Rosemarie Rung, NH State Representative

The House was in Session yesterday and passed a budget that now goes onto the Senate for its input. This budget will raise local property taxes by limiting the revenue the town gets from Meals & Rooms tax and increasing the portion for our county taxes. There are so many things that were cut, but to put it in a nutshell, if you depend on any help from the State for housing, food, healthcare, construction permits, court cases (assessment disputes, probate, small claims, divorce, parenting plans, etc), you will be paying more as 90+ fee increases were approved. If your kid wants to go to a state university or community college they will be paying more. The only people who will have more money in their pockets are people who send their kids to private/religious schools or homeschool. No matter how rich they are, they will get over $5300/yr per child. That’s like getting half of your property tax paid for by other taxpayers. Oh, the bill also included a non-budget item: a ban on diversity and inclusion.
This budget only passed by 10 votes, so there were many Republicans opposed to it for very good reason, including Rep. Bill Boyd. All the other Merrimack Republicans, Reps. Miles, Mooney, Notter, and Presa voted for it and I can’t figure out why as it is not good for our Town, our property taxes or people who rely on State help for disability services, the county nursing home, or children’s health insurance from the State – and I’ve heard from plenty of residents who are in this boat. I’m so sorry for what is coming if this budget is signed into law. I tried.
Democrats on the Finance committee presented an amendment that restored many of the cuts without raising taxes or new fees, by having the State take a larger cut of the new gambling machines from the casinos, updating the revenues with the latest forecasts, and limiting the private school vouchers to those families making less than 350% of poverty level, but that failed.
Other bills we voted on:
HB66 which would expand the Right to Know law so anyone anywhere in the world can request any public information from our town. We heard from the Town Manager and the Police Chief to vote against this as it would be a nightmare by requiring extra cost and time (marketers of pet products often make these requests to find out how many dogs are registered in town, how many loose dog complaints filed in the past 20 years – stuff like that). Reps. Notter and Presa voted for it anyway, while Reps. Boyd, Miles, Mooney, Murphy, Thomas and me voted no. It passed anyway.
HB71 would prohibit any public school from providing shelter to a “specified alien.” Really. Does anyone even think there are aliens hanging around Merrimack looking to squat in one of our schools? This is just another attempt to push an extreme political agenda on our town. Let’s please focus instead on actual problems. But, it passed on strict party lines with the Republicans voting yes and the Democrats no.
HB115 (this was also added to the budget) would remove all income limits for parents to get over $5300/yr per child to pay for private/religious schools or homeschool. It adds tens of millions of dollars to the budget, that, to be honest, I’d rather have go to elderly people to help pay for their property taxes, which will go up because of this. It only passed by 7 votes with Reps. Boyd, Murphy, Rung and Thomas opposing it while Reps. Miles, Mooney, Notter and Presa voting for it. When next year’s property tax bill comes, take it up with them.
HB511 would prohibit state and local government entities from adopting policies to impede the enforcement of federal immigration law. I voted in favor of it a couple of months ago when it came out of the policy committee, but after the finance committee hearing and what we’ve seen since is that it turns local police into pseudo ICE agents, risks due process and requires local and county resources without financial renumeration. It passed anyway along party lines with Republicans voting for it.
The House is not in Session next week as all House bills are over to the Senate for action and House committees are just starting to hear/vote on Senate bills. Once we get enough, a Session will be scheduled.