JOIN THE CONVERSATION
Here are some of the issues facing New Hampshire citizens today. We hope that you will take this opportunity to join in and become engaged in issues of relevance to you or your community.
For a full list of our issues see our Issues Library.
Under New Hampshire’s capital punishment law, the death penalty can be sought in cases involving the murder of police and court officers, judges, murders for hire, and/or murders connected to drug deals, rape or kidnapping. A bill to repeal the death penalty was made in 2009, but the bill failed in the Senate. The state legislature recently created a 22-person committee to review the state's death penalty statute.
In June 2009, New Hampshire based LLC owners became subject to the state’s 5% interest and dividends tax. The new tax was proposed by the Department of Revenue Administration and passed by the Legislature as part of the state budget. Opponents fear the new tax law will drive small businesses out of the state. They're also upset because the law was passed without a public hearing. Proponents say the new tax is fair, since shareholders of corporations and subchapter S corporations already pay the 5% interest and dividends tax.
The Comprehensive Shoreland Protection Act (CSPA) was initially enacted in 1991. It was substantially amended in 2007 and its new provisions became effective as of July 1, 2008. The law is primarily aimed at protecting the public waters of the state and applies strict rules to use and development of the land located from the shoreline to 250 feet inland (the “protected shoreland”). Permits from the state are required for all construction, excavation and filling, regardless of size; property owners are also required to establish on their lots a waterfront buffer as well as a natural preserve that can be up to 50% of these lots — and this land must essentially be left alone for nature to take over.
There is a lot of talk about taxes and the state's need for additional revenues. NH already has many gambling activities like our lottery, race tracks and charitable events. Expanded gambling in the form of video slot machines at race tracks or other locations offers the possibility of hundreds of millions of dollars of revenues, but these revenues come with potentially significant economic and social costs.
Early in the morning of May 3, 2003, the unthinkable happened to the beloved state symbol of the Granite State, the Old Man of the Mountain. It came crashing down. A blue-ribbon task force studied the structure, considered many options and recommended not rebuilding this symbol of New Hampshire, but rather creating an abstract replica in a park near Profile Lake. The project is estimated to cost $5 million.
Property taxes on land and buildings are used predominantly by local governments to finance schools, police and fire protection, trash collection, street maintenance, and public recreation, among other local services. The state property tax is used to help fund K-12 education. NH citizens are led to believe that we have the highest property taxes in the U.S. But how high they are depends on how you measure the tax--on some measures we are in the top few; by others we range between 13th and 45th highest taxed states.
As a result of Senate Bill 2, adopted in 1995, any town, school district or cooperative school district that raises and appropriates funds at an annual meeting can adopt a process whereby all warrant articles are given their final vote by official ballot. The law effectively takes the voters’ power away from the traditional town meeting, and turns it into a "deliberative session." If the town budget is not approved by the voters on the written ballot, a "default budget" takes its place. The default budget can be higher or lower than the proposed town budget.
The New Hampshire Supreme Court has found that the state, and not our local communities, is responsible for ensuring the funding of an adequate education for all citizens. The NH legislature has attempted to comply with the court's order, but has not done so in a way that many communities and citizens have accepted. All recent NH governors have recommended to the legislature a constitutional amendment that gets the courts out of the picture, and puts the decisions on education funding in the hands of the legislature. But since the NH legislature has failed to agree to any amendment language, none has ever gone to the citizens for a vote.
The New Hampshire Legislature passed a law in 2006 that required PSNH to install pollution control technology known as a scrubber to reduce mercury emissions at the Bow power plant. The estimated cost of that scrubber is now $450 million, compared to the original estimate of $250 million. All of these costs will be paid for by NH consumers. In 2009, a bill that would have required the Public Utilities Commission to investigate whether or not PSNH should still install the scrubber was defeated by the state Senate and in August 2009, the New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled against a group of ratepayers trying to prevent the installation of the scrubber.
In New Hampshire children are required to wear seat belts, but adults are not. About 69% of drivers wear them, compared to a national average of 83%. Not having a mandatory seat belt law costs our state some federal grants it would otherwise receive.
After some residents of Lake Winnipesaukee raised a concern, as of January 1, 2009 New Hampshire imposed a boat speed limit specifically on that lake. The speed boat limits are 45mph during daylight and 25mph at night. This follows the long-standing speed limit of 40mph on Squam Lake, and 35mph on Spofford Lake. The new law is in a trial period for two years.
The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative is the first cap-and-trade program for greenhouse gases in the U.S. RGGI is an agreement among 10 Northeastern and mid-Atlantic states to reduce global greenhouse gases. In New Hampshire, enabling legislation was passed in 2007.