Budget, Cannabis, Bridges

The New Hampshire House of Representatives and Senate meet Wednesday to vote on the $10.7 billion state budget for 2014-2015. The compromise negotiated last week does not include Medicaid expansion, but offers what legislators are calling "a pathway" to expansion late this year after a commission studies implementation.

Their sessions begin at 10 a.m.

The House Finance Committee holds a budget briefing on Tuesday, 11 a.m., in Representatives Hall.

Thursday is the last day to act on committee of conference reports.

Some of the Committee of Conference summary reports include the following:

HB 1-A, making appropriations for the expenses of certain departments of the state for fiscal years ending June 30, 2014 and June 30, 2015.

The committee of conference produced a balanced and fiscally responsible budget investing in the priorities of the people of New Hampshire without increasing taxes or fees. The budget goes a long way toward restoring the investments in our citizens, communities and state. With restoration of funding for higher education, our mental health system, domestic violence programs, uncompensated care and fully funding great programs like CHINS and LCHIP there is a great deal for us to be proud of in this budget. The budget also includes the new state employee contracts which include the first pay raises in five years and significant long term savings in health care costs. This is a responsible balanced budget and we ask for your support.

HB 2-FN-A-L, relative to state fees, funds, revenues, and expenditures. 

This is known as the trailer bill. It contains support for HB 1 and where necessary it makes statutory revisions for the budget bill. It is the way the legislature confirms its decisions on how the state is to conduct business during the period of time covered by the budget. This bill includes a commission with a short timeline to develop a NH Model for Medicaid expansion, fully restores the LCHIP program, fully restores the uNIQue Scholarship program and provides language to restore the MQuIP program which benefits county and private nursing homes. This bill includes provisions that protect our state’s commitment to our public K-12 education system by fully funding the existing Adequacy formula and increasing the cap, increasing funding to 58 towns. The committee of conference asks for your support.

HB 25-FN-A, making appropriations for capital improvements.

The Senate agreed with most of the Capital Budget as it was passed by the House. The significant changes in HB 25 from the House version as agreed to by House and Senate are as follows: $10 million was added to the Liquor Commission (from the liquor enterprise fund) for the purpose of adding computer software to all NH liquor outlets for the purpose of credit card security and fraud compliance with the large credit card companies; $5 million in Highway Fund bonded indebtedness was added to the department of transportation’s budget for NH’s one-half share of the match money for the $25 million federal Tiger Grant application for replacement of the Sarah Mildred Long Bridge between Portsmouth and Kittery, Maine. The Hampton North Beach Seawall repair, which had been funded in phases over the past four biennia, was increased to $4.7 million in order to finish the project over the next two years, because the department of resources and economic development testified to the conferees that the savings would amount to over $700,000. $2.35 million of the funds for the seawall comes from the existing Hampton Beach Parking Meter Fund. The Business One-Stop project (headed by the office of information technology and designed to allow easy and efficient on-line interface between businesses and state departments) continues to be phased-in. The amount of funding was increased to $3 million with the requirement of quarterly progress reports. The source of funding for this project is various closed capital projects in which there were remaining funds. The conferees agreed to increase the university of New Hampshire System block grant funding from $7.5 million to $8 million dollars, while eliminating any specific itemized projects. There were a few other adjustments to various department funding levels based on updated numbers from the departments themselves. The overall level of General Fund new bonded indebtedness is slightly less than the $125 million maximum recommended by the state treasurer at the beginning of the capital budget process.

HB 573-FN, relative to the use of cannabis for therapeutic purposes.

The House and Senate conferees agreed to support legislation that allows for therapeutic use of cannabis for a number of “qualifying” medical conditions. These conditions include those severely debilitated or who are terminal. Licensed physicians and advanced practice nurses who have an established professional relationship with the patient make the determination as to who has a “qualified” medical condition. The department of health and human services is responsible for rulemaking and administration of the program. It is important that this legislation establishes a therapeutic use of the Cannabis Advisory Council. This council has broad authority including making recommendations for legislation and administrative rules. This legislation provides for legislative oversight by requiring reporting to the Health and Human Services Oversight Commit- tee. The legislation takes a significant step in the utilization of medical cannabis in the treatment of severe and terminal health conditions. The House agreed to the Senate version of the bill . All conferees agreed to a housekeeping amendment.

HB 595-FN, relative to photo identification of voters.

HB 595 as passed by the House would repeal Phase 2 of RSA 659:13 which is scheduled to take effect on September 1, 2013. Phase 2 would have reduced the number of acceptable forms of voter identification and eliminated the use of student identification cards. In addition, it would have required local election officials to take photographs of individuals choosing to vote without a photo ID. The compromise arrived at by the Committee of Conference repeals Phase 2 and revises RSA 659:13. The amendment will allow the use of qualified student ID’s as a means of identification provided that the ID bears a date of issuance or expiration within five years of the election. This provision does not go into effect until September 1, 2018 to grandfather existing student ID’s that do not bear an expiration date. The amendment postpones the effective date of the provision that requires local election officials to take photographs of voters until September 1, 2015. Although the House’s position was that this provision should be repealed in its en- tirety, the Senate was only willing to delay the effective date. The amendment retains the authority of election officials to verify the identity of voters and enables voters over age 65 to use acceptable forms of identification without regard to expiration date. The Committee strongly urges all members to support this compromise.