairly pushed costs on to property taxpayers," O'Brien said.

The right-to-work debate will return, with Rep. Max Abramson, R-Seabrook, offering the latest plan to prevent an employer from requiring someone to join a union or pay dues to support one.

Rep. Josh Adjutant, D-Enfield, is countering with legislation to keep employers from engaging on site in "any union activity."

klandrigan@unionleader.com