The House, Thursday, June 27, 2019

Rep. Max Abramson (R - Rock 40)Thank you, Mister Speaker. I am going to oversimplify my speech in the interest of time. I am speaking against the Committee of Conference Report. Four years ago, we voted to cut tax rates, especially business tax rates and revenues have gone up. In fact, all of the job growth and economic growth in the country every year happens only in the 30 lowest tax states. Congress has cut tax rates 17 times since WWI. All seventeen times revenues have grown, usually within the first year and sometimes within two years. I am opposed to the results of the Committee of Conference. I did attend the hearing on the budget and they added a whole long list of items. If you turn to page 181 of your Committee of Conference Report, there are 177 different line items added to the budget. Some of which, in my opinion, are not related to budget items. They added a pet vendor bill and a long list of other amendments. We heard and received a lot of emails and heard a lot of upset comments from pet owners about things that were added that never went through a House hearing. SB 306 was added and also never came through my committee. I am also a member of the Planning Board. SB 306 would override local control and take away our ability to make determinations on apartments and high-density housing. In my opinion, it is better to pay for most services either locally or through user fees as you have heard me say a number of times before. You have also heard me say that taxation is theft, but user fees are not theft. Please press the red button. Thank you.

Speaker ShurtleffThe question before the House is the motion to adopt the Conference Committee Report on HB 2. The Chair the member from Stratham, Rep. Lovejoy, to speak in support of the motion.

Rep. Patricia Lovejoy (D - Rock 36)Thank you, Mister Speaker. HB 2, which is also referred to as the trailer bill contains language to make HB 1 work and additional provisions that have been added to the budget. On April 11th, we here in the House voted to pass HB 1 and HB 2. I will be addressing only the changes between what we passed and what is in the final Committee of Conference. For municipalities, in the House Budget $12.5 million in municipal aid was in the 2nd year of the biennium. The final agreement here has $40 million going to the towns, municipalities, $20 million each year. The original $12.5 was going to be based upon the revenue sharing formula that has been in place for quite a few years. This formula is different. 20% is going to be based upon your student population and 80% is going to be based upon the percent of students that have free and reduced lunch. The state aid grants for the wastewater treatment plants, the House had funded through all projects that would be complete through 12/31/18 and the Senate was able to fund those through 12/31/19. It picked up an additional 3 projects. One thing that has been added that affects all of our communities is a Housing Appeals Board has been added. Currently, appeals of decisions made by planning boards and zoning boards have to go before the Superior Court. What this does, this Housing Appeals Board, provides an alternative to going to Superior Court and Superior Court can take many times, multiple years to adjudicate. This will reduce that time frame. There will be three individuals on this Housing Appeals Board. They will be appointed by the Supreme Court. They will be full time employees of the State. One of those individuals must be a lawyer and the other either needs to be an engineer or an architect. The Housing Board will follow the same standards as the Superior Court does. Any appeals of the decisions of this board will be to the Supreme Court. The same as appeals of Superior Court decisions are. This board will begin in the 2nd year of the term. There were multiple changes to tax items. There was business tax structure reform. We adopted market-based sourcing which is how sales of services are taxed in the state if you are selling in multiples, if your clients are in multiple states. Single sales factor has been put in for the next biennium, but with a caveat. This is an issue that has not had any public hearings in the House or Senate. There is a 7-person committee that is set up of 4 House members and 3 Senate members. They are going to do that work over the next year and only if this committee approves it will single sales factor go into place. We did update conformity with the IRS tax code. As all of you know, there was a large federal tax reform that went through last year. Issues that got removed, the Capital Gains tax that was in the budget that we passed has been removed. The tax levels for BET and BPT stayed at the 2018 level, which was in both the House and the Senate. Communications services taxes have been extended to include pay as you go minutes. E-cigarettes taxation rates are reduced in the bill before you from what the Governor and the House had, but we were also increasing the aged purchased tobacco products, including E-cigarettes from 18 to 21. This will put us in sync with all but one New England State. Rhode Island is the only state in New England that will continue to have an 18-year age limit. Affordable housing, the House had put $5 million in for affordable housing. The Senate has kept that but they've added, what's been added, starting in the next biennium, $5 million in real estate transfer tax each year will be transferred to affordable housing. Just a few other issues. The family leave plan has been removed from this budget. The $4 million that was approved by this body in a separate bill for the Granite State Job Act has also been added into the bill. Invasive species, the House had passed $1.5 million to deal with the product of invasive species. It has been reduced to $400,000 in this budget. Pet vendors. I think probably all of you got a lot of emails regarding pet vendors. I know that I did. In this bill, we have adopted the language that transferring 25 animals or more will be the new definition of a commercial breeder, which will require licensing and allows the Department of Agriculture to do inspection. There also has been a cost of care fund that has been set up for $100,000. This would be to deal with issues like the greyhounds or last week there was another group of dogs. A new sunny day fund has been set up. I can't tell you how much I dislike that name. This is really an innovation fund. There is $1 million and allows our businesses to be able to match a lot of federal grants that are out there for research and development. In DES, $6 million for our drinking water and groundwater trust fund. It is being allocated to the PFOAs study to study, investigate and test. And also, $500,000 has been put into the pediatric cancer investigation from the drinking water and groundwater trust fund. There are several other issues that changed that are more minor. I just wanted to hit the highlights of what is different from what you voted on April 11th. I ask you to please support HB 2 by pressing the green button. Thank you for your time.

Speaker ShurtleffWill the member yield to a question? Rep. Abrami, you may inquire.

Rep. Patrick Abrami (R - Rock 12)Thank you, Mister Speaker. Thank you for my fellow Strathamnite. So, you are a former Ways and Means member. Related to increasing the age to 21, my sense is that there were no adjustments in the tax revenue, the cigarette tax revenue that corresponded to that. Is that a correct statement?

Rep. Patricia Lovejoy (D - Rock 36)There are reductions in the tax. It works out to about 8% tax on both the closed and open systems.

Rep. Patrick Abrami (R - Rock 12)Follow up? I understand that we did not adjust the revenues. We are going to have now just regular cigarettes. Let's talk about the regular cigarettes for anybody over 21, but we just voted a budget that has revenue estimates that weren't changed to reflect the fact that there are going to be no 18, 19, 20-year-old buying cigarettes anymore in the state. Is that a correct statement?

Rep. Patricia Lovejoy (D - Rock 36)The new prohibition on 21 will start partway during the biennium and will start on January 1st of 2020 and I think you are correct. This came in at the very end and there was no adjustment to the revenues. Thank you.

Speaker ShurtleffWill the member yield to another question? The member does not yield. Why does the member rise?

Rep. Al Baldasaro (R - Rock 5)Can I ask somebody from the Committee of Conference a question concerning veterans?

Speaker ShurtleffWill the Chair or the Vice Chair of Finance want to respond to a question on veterans from the member from Londonderry. The Chair of Division I.

Rep. Al Baldasaro (R - Rock 5)Thank you. Thank you for taking this question. This is very important to me. Here in New Hampshire, we have many young going off to war, 18, 19, 20. Is there a waiver in there somewhere that will let them smoke if they smoke or they can't smoke?

Rep. Patricia Lovejoy (D - Rock 36)There's nothing in there that says they can't smoke, but they can't purchase them here in New Hampshire.

Speaker ShurtleffI thank both members. The question before the House is the motion to adopt the Conference Committee Report on HB 2. The Chair recognizes the member from Easton, Rep. Ford. The House will be in order.

Rep. Susan Ford (D - Graf 3)Thank you, Mister Speaker. It gives me great pleasure to present the Committee of Conference education budget to you and to my colleagues. First, let's talk about higher education. The proposed budget will make it possible to freeze tuition in our community colleges for 2020 and 2021. This budget will also freeze our university system tuition at Granite State, Keene, Plymouth and UNH in 2021. As you know, the biggest monetary gain is for the K-12 public schools and towns. The House had bills come to us from policy committees this year. One was HB 709 from the Education Committee and the other was HB 686 from Ways and Means. The Education Committee worked diligently in a bipartisan subcommittee last summer to develop a viable plan for providing appropriate funding for towns and school districts across the state. The Ways and Means Committee supported a bill to provide us means to pay for our recommendations. I thank my colleagues for continuing to work with us throughout this process. The House and Senate had some differences in the local school districts and towns that we worked through in the Committee of Conference. While both the House and Senate returned stabilization grants in 2020, the House supported targeted aid in 2021 and the Senate maintains stabilization grants. We were $70 million apart, but you may now know that $40 million of that is now the total of the municipal grants. That grant allows the towns and cities some flexibility in spending. At one time, in crafting the House budget, the rumor was that statewide education property tax, also known as SWEPT, would now be required to be sent to the state. But that's all it was, a rumor. SWEPT money stays in the town coffers it's raised in. The House and Senate agreed that kindergarten students should be part of the adequacy grants as full-time students if a student attends school full time. This eliminates the kenogarten aid, however, the profit from keno does go into the Educational Trust Fund. We raised special ed grants and you may still know this grant as catastrophic aid and they are fully funded. We maintained the building aid tale and were able to support three new towns for their approved building proposals. The tuition and transportation direct aid to schools is fully funded. In 2021 this budget will provide up to $1,750 per pupil based on the municipalities equalized valuation per pupil and it also will provide an additional grant of up to $ per free and reduced meal eligible students. Public charter schools will also receive the additional funds for full day kindergarten and we have also set aside $700,000 for charter school building lease aid. This budget does more for cities and towns and school districts than we have seen in a long time. As necessary and as important as this budget is, it's a stop gap measure. We also authorized a commission to work on developing a new formula to support our adequacy grants as we go forward. The commission will consider pre-K program as well as our current student population enrolled in K-12. This will be a commission and we will bring in experts in school funding to support the New Hampshire process. The changes we have made to your local schools has resulted in an estimated net increase of $138 million in state aid. If you canvass your district as I did, you probably heard a familiar refrain, "My property taxes are too high. The state doesn't pay their fair share of the cost of education." We listened and we did what we could in this biennium and I look forward to discussing the results of the commission with you as we go forward. Please support your local schools, your students, by pushing the green button.

Speaker ShurtleffThe question before the House is the motion to adopt the Conference Committee Report on HB 2. The Chair recognizes the member from Barnstead, Rep. Comtois, to speak against the motion.

Rep. Barbara Comtois (R - Belk 7)Thank you, Mister Speaker and fellow colleagues. As Representatives, it is our due diligence to have public hearings on all bills regardless of what they are. This is what makes New Hampshire great. Our transparency is to have all bills heard and to hear from our constituents to give us feedback. This bill, as presented, has attached policy bills that have never had a hearing by any House Committee or have they come before the House for a vote. We are not Washington and although this practice may have been done in the past, it is time that we step up for the people of this great state. Attaching policies to budget bills has had and will continue to have unintended consequences. Not only that, it shows disrespect for all of us here in this chamber. Please press the red button for the people of this state and say yes to transparency. Thank you.

Speaker ShurtleffThe question before the House is the motion to adopt the Conference Committee Report on HB 2. The Chair recognizes the member from Hanover, Rep. Nordgren.

Rep. Sharon Nordgren (D - Graf 12)Thank you, Mister Speaker. As you heard this afternoon, you have seen that HB 2, which enables HB 1's spending, is a budget that demonstrates to our constituents that their priorities are our priorities. For our children who are the future, this budget reflects our commitment to your health and wellbeing so that you may thrive. For our school districts struggling to provide quality education due to inadequate funding, this budget sends target aid to districts that need it most. For our seniors on a fixed income who are struggling to pay property tax, this budget property tax relief money will help you stay in your homes and your communities. The Department of Health and Human Services was Division III's job to come up with a budget and one of the things we tried to do is be proactive with families and the issues that have put them into the DCYF system. So, a lot of our work was complimented by the Senate and the hope is that we can, through some of these programs, keep the families out of the system before things fall apart in their families. So, we added funds for DCYF, requests for additional child protection case workers to reduce unmanageable caseloads. They were having caseloads of 40 families and things are falling through the cracks so we have added supervisors, we've added case workers to better serve the children and our families in state care. We've also established a children system of care which includes the development of mobile mental health crisis teams that will be going around the state. A lot of these issues can be dealt with quickly if somebody can intercede and they will hopefully end up in the state hospital system. We also funded voluntary services for parental assistance to help keep children home, safe and thriving with their families. HB 2 also addresses the state mental health crisis. One of the things we did and one of the things the Senate has the advantage. They always have different, new revenue estimates. They are further along in our fiscal year and they also have more information. Division III in the House struggled at times to come up with solutions such as our secure psychiatric facility because the plans weren't really fleshed out. By the time we got to the Senate, there was a lot more information and that is why there is the appropriation for $17.5 million for the secure psychiatric facility. Also, there was more information in the Senate on the plan to move the children's psychiatric unit to another facility. That happened as we were in the Committee of Conference. Those changes and those new plans came to light and so therefore we will be moving the children out of the New Hampshire State Hospital. Those rooms will be renovated to accommodate an additional 40 to 48 adults. We heard from the commissioner and from the department heads that there are people in the state hospital who could easily be moved out of the state hospital if only they had a facility or transition space to go to and we worked with the Senate to increase our 20 beds to 40 beds with their additions. The budget also appropriates money for the critically needed help for rate increases for Medicaid providers. To meet all the needs of the Granite Staters who experience disabilities, this budget eliminates the projected waitlist for developmental service and provides a rate increase for their service providers. So, in summary, it clearly demonstrates, HB 2 clearly demonstrates our priorities for constituents that their needs are our priorities. HB 2 addresses the state's most critical issues, child protection, mental health, education funding and property tax relief without implementing any new taxes. HB 2 delivers for our working families, our businesses, our seniors and our children who are our future. Join me in supporting this budget that benefits all Granite Staters. Thank you, Mister Speaker. Speaker Shurtleff: Will the member yield to a question? The member does not yield. The question before the House is the motion to adopt the Committee of Conference Report on HB 2. The Chair recognizes the member from Kingston, Rep. Weyler, to speak in opposition.

Rep. Kenneth Weyler (R - Rock 13)Thank you, Mister Speaker. I rise in opposition to HB 2. HB 2 is a very narrow definition of why it's there. HB 1 by law can only contain the numbers so any other changes you need to make to make those numbers come true have to be in an accompanying legislation called HB 2. So, if you wanted to add a new task, as we have sometimes in the legislature, or reorganize a department, or promote somebody or move them around, that all had to be done in HB 2. There's very narrow purposes for why that is done. It should not be, as some have called it, a Christmas tree, where some of the conferees can take their favorite projects and hang them on that tree. The most disturbing part is the way the Senate has always unearthed bills that they've retained and stick them in HB 2 when you and I have never seen them and gotten discussions amongst our policy committees on those bills and suddenly here they are. The pet vendor is one that you have heard brought up. That was an underhanded way. Fortunately, there were at least a dozen proposed bills by the Senate that the House conferees turned down. I was happy to see that. In the 400 things in this HB 2, yes there are many great ones, but there are others that are not. Others that bother me so much that I would oppose this bill. We keep spending more and more and more on education while that population is declining. The elderly population is the one that's increasing and that's the one where money should go. When are we going to learn? We keep spending more and more money for the schools to reduce the property taxes. It doesn't happen. They just hire more non-teaching staff. They've hired so much non-teaching staff that now teachers are in the minority. There are only around 40% of all this staff, the 30 some odd thousand staff that's in our state. There are going to have to take the empty classrooms and turn them into offices for all of this non-teaching staff, that I don't know what they do. You know like, psychiatrists in the first grade and counselors in every grade and all this kind of thing. Guidance counselors for elementary school. What do they do? You know, if we looked at....

Rep. Kenneth Weyler (R - Rock 13)If we looked at the 43 states that spend less than New Hampshire, they average $11,000 per pupil to our about $20,000. So, we keep hearing we are not supporting enough. In this bill, we are spending, don't keep hearing that $3,636 that's in adequacy. That's the starting point. After you add all of the differentiating aid, etc., etc., we're spending $6,000 per pupil. So, if we were really spending that average of $11,000, we'd be spending more than half. So, we are being misled by the education union that never sees an end to how much they can spend and we are being led down that path and it's wrong because that's the burden on our property tax spenders. We met last night to do a budget for the county and people questioned it. I said, "This is 46 cents per day per person in our county." That's a heck of a lot less. That's 4% of the property tax where 85% is the school budget. So, let's get realistic and try to do something to stop all of this expansion of spending that we are supporting because we keep hearing you've got to do something about property taxes and that never seems to work. So, I am opposed to HB 2. There are a lot of bad things in it. We are leading down the wrong path and it's going to cause problems in the future. Please push the red button. Thank you.

Speaker ShurtleffWill the member yield to a question? Rep. Abrami, you may inquire.

Rep. Patrick Abrami (R - Rock 12)Thank you, Mister Speaker. Thanks for taking my question. This is another Ways and Means question. So, in February we voted out of Ways and Means a truly bipartisan revenue estimates that came here as a resolution and put on the table. Then just less than a month ago, we updated those revenue estimates and we took the resolution off the table, we voted on the floor, we voted for these. Now, I see that what we agreed to as the House with the Senate $75 million more over two years. $75 million came out of we don't know where.

Speaker ShurtleffIs the member getting close to a question mark?

Rep. Patrick Abrami (R - Rock 12)Yes, there is. So, Representative, do you smell something fishy here?

Rep. Kenneth Weyler (R - Rock 13)I certainly do and my experience tells me that a year from now we'll be meeting to say what happened? What can we do about this? We need a new tax. Where are we going to get the money? What are we going to cut? These decisions will be tougher to make in a year than if we make them now. Thank you.

Speaker ShurtleffWill the member yield to another question? Rep. Cordelli, you may inquire.

Rep. Glenn Cordelli (R - Carr 7)Thank you, Mister Speaker. Thank you, Representative. Representative, I believe this morning we passed HB 118 which establishes a child fatality review committee. Is it true that in this budget we are actually using state funds to pay for child fatalities also known as abortions?

Speaker ShurtleffThe House will be in order. The Chair recognizes our last speaker, the member from Concord, Rep. Wallner.

Rep. Mary Jane Wallner (D - Merr 10)Thank you, Mister Speaker. Members of the House, HB 2 often referred to as the budget trailer bill is a document that contains policy to make the state budget work. During the Committee of Conference on HB 2, agreement was reached on numerous items, over 200 areas of negotiation. It was a very large document with many, many differences from the document that we sent to the Senate, but we were able to reach agreement on most of the items. These items included things like state aid grant program and appropriations to environmental services for this purpose. This sends back funds to your communities, to our cities and our towns for these projects. It includes a plan and an appropriation for inpatient psychiatric treatment for children. It includes funding for repurposing space at New Hampshire Hospital to add more adult beds and an appropriation to build a new secure psychiatric facility for 25 patients at a cost of $17 million, something that is desperately needed in this state at this time. Agreement was reached on education funding, restoring stabilization grants to local school districts to 100% in both years of the biennium and providing full adequacy payments for full day kindergarten. In the second year, additional aid for free and reduced eligible students and fiscal capacity-based aid on municipal equalization evaluation per student are added. The Committee of Conference agreement adds a drug prescription health safety program, much needed at this time in our state. Delays the start of the Housing Appeals Board to the second year of the biennium. Provides funding for the cost of care fund to assist municipalities, your communities in covering the cost of animals pending the resolution of actions brought for animal cruelty. This budget sends a lot of funding back to your communities for education, for the care of psychiatric patients so that your hospitals will not have to bear this. It provides an additional $40 million in municipal aid to your communities where your community can decide how to spend those funds. This budget sends money back to your communities for you to decide whether you use it for projects or whether you use it to reduce property taxes and that will be your choice at your local level. This budget addresses the needs of our citizens and communities. With as many policies and appropriations, the Committee of Conference has come to an agreement on HB 2 and I urge you to vote yes on HB 2.

Speaker ShurtleffWill the member yield to a question? The member does not yield. The question before the House is the motion to adopt the Committee of Conference Report on HB 2. Representative Notter has requested a roll call vote for this bill. That is sufficiently seconded. This will be a roll call vote. Members will kindly take their seats. The question before the House is the motion to adopt the Conference Committee Report on HB 2. The Chair recognizes Rep. Packard for a parliamentary inquiry.

Rep. Sherman Packard (R - Rock 5)Thank you, Mister Speaker. If I know HB 2 will reverse a tax deduction for the current tax period, raising the BPT from 7.7 to 7.9 and the BET from .6 to .675, costing small businesses and job creators over $90 million over the biennium. And, if I know Mister Speaker that this bill contains major policy changes that did not go through the legislative process, such as changing the tobacco age, completely revising the education funding formula, repealing a prohibition on state funds to provide abortions, and establishing a Housing Appeals Board. And, lastly Mister Speaker, if I know spending decisions in this budget set New Hampshire up to fail and will only lead to an income tax down the road, would I now press the red button?

Speaker ShurtleffThe question before the House is the motion to adopt the Conference Committee Report on HB 2. The Chair recognizes Rep. Wallner for a parliamentary inquiry.

Rep. Mary Jane Wallner (D - Merr 10)Thank you, Mister Speaker. If I know that HB 2 contains important policy to make our state budget work. And, if I know that HB 2, also referred to as the budget trailer bill contains appropriations for some of our most important state and local needs. And, if I know that HB 1 and HB 2 go hand in hand as the budget of the state, would I now vote the green button, right now push the green button and vote yes to adopt the Committee of Conference Report on HB 2?

Speaker ShurtleffThis will be a roll call vote. The question before the House is the motion to adopt the Conference Committee Report on HB 2. If you are in favor, you'll press the green button. If you are opposed, you'll press the red button. Voting stations will be open for 30 seconds. Have all members had an opportunity to vote? The House will be attentive to the state of the vote. With 207 members voting Yea and 145 voting Nay, the motion carries.