By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org
CONCORD – The Senate approved the state’s two-year capital budget, approved a study for landfill setbacks from water, and by a 20-4 vote approved a measure that would prohibit a defense argument based on the victim’s gender identity on Thursday.
The capital budget includes money for clean drinking water, a new CTE Center at Winnisquam, and enhanced cybersecurity.
GAY PANIC DEFENSE
A bill to add a person’s sexual orientation as a prohibited hate crime’s defense passed 20-4 on House Bill 315. A number of states in the nation have passed a similar, so-called “Gay Panic Defense.”
The amendment reverts to the original bill heard by Senate Judiciary which had been amended by the House. The amendment says a person cannot use as a defense that they were provoked to commit a crime by gender identity or sexual orientation.
“What that does is in fact victim-blame,” said Sen. Shannon Chandley, D-Amherst.
Sen. Bill Gannon, R-Sandown, said we already have sentence enhancement and asked so why it is needed.
Chandley said this is not about sentence enhancement. She said it is about compelling arguments motivating the crime.
“You are treating this one class differently,” he said referring to the LGBTQ community.
Gannon asked for the bill to be killed, but it failed on a voice vote.
“While well-intentioned, this bill as amended by the House would dramatically expand what was originally intended to be a narrow policy. The expansion could create significant confusion and lead to many unintended consequences,” Gannon said.
He said juries decide what is reasonable and defendants should be able to choose their own defense.
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 3-2 to kill the measure but Sen. Sharon Carson, R-Londonderry, the chair of that committee offered an amendment and offered an ought to pass the amendment.
Sen. Daryl Abbas, R-Salem rose to support the amendment.
“This is a mitigation defense,” he said, for example when you have a murder charge and want it to be reduced to manslaughter.
“In my opinion, if you are going to claim you killed someone because of their gender identity or sexuality, I cannot wrap my head around why that is the motive, the person would get a lesser offense,” he said.
He said he did not think that defense would work with a New Hampshire jury.
“If someone is going to raise this defense in my opinion they are just delivering hate speech in front of presumably the victim’s family,” said Abbas. “I think we as a state are better than that.”
Sen. Rebecca Perkins-Kwoka, D-Portsmouth, did not speak to the amendment but when it passed and they were on to vote on the bill as a whole, she said, “While this is a simple bill this means a lot,” to her and her family.
Perkins-Kwoka said she identifies as part of the LGBTQ community and she had her mother, Paula, in the chamber along with her eldest daughter.
In addition to Gannon, voting to oppose the bill were Republican Senators Carrie Gendreau of Littleton, Kevin Avard of Nashua, and Keith Murphy of Manchester.
PARKING GARAGE GETS GREEN LIGHT
The Senate also approved $25 million in a non-lapsing appropriation to build a new legislative parking garage, tear down the existing garage at Storrs Street in Concord, and the current Department of Justice Building where the new parking garage is to be built.
CAPITAL BUDGET APPROVED
Sen. Dan Innis, R-Bradford, moved ought to pass on House Bill 25A, the capital budget through June 2025 which will use bonded funding for capital improvements.
“These improvements aim to maintain and strengthen the Granite State’s buildings, technological infrastructure, and non-highway transportation,” he said.
It includes about $137 million in general fund bond funding similar to the House-passed appropriation.
It also includes about $10 million for highway-funded bonding and $24.7 million in other bonding funds for a total of about $171 million.
They made no substantive changes to the House version, Innis said.
The measure helps improve the state’s credit rating, said Sen. David Watters, D-Dover.
He noted that federal ARPA funding helped move a lot of projects along.
SOUCY WON’T BACK DOWN’ ON RETIREMENT PROVISIONS
Using lyrics of singer Tom Petty, Senate Minority Leader Donna Soucy, D-Manchester, said she “Won’t Back Down” and again tried to get an amendment passed which would fund a gap in retirement provisions for about 1,800 first responders across the state whose retirement package was changed when the state made changes to the retirement system in 2011.
But her efforts failed, again on a voice vote.
This so-called “Group II” were hired by municipalities, counties, and the state prior to July 1, 2001, but had not reached vested status at the time of the changes. They were hired with the understanding they would receive a certain benefit which changed after hire, members said.
The House passed HB 436 which would address the gap but the Senate Republicans balked and refused to support the measure and the governor has said he does not support it.
\Senate President Jeb Bradley, R-Wolfeboro, asked the body to reject Soucy’s amendment – as she had offered in the State Budget Wednesday – but assured that he felt she was on the right path calling it a “reasonable and rational approach to how we get to ‘yes.'”
He had said there were many potential impacts to municipalities that needed to be ironed out.
She pressed him on working on the issue this summer and he said he would and that they would create a study committee to come to some sort of a solution.
Soucy said this is a matter of staff retention and keeping “folks out there to stand between us and disaster, peril, harm.” Members of that group of first responders have said they might consider leaving their posts if the matter is not resolved.
On a voice vote, her amendment failed.
LABOR UNIONS
An amendment to House Bill 358 which would lower the state’s threshold to five members from 10 to negotiate for a union, which had been on the table, failed.
In the private sector, only two members are required to form unions, said Sen. Shannon Chandley, D-Amherst, who offered the amendment.
It failed on a vote of 11-13 with Sen. Sharon Carson, R-Londonderry voting with the Democrats.
LANDFILL BILL PASSED
An amended landfill bill which the governor said he would sign, House Bill 211 passed.
“It is important we have a backstop,” said Sen. David Watters, D-Dover “we very much want to deal with this problem.”
The bill https://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/bill_status/billinfo.aspx?id=224&inflect=2 looks to hire a firm to study what the state setbacks should be from public waterways before approving any new landfills.