By GARRY RAYNO, Distant Dome
With the midterm elections coming, this is a good time to step back and ponder where New Hampshire is heading.
The state has had six years of Republican control in the State House from top to bottom.
In that time the state has changed and whether that is good or bad depends on your perspective, but there have been some fundamental changes that few could have predicted a decade ago.
Some outside influences have impacted the state such as the COVID epidemic, the federal rescue and relief money and Washington and national politics.
Many years ago, state legislators were fond of saying “We’re not Washington,” but you don’t hear that very often if at all recently because New Hampshire has become partisan, susceptible to millions of dollars of outside money, and where party and power take precedence over the real needs of the state.
New Hampshire used to have a laissez faire attitude that permeated the citizenry, basically a “I’ll mind my business, you mind yours and we will be fine” attitude.
Very few people were willing to tell other people how to live and what to do with their lives as long as they did not do harm to someone else.
People were not interested in micromanaging the book selection at their local school’s library or requiring prayers in schools or public events.
Prayers were offered, but people were free to participate or not.
The culture wars have done a lot to change what was once a welcoming atmosphere for newcomers to one telling people what they may or may not do, which has been par for the course in the legislature for the last six years.
The main target has been transgender young people that the legislature has blocked them from transitioning from one gender to another until they are no longer minors.
The same group that pushed for years to have a parental bill of rights for parents of school children are the same ones that forced other parents to abandon the journey they planned with their child to reach his or her desired fulfillment by making certain medical procedures illegal in the state.
New Hampshire used to be one of the freest states for abortion services, but that has changed with restrictions that have been in place outlawing abortion at or after the 24th week of pregnancy.
The only exceptions are to save the life of the mother and for fatal fetal abnormalities incompatible with life.
The last six years of Republican control has also given us the divisive concepts law, which basically says white people cannot be made to feel guilty for being racists or taught about the country’s racist history.
The federal courts have blocked all attempts to implement the law but it has yet to go to the US Supreme Court.
The state Supreme Court has changed as did the US Supreme Court after years of work funded by the Koch brothers and other libertarians who want to establish an oligarchy in this country and have made great strides in that direction.
The NH Supreme Court for most of its recent history has had members of both parties and did a good job of leaving politics to the politicians.
But you could say the Claremont education funding decisions changed that as the then Chief Justice David Brock was impeached for writing those decisions although the official charge was listening to his colleague Stephen Thayer when he wanted Brock to change the judge hearing his divorce case. Small potatoes to what is going on at the court these days.
This court has been carefully crafted over the last six years to overturn those very same Claremont decisions.
Former Gov. Chris Sununu and current Gov. Kelly Ayotte packed the court with all Republicans and with at least three justices who have worked to oppose the original decisions.
But sometimes the best laid plans don’t work out.
Today, the court is now under siege after Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald resigned as chief and from the court facing three charges of judicial misconduct while three other justices are under scrutiny for doing the same thing MacDonald was charged with.
News of other judicial conduct investigations is expected in the coming month.
Perhaps bipartisanship on the court is a good thing.
Another foundational area under attack by the GOP the last six years has been local control.
At one time, local control was sacrosanct but these same people who profess to love their liberty, “taxation is theft,” have no problem passing legislation to micromanage how towns and cities set and enforce planning and zoning regulations all in the name of addressing the state’s housing crisis which has been a long time building.
Zoning and planning regulations have always been determined by the communities who enacted them, not by a couple hundred lawmakers who appear to be more interested in destroying rather than building.
Regulations dealing with parking requirements, driveway permits, density requirements and trailer parks are now being dictated by the denizens of almighty Concord.
The one thing that would help reduce the housing crunch would be money for infrastructure like municipal water and sewer, but that has never been addressed.
Unhappy with being blamed for skyrocketing property taxes, some key Republicans like Senate Majority Leader Jason Osborne, who moved to NH to join the Free State Project, and who has set the agenda the last six years, have pushed for a statewide school budget cap and after numerous defeats, they got their way this year with a referendum to cap local school budgets, a masquerade for a get-out-the-GOP vote operation.
But the most important fundamental change is public education.
New Hampshire is last in the nation in support for public schools and higher education.
The state public schools are always ranked near the top in the country for performance and per pupil spending but 70 percent of the money arrives from the good graces of local residential, commercial and industrial taxpayers who foot the bill at a higher percentage than any other state.
Under court order to stop giving wealthy communities and unincorporated places tax breaks and to spend $500 million more to support public schools, Republican lawmakers decided to ignore the court and instead begin reducing state aid that has been in place for about 15 years.
At the same time they expanded a voucher program that began with about 1,500 students and cost $8 million to over 12,500 students this school year costing about $64.1 million.
At the same time they have been piling additional requirements on educators both teachers and administrators and dictating various curriculums and allowing a parent or even no one connected to the school to challenge material used in either instruction or for reference material.
Yet when challenged with proposed budget caps at the local level, residents turn out in force to support their local schools.
There are few things more important than education both for people and for businesses. Without a good, robust education, a person is destined to a lower income, less success and less overall satisfaction with his or her life.
Businesses depend on the state to require a good education that allows students to enter the workforce ready to contribute to a business’s success and to provide the innovation needed to constantly grow.
And as the founding fathers said more than 250 years ago, democracy depends on a well-educated, engaged citizenry to proliferate.
The Libertarian/Republican agenda is to destroy public education because it takes too much of their dollars and want to return to a private education system where you receive the education you can afford, not what you need.
Another two years of Libertarian/Republican control in Concord and you will not recognize the state you grew up in or moved to.
Those in charge of the Libertarian/Free State Project want that to happen so it will be easier to establish their “Libertarian homeland” in the Granite State if many people become frustrated, give up and move away.
But the carpetbaggers don’t deserve to reign over those who established the state as a place more gentle, relaxed and welcoming.
Make sure you vote for the New Hampshire you want and not the propaganda funded by far away oligarchs. Know who you are voting for.
Garry Rayno may be reached at garry.rayno@yahoo.com.
Distant Dome by veteran journalist Garry Rayno explores a broader perspective on the State House and state happenings for InDepthNH.org. Over his three-decade career, Rayno covered the NH State House for the New Hampshire Union Leader and Foster’s Daily Democrat. During his career, his coverage spanned the news spectrum, from local planning, school and select boards, to national issues such as electric industry deregulation and Presidential primaries. Rayno lives with his wife Carolyn and their two rescue dogs.