Distant Dome

Garry Rayno

Garry Rayno’s Distant Dome runs exclusively on Manchester Ink Link and InDepthNH.org, where Rayno will explore a broader perspective on State House – and state – happenings. Over his three-decade career Rayno has closely covered the NH State House for the New Hampshire Union Leader and Foster’s Daily Democrat, and his coverage spanned the news spectrum, from local planning, school and select boards, to national issues such as electric industry deregulation and Presidential primaries. He is former editor of The Hillsboro Messenger and Assistant Editor of The Argus-Champion. Rayno graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a BA in English Literature and lives with his wife Carolyn in New London.

Co-production between InDepthNH and Manchester In Link

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Distant Dome: Budgets Hold Secrets to Discover

The House has trimmed some of Gov. Chris Sununu’s proposed budget of $14.06 billion in total funds and $5.95 billion of general and education fund money.

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Culture Wars Take Over NH House this Week

The public has not given the lawmakers a mandate to turn New Hampshire into a Libertarian Shangri-La but that is what is happening.

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NH House Apt to Go Late Thursday, Bring Dinner

Thursday’s regular House calendar has 15, yes 15 bills, that will come to the floor without a committee recommendation meaning the committee split 10-10 or 12-12 or some other evenly divided party line vote.

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Vacation Can’t Come Soon Enough for NH House

The first two months of the session have been hectic and a little hesitant as lawmakers in the House navigate an almost equally divided chamber.

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Garry Rayno Talks Education and Stuff With Wayne King

Garry Rayno is an award-winning journalist, writing for the New Hampshire Center for Public Interest Journalism (inDepthNH.org) who covers education issues and the New Hampshire Legislature – among many other things.

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How Much Legislature Accomplishes Is Up for Debate

The problem is if you are the Republicans, your majority in the House is razor thin and depends on who arrives at the Capitol on a session day.

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Budget Season Opens Long before Governor’s Budget Address

Governors traditionally gather the requests from department heads for what they say they will need for resources i.e. money over the next two years and blend it into a strange brew.

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State’s Economy Hangs by the Housing Market Thread

But the recent increase in real estate values has put home ownership out of reach of anyone not earning more than $100,000 annually or more.

Education

Lawmakers Again Will Grapple with Education Freedom Accounts

To date about 75 percent of the state funds spent for the freedom account program has subsidized tuition for students who attended private and religious schools before the program was launched in 2021 and not students leaving public schools for private or religious schools as advocates had predicted.

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Majority Needs Protections from the Tyranny of the Minority

Preventing the tyranny of the majority is essentially protecting the minority from discrimination due to the actions of the majority.