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By GARRY RAYNO, InDepthNH.org
CONCORD — The state’s school construction aid program would be overhauled and opened to state-approved charter schools under a bill passed by the Senate Wednesday.
The Senate voted to invest the shared public savings pool in state-run financial institutions rather than out-of-state or foreign investment companies, and agreed to purge voter checklists every five years instead of every 10 years.
School construction assistance
Senate Bill 342 would use both the General Fund and the Education Trust Fund to establish a new school building construction fund over several years up to $80 million, which would then replace the current school building construction grant program. .
The bill would allocate funding to each school district in the state and require each district to develop a building plan that must be approved by the Department of Education.
The construction fund would be established with $30 million from the state’s general fund, with an additional $5 million from the Education Trust Fund to be put into the fund each year thereafter, and the $50 million annual construction assistance fund would be reduced by that amount. . .
Once the fund reaches $80 million, the state treasurer will allocate the same amount each year to the construction fund, which will be available for both traditional school construction and charter school construction programs.
The Senate initially approved the bill on a 14-10 vote on partisan lines, and now it will be considered by the Senate Finance Committee.
public investment
The Senate unanimously approved 24-0 Senate Bill 553, which would transfer the state’s $680 million public deposit investment pool to state financial institutions after the current contract ends.
The pool was created more than 30 years ago after the state’s five largest banks failed and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation became the state’s largest single real estate owner.
Sen. Cindy Rosenwald, D-Nashua, said the pooled funds, when transferred to state agencies, would increase commercial lending in the state by $200 million, create 2,000 jobs, and provide local governments with a five-year An additional $60 million in funding will be provided, double the current amount. The money will be returned and approximately the same amount will be paid to the national treasury.
And he said that if the bill is approved, an investment pool will be secured, but it is not secured at this time.
Sen. Donna Soucy, D-Manchester, was working late at Manchester City Hall one night in 1991 when the FDIC came to take over Manchester’s largest bank. He talked about the time he saw cars flooding the streets.
Thirty-three years later, the financial landscape and environment are different, she said, and it’s time for extraordinary change for communities across the state.
Local banks and credit unions will lend the money to commercial owners and the public, Soucy said.
“Think about the impact that that could create. The potential is truly extraordinary,” she said. “Change is hard for some people, but it’s okay.”
The bill now goes to the House of Representatives.
voting list
House Bill 490 was approved, requiring voting checklists to be verified and updated every five years instead of every 10 years under current law.
Sen. James Gray (R-Rochester) said the removal of the previous checklist would result in significant changes, as people these days stay in their homes for an average of five years and systems for tracking people as they move have improved. He said several people had been removed. .
He said only 3-4% of people removed from checklists in the last purge had to re-register as voters. Gray noted that many voters have not cast a ballot in a long time.
“We’re trying to instill confidence in our voters, and it’s a legitimate concern that some will lose that confidence,” he said.
But Soucy said the problem lies in the way the bill seeks to update and clean up checklists by removing voters instead of other available methods of verifying legal voters.
He noted that if a person only votes in a presidential election year, they only need to skip one presidential election to be excluded from the checklist under the bill.
“There is no dispute that New Hampshire should strive to keep its voter rolls up to date and as clean as possible,” she said. “But I wonder how we go about it. We’re not using the right tools.”
He said the Constitution guarantees that anyone who is a resident of the state and over the age of 18 has the right to vote.
If you decide not to exercise your rights and are removed from the checklist, why do you need to go back and re-register?, she said.
Removing people from the checklist creates more stress for election workers because it increases same-day registrations when it turns out the person is no longer registered, Soucy said.
“The only thing they did was exercise their right to decide not to exercise their right,” Soucy said.
The bill passed by voice vote and now heads to the House for a vote.
Other actions
The Senate passed Senate Bill 489, making election audits of counting machines permanent and requiring them to be conducted before recounts begin. The bill will be introduced in the House of Representatives.
Senate Bill 539 requires campaign receipt and expenditure reports from candidates or political action committees to be legible, and if they are not legible, they will not be posted by the Secretary of State’s Office until they are legible. yeah.
Senate Bill 387 would allow recovery centers and community mental health centers to use state parks for free for a three-year pilot program.
Senate Bill 393 would raise $25 million from several different funds available to Derry for the second phase of the Southern New Hampshire Water Project for towns affected by PFAS contamination and service demand.
Senate Bill 473 would put money the state collects in the Education Trust Fund through unclaimed historic horse racing tickets into the Governor’s Scholarship Fund.
Senate Bill 580 would use the sale of toll credits to establish a fund to build noise barriers along highways.
And Senate Bill 352 establishes an early cancer detection program for firefighters with $5 million from the general fund.
The Senate will be on vacation next week.
Garry Rayno can be reached at garry.rayno@yahoo.com. Garry is the state legislative bureau chief for InDepthNH.org.
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