InDepthNH.org (http://indepthnh.org/category/business/page/2/)
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A dragonfly
Financial issues and challenges faced by faced by NH companies and the economy as a whole.
Expect to see Health and Human Services staff knocking on doors in Nashua, Manchester, and Laconia and at places like the grocery store and department stores, asking residents to sign-up for the work requirement this summer.
Citing the familiar red flags of tax increases and a structural deficit, Gov. Chris Sununu as expected vetoed the two-year operating budget Friday the House and Senate passed the day before.
The House and Senate finished their legislation session Thursday acting on 31 bills – including one suspending the work requirement for the Medicaid expansion program and another raising the minimum wage to $12 an hour over the next two years.
Lawmakers without dissent also approved a three-month continuing resolution to allow state agencies to continue operating at approved spending levels if the budget is vetoed.
Alas, 29 years later, the utilities are more or less ignoring the statute and the PUC is letting them get away with it.
Wednesday’s public hearings before the Executive Council on both nominations are expected to be well-attended.
While Democratic leaders and lawmakers believe they have met the governor more than halfway, Sununu said Tuesday the legislature is knowingly sending him a budget “that I cannot support.”
However, the state is not in a fiscal crisis and has had a revenue surplus for the last five or six years and much of that money has been used to reduce business taxes and build up the state’s rainy day fund.
Sen. Dan Feltes, D-Concord, said the deal includes funding for the most critical needs of the state addressing mental health, education funding for property-poor communities, an opioid crisis, and more.