By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org
CONCORD – An impasse has come between Senate and House versions of the proposed Group II retirement plan for first responders, with the Senate telling the House to come back on Wednesday with a plan that does not allow “spiking.”
Spiking suggests manipulating a pension system to inflate pensions.
Just as they were ending the conference committee meeting for the day Tuesday three protesters dressed in black walked onto the floor of the committee room and laid down as if playing dead. See related story here. https://indepthnh.org/2025/06/17/3-members-of-hands-off-medicaid-campaign-arrested-at-end-of-conference-committee-meeting/
And the meeting was adjourned.
The Group II retirement relates to about 1,500 first responders across the state who have not received the benefits they were expecting following a change in the law in 2011.
The House and Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte supported funding the fix at about $27 million a year for the next 10 years. The Senate supported an implementation delay by six months because it is such a tough financial budget.
“We need to deliver on the promise that was made to you years ago,” Ayotte told more than 200 Group II supporters on Monday as a budget committee of conference was convening.
But on Tuesday when House Rep. Joe Sweeney, R-Salem, said the one item to get the budget over the finish line was Group II.
“We are in need of a fix,” he said and told the Senate he could not support their amendment to fund it at $15 million a year.
Senate President Sharon Carson, R-Londonderry, said in the past negotiations on other pensions the Senate has said “no spiking. No spiking. And this amendment brings this back again. So we find ourself at an impasse. We are not going to support spiking. We just can’t. It’s not good for the system. The public, when this came out years ago, was outraged at these artificially inflated pensions and said ‘no more.’ I don’t believe the public has changed their mind on that. Once they find out and they start to see how these numbers are coming out, they are not going to be happy with it. So we can’t accept this,” Carson said.
Senate Finance Committee Chair James Gray, R-Rochester, backed her up.
Noting newly revised projected revenues which were brought forth earlier in the day, he noted, “Thirty-three million dollars has to be cut somewhere in the Senate’s version of this budget to get us there. And certainly the Senate members are not opposed to taking that out of the Group II numbers that came from the governor, the $55 million. The Senate President knew what the vote was going to be in the Finance Committee and she did not choose to use her authority to replace those people to make the vote come out different from the Finance Committee because it should be a free and open debate. I applaud her for that. But now, we are in a different situation. We are going to take out another $33 million.”
Gray has been stating during the conference this week that a House rule which does not allow for anything they consider a new “tax” to pass.
“Some of the other things you won’t consider because of your House rule will also add to how much I have to cut out of other programs,” Gray said.
State Rep. Kenneth Weyler, R-Kingston, said can we do anything further?
Carson said, “I think we are at an impasse.
“We can’t go there. And we now have had the luxury of time. When we were putting together the budget we did not have the time to really look at this,” she said. “Senator Gray is right, I did not replace anybody because I truly believe everyone has a vote and just because I don’t like how they are going to vote doesn’t really mean that I should be replacing them. So the vote reflected a group of folks in my caucus who had given their word to the governor that they would support it but the majority did not support it. But because we were at the budget, they had to vote for it. So, we need something different, Representative. Come back to us with something different. We will entertain it. We’ll look at it. We will continue to discuss it. But right now we can’t go there. We can’t accept this.”
Weyler said, “allright, we will get together and try to come up with something tomorrow,” and House Republicans will caucus at 9 a.m. before the 10 a.m. meeting of the committee of conference on the budget.
OTHER COMMITTEES OF CONFERENCE PROGRESS
Committees of Conference on about 50 bills which are different in substance between the House and Senate are making progress through the sausage machine and headed either toward the governor’s desk or the trash can, Tuesday with agreements reached on about half.
The deadline is at 4 p.m. on Thursday for the work to be done.
Those where there are no deals yet are some of the more controversial bills of this past session.
Some are not that controversial.
One which fits into that later category is a “bell to bell” bill which would eliminate cell phone use during school.
Senate Bill 206 is still in a Committee of Conference with state Rep. Glenn Cordelli, R-Tuftonboro, who is chairing that committee of conference saying he would not bring a vote until Thursday.
“I have to get some replacement members,” he told Sen. Ruth Ward, R-Stoddard.
The Speaker of the House had chosen Reps. Cordelli, Kristin Noble, Melissa Litchfield and Brian Nadeau to serve.
Ward, who moved to non-concur with the House on SB 206 is serving on the committee of conference with fellow Senators Denise Ricciardi, R-Bedford, the bill’s sponsor, and Donovan Fenton, D-Keene.
Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte did not campaign on the issue but in her first address to the joint chambers this winter, she said she would seek a cell phone ban in schools.
She issued two press releases this week pushing for passage of the bill.
Senate Bill 206 passed that chamber on a voice vote. It was amended in the House to include charter schools and had a July 1, 2025 effective date, rather than the Senate’s public school bill with implementation 60 days after passage. The House amended version passed 314-42.
Other bills which still have yet to file a report include HB 560 relative to a parent’s access to child medical records in schools, HB 506 related to background checks for return of firearms, HB 377 relative to puberty blockers, and also bills related to false reporting of suspected child abuse, no trespass rules on school property and other public buildings, allowing manufactured housing by right in residential zones, and of course, the budget and trailer bills for the next two fiscal years.
However the progress of those committees of conference have come to terms of agreement on HB 60 relative to tenancy; HB 67 relative to agreements with the Secretary of State for the use of accessible voting systems; HB 71 prohibiting schools from being used as “shelter for aliens” with exceptions; HB 118 repealing a commission on rare diseases; HB 154 enabling voters to request to have their ballots hand counted; HB 250 muzzling dogs; HB 273 parental access to a child’s library records; HB 328 establishing a charitable gaming oversight committee; and HB 485 allowing winners of the lottery to remain anonymous.
A full list which is updated regularly on committees of conference and their progress toward the deadline is here: