By GARRY RAYNO
and PAULA TRACY,
InDepthNH.org
CONCORD — On the day House members learned House Speaker Sherman Packard was stepping down, lawmakers Thursday killed a bill that would have limited cities’ and towns’ ability to write ordinances or rules for firearms and self-defense tools as well as state agencies.
Attorney General John Formella wrote a letter to all 424 lawmakers asking them to kill House Bill 609.
The Senate passed it on a partisan 15-8 vote, while the House tabled it, which effectively killed it on the last day to act on bills.
The 77-year old Packard, has served in the House since 1990, was the longtime Chairman of the House Transportation Committee before he was elected House Speaker in 2020.
He replaced newly elected speaker Dick Hinch, who died from COVID. Packard was Deputy Speaker at the time.
Packard had missed a number of session days this year after a major fall that will require surgery, he told the House several months ago.
Guns
Two days before Thursday’s final session until veto day, Formella sent a letter to lawmakers, saying the compromise reached on House Bill 609 creates too many unintended consequences which could harm rather than help gun owners, and could put public safety at risk.
Formella wrote “As Attorney General, it is my job to protect the Constitutional rights of our citizens and to protect public safety. Put simply, this bill would create a regulatory cliff that raises massive risk for the Second Amendment rights of New Hampshire citizens and legal uncertainty for the public safety operations of State law enforcement agencies.”
The bill is intended to make clear the state has sole authority over regulations on firearms and self-defense tools, and restrict limits enacted by municipalities and state agencies.
The bill asserts the state’s “authority and jurisdiction over the sale, purchase, ownership, use, possession, transportation, licensing, permitting, taxation, or other matter pertaining to firearms, firearms components, ammunition, firearms supplies,stun guns, Tasers, pepper spray devices, knives, or other self-defense tools, and prohibits any state subdivision from passing a statute or ordinance concerning firearms and self-defense tools.”
Formella listed a number of problems with the compromise from impeding law enforcement training to constitutional questions.
But the Senate did not heed the state’s highest law enforcement officer, instead approving the compromise.
Sen. Tara Reardon, D-Concord, opposed the compromise saying it is opposed by law enforcement, public universities and the attorney general.
“This bill cuts at the authority of our agencies, courts, airports and college campuses,” she said. “This is the back door to campus carry.”
Reardon said the University System of New Hampshire Board of Trustees ought to be able to regulate its campuses.
“This could allow detainees to keep their guns in police booking areas, make it easier to have stolen firearms sold in pawn shops, and cause university policies on weapons to lapse,” Reardon said.
When the bill came up in the House, Rep. Matthew Wilhelm, D-Manchester, moved to table the bill, noting the attorney general’s opposition.
But Rep. Terry Roy, R-Deerfield, said the attorney general’s opinion is not binding on the legislature.
Afterwards he said in a statement that the legislature does not have to follow the advice of unelected officials.
“Our rights come from the Constitution and our Creator, not a group of unelected officials. House Republicans won’t stand by while red tape is weaponized to disarm Granite Staters. In New Hampshire, we defend the law of the land, not the whims of runaway, unaccountable bureaucrats,” said Roy. “We don’t bow to red tape in New Hampshire. We live free.”
The bill was tabled on a 182 -162 vote.
Sununu Center Sale
The House and Senate approved sending the money from the future sale of the Sununu Youth Services Center in Manchester to the general fund instead of the abuse victims’ settlement fund under Senate Bill 481.
More than 1,000 former center youths have filed claims against the state for physical, sexual and mental abuse at the hands of state workers.
To date about $100 million has been distributed but the money is running out. Earlier legislation earmarked the money from the sale of the center for the settlement fund.
Rep. Mary Jane Wallner, D-Concord, said sending the money into the state’s general fund sends a terrible message to the victims who were traumatized by the abuse they received at the hands of state employees.
Putting money into the general fund brings the state no closer to honoring the state’s commitment to the victims, she said.
But Rep. Ken Weyler, R-Kingston, the chair of the House Finance Committee, said it is folly to argue about this before there is a sale or even an offer to purchase the center.
“We’ve gone through over $100 million already that we put in the budget,” he said. “There is no end in sight because of all the lies told on this.”
Weyler’s comment was questioned by Rep. Lucy Webber, D-Walpole, but Packard declined to take any action saying there has been too many lies on both sides.
The report passed on a 189-158 mostly partisan vote.
In the Senate Sen. Cindy Rosenwald, D-Nashua, opposed the report asking “When are we going to live up to our moral responsibility?”
She said by moving the money to the general fund, the settlement fund will have to compete with all the other priorities for funding.
“We owe these victims justice,” Rosenwald said to no avail as the Senate passed the report on a voice vote.
Zoning
The House and Senate passed a series of bills that would would dictate what cities and towns could do with residential developments in commercial and industrial zones and along dead end roads
While supporters touted the changes that would have to be made to local ordinances to lower the barriers to more housing if not more affordable housing.
The bills had one representative quoting Joni Mitchell.
“You don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone/They paved paradise and put up a parking lot,” is how Rep. David Fracht, D-Enfield, began and ended his speech on a bill to allow greater development on dead end roads.
He noted the bill would allow 100 residential lots to be developed, but does not say how many buildings or units could be placed on a lot and would allow buffer zones to be used for utilities and infrastructure for water and sewer.
“It will be the residential equivalent of a strip mall,” Fracht said. What will be gone are the deer and other wildlife, he said.
He said eliminating buffers will effectively negate land use control ordinances used by 170 municipalities across the state.
“This bill encourages irresponsible development deep into the rural landscape,” Fracht said, “and is one more of a long series of statewide mandates that limits decisions made in local communities.”
But supporters said it ties rural development on dead end roads with national standards and also meets the requirement for water sewer and fire suppression needs while balancing development with the need for conservation.
Another concern was a bill giving developers the right to build residential housing in a commercial zone, which Rep. Len Turcott, R-Barrington, said he warned his colleague about two weeks ago.
The proposed bill would mandate changes that would override local zoning ordinances and not take into consideration such things as safety and infrastructure.
Another bill for special assessment districts would bill property owners who benefit from infrastructure development or upgrades through property taxes, but opponents said it shifts the costs from developers to homeowners.
The opponents said the bills will increase litigation whose cost will be borne by property taxpayers.
Voting Rights
Lawmakers also approved two bills that would either make it more difficult to vote or remove the loopholes in the current election system depending on your point of view.
House Bill 314 would have election moderators fill out a form if they verify a voter’s identity if he or she does not have a photo ID on election day. Currently moderators, checklist supervisors or other election officials could verify someone’s identity if they know them.
Rep. Charlie St. Clair, D-Laconia, said things have gotten out of hand when a moderator who knows a voter has to sign an affidavit if he verifies the person to vote. “It has gotten out of control in our state,” he said. “Let’s use some common sense.”
But Rep. Ross Berry, R-Weare, said the bill keeps the current system in place and allows other election workers to verify voters but they have to sign a form saying how they know the person.
Over the last four or five years they have passed very comprehensive voter ID reforms that some moderators are not big fans of, Berry said, so they say “I know you, I know you, I know you.”
“So now if they abuse the process, we know who you are,” Berry said.
But Rep. Connie Lane, D-Concord, said her committee heard absolutely no evidence of anyone violating the rule.
Moderators and other election workers have more than enough to do with all the bills passed in the last few years adding to their burden without having to fill out forms, she said.
The report was approved on a 197-159 vote.
House Bill 1062 would allow the Secretary of State’s Office to do random audits of registered voters who signed a verified voter affidavit which is sworn under oath.
Rep. Luz Bay, D-Dover, said the bill allows the use of “any and all data bases” to verify a person’s identity without any requirement for advance notice or due process or transparency or any evaluation of accuracy.
That is not a safety check for fraud, that is surveillance, she said.
This additional area of scrutiny raises constitutional concerns, Bay said, as the constitution guarantees a voter’s right to participate in all elections without undue government interference.
She said the bill targets, students, low-income residents, recent movers, naturalized citizens and the disabled.
Bay noted the recent federal court decision throwing out the state’s law requiring a passport, birth certificate or naturalized papers to register to vote and doing away with verified voter affidavits.
You cannot impose a greater burden on an eligible voter without a clear standard and due process rights, Bay said.
She said there was overwhelming opposition to the bill before the committee, and only evidence of three non-citizens voting in the state in the last 20 years, while over 200 voters were disenfranchised by the state’s law in the last election.
Berry said the judge’s decision is why the audit is needed. With people voting through an affidavit, you need to be able to determine if the person is who he or she says they are, he said.
The bill passed on a 196-156 vote.
Utility Generation
Lawmakers voted to step back from a 30-year standard of electric utilities not owning generating facilities, established under the state’s electric deregulation law intended to remove the financial risk of generation from electric customers.
Prior to the law, customers essentially were the capital backing for building generating plants.
House Bill 1775 would allow electric utilities to own up to 10 percent of small nuclear power plants and natural gas generators.
Rep. Michael Harrington, R-Strafford, said a bill they just passed allows purchase power agreements between utilities and generators up to 3 million megawatts and up to 2 million from a nuclear generator.
HB 1775 would allow up to an additional 185 megawatts in a purchased power agreement, he said, noting you don’t need that much electricity.
The last time ratepayers were put on the hook for a generating plant, it cost them $100 million, although the Public Utilities Commission tried to ensure the risk would not go onto ratepayers for the Burgess wood-burning plant in Berlin.
“We don’t need this,” Harrington said. “We should not allow ratepayers to take on the risk of generation. This is going back to the way it was.”
Rep. Michael Vose, R-Epping, quoted a person saying “if no utility can build and no ratepayer can be on the hook, who finances the next power plant?”
He said the free market is supposed to produce new generation, but is distorted by government actions.
“It has a lot to do with renewable energy, which has its place,” he said, “but when you impose government mandates, it distorts the market.”
The bill is a small step in letting utilities invest in new natural gas generation or micro nuclear purchase power agreements, Vose said.
Some things were passed for political reasons that were not ratepayer friendly, but that is a rare exception and won’t happen often, he said.
The report was passed on a 306-46 vote.
Garry Rayno may be reached at garry.rayno@yahoo.com.