By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org

CONCORD – Republicans dispatched efforts by Senate Democrats to create enabling legislation for municipal governments to have tourists pay more for their local impacts with fees, nixed a measure to provide tariff relief to local businesses, and heavily amended a bill related to zoning for development of future utility-heavy data centers across the state.

The Senate met in session Thursday at the State House.

But advancing under Republican support is a measure that would allow for open enrollment in schools across the state. It will go to the House for a vote next week and if passed and signed by the governor would go into effect immediately rather than July 1 as Senate Bill 101 originally intended. It will now be part of Senate Bill 751 and could be fast tracked.

OPEN ENROLLMENT

The Senate voted 14-10 in support of SB 101, an open enrollment bill that NEA-NH said “would upend New Hampshire’s current law by mandating all school districts adopt an application and transfer process to allow non-resident students from other New Hampshire school districts to enroll in their schools.”

Two Senators who are Republicans voted to oppose the measure along with all eight Democrats. They were Senators Denise Ricciardi, R-Bedford, and Daryl Abbas, R-Salem.

The New Hampshire Senate also voted 16-8 in support of HB 751 as amended to mandate open enrollment.

Megan Tuttle, president of NEA-New Hampshire, released the following statement:

“As educators, we believe every student deserves access to a high-quality education in their community. Unfortunately, New Hampshire’s current education funding system has created communities of haves and have nots.

“The State of New Hampshire’s chronic underfunding of public education from state coffers and overreliance on property taxpayer dollars means that students in different schools don’t receive the same opportunities to learn. State mandated open enrollment doesn’t fix that issue, or those pre-existing inequities—it exacerbates them. Mandatory open enrollment will create chaos in school funding and result in more resources being taken out of under-resourced schools to subsidize out-of-district education, leaving fewer resources in the district to support the students who are left behind.”
 
But Republicans said this allows for school choice for all.

Sen. Tim Lang, R-Sanbornton, released the following statement:

“We consistently hear from Senate Democrats how they want the best for our students. Yet, when given the chance to open more educational pathways within our traditional public schools, we are met with resistance. Democrats can no longer credibly claim to be the party of choice when the only option they support is traditional public education—an approach that continues to fall short despite record levels of funding directed to towns and municipalities. Republicans will continue seeking ways to empower Granite State families and give them the educational opportunities they deserve.”

“PILLOW TAX”

Senate Bill 634 was rejected as being bad for tourism by Republicans but sought by Democrats to offset impacts in terms of municipal needs.

The bill went down on a 15-9 vote with Republican Sen. Mark McConkey, R-Freedom, voting with the Democrats.

State Minority Leader Rebecca Perkins Kwoka, D-Portsmouth, said the bill would provide a local option to cities and towns and while rooms and meals revenues have gone up thanks to a recent legislative change it has not been enough to make up for downshifted costs of the past including that related to retirement costs.

Sen. Abbas said the measure could negatively impact tourism and Sen. Lang said he has heard that owners of bed and breakfasts don’t want it as it could hurt their business. Others said it would make the state less competitive with other locations.

“SB 634 is a recycled tourism tax proposal—reprising SB 262 from 2023—despite record Rooms and Meals tax revenues already being returned to every municipality through forward-thinking Republican leadership. Raising costs on visitors makes New Hampshire less competitive, more expensive, and offers no additional accountability for how existing funds are spent. The result is a real risk to the tourism businesses that power our economy. This was a bad idea then. And it’s a bad idea now,” Lang said in a statement.

TARIFF RELIEF FOR SMALL BUSINESS REJECTED

The Republicans also killed Senate Bill 636-FN which would have provided a tax credit to businesses for tariff-related costs.

Lang said the original uncertainty of Trump Administration threats no longer exist and there could be some concern about what documents would be required to prove what was a tariff.

State Sen. Donovan Fenton, D-Keene, opposed the committee’s recommendation to kill the bill saying that assertion related to the Trump Administration is “detached from reality” and that it is in the state’s interest to support its local small businesses. He called them the “backbone of our economy” and said the measure would provide “stability at a time of chaos.”
On a roll call, the vote was 16-8 to kill the bill, along partisan lines.

DATA CENTER ZONING PLANNING

Democrats said Republicans took the teeth out of their bill which would allow municipalities more tools to site data centers with zoning than were approved in the final version by Republicans.

Republicans amended Senate Bill 439 sponsored by Sen. Debra Altschiller, D-Stratham, to read that energy and utility heavy data centers are allowed within zoning districts designated for commercial or industrial use and “subject to the provisions of local land use regulations.”

The planning board, with the approval of the local legislative body, may adopt regulations as necessary, the bill reads.

By definition these data centers are facilities used primarily for the storage, processing, management, and transmission of digital data. They are a growing national concern on power grids but currently New Hampshire is not seen as desirable due to location and other factors, both Republicans and Democrats agreed.

Sen. David Watters, D-Dover, said it was not a bad idea to start planning, however for future impacts which may come to places like Newington and Merrimack.

Altschiller said the Republican amendment dramatically changes the potential impacts these facilities could have on localities noting it did not include impacts like noise pollution, strain on the existing grid, insufficient job growth related to the land impacts.

Lang said it was all about local control rather than a state mandate. On a roll call vote the Republican amendment passed 16-8.

Perkins Kwoka attempted a floor amendment that would allow the Republican-backed measure to add preliminary impact assessment on water and utility usage which could help guide decisions and avoid grid overload. But it was rejected on a voice vote.

PICKLES

Senate Bill 418 which would prohibit municipalities from requiring licenses for the production and sale of homestead food products, passed on a voice vote.
Sen. Victoria Sullivan, R-Manchester, said: “Worrying about your neighbor preparing and passing out homemade pickles and sourdough bread is a grotesque use of government power. New Hampshire’s small communities thrive because we take care of each other voluntarily. Solutions are found through individual efforts, not burdensome regulations.”