My votes in the NH House session
of February 8, 2024

HB 1002

I wrote about HB 1002 on February 1. I did not want the OTPA vote overturned, and so I voted against Reconsideration. Because I also didn’t want to allow the OTPA to be overturned at some future time, I voted against the Table motion. I was OK with the Recommit motion, so that the bill will go back to the Judiciary Committee to try to refine it.

HB 1561-FN, HB 1634-FN, and HB 1665-FN

All three of these bills attempt to expand the Education Freedom Account (EFA) program. If you follow me at all, you know that I am dead set against this program, which removes money from public schools and funnels it to private schools, religious schools, and home-schoolers. I particularly object to public money going to religious schools, which is clearly contrary to the New Hampshire State Constitution.

HB 1561-FN would have allowed EFAs for various classes of students, including students worried about contagious diseases such as the common cold and LGBT students. What the bill’s proponents fail to mention is that private schools are under no obligation to take anyone, so that they may refuse to take LGBT students. If you look at all the categories in the bill (you can see the bill here), you’ll see that almost any student in the state can qualify. In other words, this bill would allow near-universal expansion of EFAs.

HB 1643-FN would have removed “near” in the previous sentence, and just removed all income limits. That would have meant that you could be paying to send a high-income person’s kid to private or religious school.

Fortuantely, HB 1561-FN and HB 1643-FN were defeated. Not so with HB 1665-FN, which passed by one vote. It expands EFA eligibility from 350% of poverty level ($105,000) to 500% ($150,000). Department of Education data shows that most families receiving EFA funds already had their kids in private schools, religious schools, or home schools before getting the funding. So we’re not really enhancing educational opportunity with EFAs, and especially not by expanding them. What we are doing is taking money away from public schools.

One other note about HB 1665-FN. The “FN” means that there is a fiscal note, and the bill is supposed to go to the Fiscal Committee after passing the first time. But Rep. Ken Weyler, Chair of the Fiscal Committee waived off the bill, so that it will go right to the Senate. Given the 14-10 Republican majority in the Senate and the current Governor, I expect that this bill will be enacted before too long.

HB 1049

This bill would repeal the prohibition on overnight mooring of houseboats. I don’t expect that it would affect many, if any, of my Ward 3 constituents. But you would be amazed at the volume of email that all the state representatives received opposing this bill, almost all from property owners on Like Winnipesaukee. The bill failed, big time.

HB 1700-FN

We heard this bill in Science, Technology and Energy. So many people are convinced that the federal government is experimenting on us by spraying chemicals from the air. They showed us photos of contrails from planes, asserting that these were chemtrails because contrails dissipate and chemtrails don’t. These folks apparently have never heard of “wind.” I don’t want to be unkind, so I’ll just leave it there.