| GOOD NEWS: Bathroom Bill vetoed! This week we had an important win – Gov. Ayotte vetoed House Bill 1442 (the “bathroom bill”), which would have allowed businesses, prisons, detention centers, mental health facilities, etc. to designate bathrooms and locker rooms and to assign residential placements based on sex at birth rather than gender identity. The dedicated efforts of readers like you, who phoned and emailed the Governor, helped make this happen. It’s no small achievement, given the amount of power in the hands of Republicans who pushed hard to get this bill through. BAD NEWS – MORE REASONS TO START PERSUADING FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS TO VOTE IN NOVEMBER: SIGNED: HB 1300Tax Cap signed. Unfortunately, Governor Ayotte signed HB 1300, the local tax cap bill. As a result of the Governor’s signature, every ballot this November will include a poorly written and misleading question asking voters if they want a property tax cap. As our friends at Engage NH wrote: “Tax caps are political gimmicks that don’t lower property taxes and instead hurt public schools and students. Forcing voters to consider them without the context of their regular school budget discussions creates enormous problems for school boards, school leaders, and the community.” As the election approaches, it will be critical to spread word in each community about the misleading language of the bill and the harmful consequences of voting “yes”. SIGNED: SB 430Forced Outing bill signed. Also, despite all of the phone calls asking her to veto it, Gov. Ayotte signed SB 430, the cruel “forced outing” bill. In some cases a student’s teacher or school counselor is their only “trusted adult”. Educators will now be required to respond to parents’ written requests for information within 10 days, answering the parents’ questions “completely”, and in some cases disclosing information a student had hoped to be held in confidence. (*This bill was signed July 2; our apologies for neglecting to include it in an earlier Happenings.) SIGNED: HB155From OEOF (Our Economy Our Future): Last Friday, while families struggle to put food on the table, while workers struggle to afford gas, and Granite Staters feel the weight of an ever-rising cost of living, Governor Kelly Ayotte signed HB 155—NH’s latest corporate tax giveaway—into law. As OEOF senior advisor, Lucas Meyer, explained: “This is another transfer of wealth from working families to powerful corporations. Every dollar given away through HB 155 is a dollar that can’t be invested in lowering property taxes, expanding child care, building housing, or strengthening our communities. Conservative politicians are yet again choosing to reward wealth instead of rewarding work, and the rest of us are paying the price.” The NH School Funding Fairness Project discussed the combined impact of HB 155 and SB 1300 in their July 15 statement: Governor Kelly Ayotte signed HB 1300 today and HB 155 on July 10th, two bills supporters have tried to sell as solutions to New Hampshire’s property tax crisis. Neither bill lowers current property taxes, increases the State’s contribution to public education, or addresses why New Hampshire communities are so dependent on local property taxes in the first place. Instead, the bills advance two policies state leaders already wanted: additional business tax cuts and new restrictions on school funding. […] “This is downshifting, and state leaders know it,” Sheehan said. “They are reducing the State’s capacity to help, rejecting policies that would directly reduce property taxes, and then directing blame toward local public schools and school boards. That is not a serious strategy to address serious issues. It is a political talking point designed to distract from the State’s own responsibility.” View the full statement from NH School Funding Fairness Project here. |
