2018 Legislative Session recap
All legislative sessions are filled with good and bad news. The 2018 Legislative Session was not different. Let’s recap this year’s high and low points from the State House.
- Good news: The Legislative tabled two separate bills, HB 1210 and SB 450, both of which proposed establishing committees to study the effect of current use taxation on small and rural municipalities. While the intent behind both appeared to be innocuous, the truth is their aim was simply anti-land conservation. Ultimately, the majority of legislators agreed with us that a credible study should involve a broad range of stakeholders tasked with reviewing the benefits and effect of current use taxation. Both HB 1210 and SB 450 involved limited memberships tasked with finding a slanted outcome. Their defeats has been good news for the conservation ethic in our state.
- Bad news: The Legislative and Governor approved a bill (HB 1104) that will handcuff the Department of Environmental Services in its statutory charge to protect the State’s wetland resources by arbitrarily truncating the review times within which DES must act on wetland applications. These truncated review times are bad for two reasons: 1) there is no evidence that the existing statutory review times are failing the wetland resources the law is written to protect; 2) there is no allowance for added financial resources to allow DES to hire more staff to meet the new truncated review times. While the real-world impact on the wetlands is yet to be measured, we continue to fear New Hampshire will needlessly lose a resource that has broad and deep benefits to not only the natural environment but to the the public as well.
- Good news: The Legislative tabled a misguided bill, HB 1358, which proposed requiring the SEC to issue a certificate for an energy facility within 365 days of accepting an energy facility application. We strongly opposed the bill because the SEC’s rules and laws are designed to give the SEC, intervenors and the public a roadmap to determine what benefits and impacts a specific energy facility proposal may have on our state. They are not there, as this bill apparently concluded, to automatically assume such a project will have no unreasonable adverse impacts. While we will have to be on guard for attempts next year in the Legislature to undermine the principal of due process, the vote to table HB 1358 demonstrates strong support of the public’s right to intervene in large scale energy transmission projects,
- Good news: The NH House of Representative voted HB 1526 as “Inexpedient to Legislate”. This bill would have required the Fish and Game Department fees be established by statute and not by administrative rulemaking. We opposed HB 1526 because it reversed a 2015 vote which granted the Department the authority to set and charge fees. The fundamental reason for granting that fee-setting authority was to address the Department’s fiscal situation and to clarify its authority to adopt and enforce rules for the adequate and effective control, management, restoration, conservation, and regulation of the fish, game, bird, and wildlife resources of the state.
- Good news: The Legislature approved SB 48, which established a commission to study the efficiency and effectiveness of the Fish and Game Department. In further good news, Governor Sununu appointed the Forest Society to a seat on this commission. It is our hope the SB 48 will result in specific proposals that will strengthen and sustain the capacity for the Department to fulfill its public trust obligations.
- Good news: The Legislature approved, and the Governor signed into law, SB 577, thereby extending the agreement through which Eversource buys power from the Burgess Biopower plant in Berlin. The Forest Society supported this bill because a healthy biomass industry helps private forest owners sustainably manage their forests.