NH election 2022: Rep. Peter Bixby seeks Strafford 13 (Dover Ward 6) House seat
I continue to be grateful for the opportunity to serve in Concord and am running for a sixth term to continue that work. I have represented Dover Wards 5 and 6 and Somersworth Ward 2 for the last 10 years; my district has now changed to Strafford 13, covering only Dover Ward 6. I love the fact that our state constitution envisions a government that fosters a civil society of educated citizens, a society that both respects the rights of individuals and promotes the common good. When I consider legislation, I ask a few key questions: Does it encourage mutually beneficial behavior? Does it allow people to pursue their interests and dreams? Does it protect people from undue hardship? Is it fair?
As a member of the House, there are several ways in which I am involved in developing legislation. Each year I sponsor a small number of bills on topics about which I am knowledgeable or in response to constituent requests. I also co-sponsor some bills where I strongly support the idea, but feel the prime sponsor is better qualified to write the bill. As a member of the Environment and Agriculture Committee, I hear testimony on the bills that are sent to us. There are some we decide are not worth pursuing; other have merit but need amendment. I am very active in our committee's amendment process, and there are many bills that come out of our committee where I am not the prime sponsor, but have written a significant part of final version. I also participate in committees of conference to resolve differences between House and Senate versions of bills. And finally, as a member of the House, I vote on all legislation that is filed each year. There are many bills that I strongly support, even though I have not been involved in writing them.
This term I resubmitted two bills that were stalled last term by the Covid pandemic. HB 199, which encourages using soil health as a means to improve climate resilience, has been signed into law. HB 532, creating a database for animal health records to foster animal welfare, was the product of work I did over the course of three terms and was included in the budget to make sure it was fully funded.
Two other animal welfare bills were HB 249, which makes it possible for shelters to operate from a leased space rather than having to own their property, and HB 1186, which requires emergency shelters to allow people to keep their pets in emergency pet facilities on the shelter property.
Much of our committee work this term dealt with solid waste management. One success was HB 413, creating a solid waste working group to advise the Department of Environmental Services on modernizing the state’s solid waste practices
Another success was SB 367, regarding advanced recycling of plastics. Standard plastic recycling does not eliminate enough contaminants to create food safe products. Advanced recycling is a promising technology that reduces plastics to their basic chemical components, which can be recombined to make food safe products. However, if not strictly regulated, it could end up just burning the plastic rather than recycling it. The bill the Senate drafted did not have enough regulatory safeguards to prevent that, so I created an amendment to make sure that plastic going into advanced recycling actually gets recycled. The bill is now law.
One issue that still needs work is making sure that new landfills are not built too close to streams, rivers, lakes, and estuaries. HB 177 tried to do that by preventing building near state parks. The Senate rejected it because the science wasn’t good enough: a fair criticism. In response, we produced HB 1454, which used a scientific approach. By measuring the flow rate of ground water, we can calculate how far a spill or leak might travel in five years. Five years would provide enough time to detect a spill and begin remediation. This is much safer than the current two-hundred-foot setback. The bill passed the House and Senate with strong bipartisan votes, but Governor Sununu vetoed it. We need to reintroduce this bill next term, because, as one of my Republican colleagues said, “Water is life.”
Along with my Democratic colleagues, I voted for legislation supporting public education funding, climate resilience, clean energy, criminal justice reform, and preserving women’s health autonomy, all of which were blocked by the Republican majority. I also voted against gerrymandered voting maps, anti-abortion legislation, using state education money to fund private schools and homeschooling, and many other bad bills forced through by the Republican majority.
I hope, in my sixth term, to continue the work of improving New Hampshire’s solid waste policies; reduce energy costs through energy conservation programs and local generation of renewable energy; reduce property taxes by having the state pay its share; and protect women’s health care choices in state law.
If you share my belief that government should, as our Constitution says, “promote the general Welfare,” please vote for me on Nov. 8.
Democrat Peter Bixby is an incumbent state Representative from Dover, NH. He can be reached at peterbixbyNHHouse.org (website), peterbixbyNHouse@comcast.net (email).
This article originally appeared on Fosters Daily Democrat: NH election 2022: Rep. Peter Bixby seeks Strafford 13 (Dover Ward 6) House seat
