NEWS & NOTES House budget
The House is working on the finishing touches of its version of the state operating budget for the next biennium. This is the last week for the House Finance Committee to make tweaks to the budget it has crafted so far before it goes to the full House for a vote. NHPR reported the House made a number of significant changes to Gov. Chris Sununu’s proposed budget. Given the much leaner revenue estimates produced by the House Ways and Means Committee, the budget represents $59 million less than Sununu’s budget unveiled in February. New revenue estimates are expected soon, which will likely give Senate budget writers more money to work with. The Senate will begin drafting its version of the budget after the House passes its budget bill. One of the major initiatives Sununu called for that got cut by the House was $9 million for targeted full-day kindergarten funding. Increased infrastructure spending was also axed in the House budget.
Natural gas
Electric and natural gas utility company Liberty Utilities announced it’s received regulatory approval to expand its natural gas distribution service into the towns of Windham and Pelham. According to a press release, Liberty filed for the right to serve those two towns with the state Public Utilities Commission in 2015. Marc Kovacs with the Windham Local Energy Committee said in the release that Windham and Pelham are the only towns in this area of the state that don’t currently have access to natural gas. The project is expected to lower energy costs for residents. Construction of new distribution lines is set to begin in late summer 2017 and start with serving commercial and industrial customers and adjacent residential neighborhoods before expanding into more residential areas over a four- to five-year period.
Fire unions
Negotiations between two Manchester firefighter unions and the Board of Mayor and Aldermen with the help of a mediator failed to reach new labor contracts, resulting in the start of a lengthy
fact-finding process, according to a press release from the unions. The two unions representing rank and file firemen and supervisors have been trying for the past year to secure raises in the new contracts. The points of contention are concerning compensation and healthcare benefit concessions. According to the unions, the city historically used a pay scale that was pegged to the consumer price index, but they say the city is reluctant to use this same pay scale.
SEA negotiations
Talks between state government officials and the State Employees Union broke down and the two parties are blaming each other for walking away. After the SEA filed an unfair labor practice complaint against the governor’s office for allegedly refusing to negotiate, the governor’s spokesperson, David Abrams, issued a statement saying the governor’s office never left the bargaining table and the unions are arguing with themselves. The SEA represents about 10,000 state workers.
Ellison visit
In his first public appearance since being appointed Democratic National Committee deputy chairman, Minnesota U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison came to New Hampshire to attend a state committee meeting at the Saint Anselm College Institute of Politics on March 25, according to the NH Democratic Party website. Later, he spoke at a Seacoast fundraiser. The AP reported Ellison told Democrats at the event that they can’t spend their energy focusing on President Donald Trump, but instead should focus their efforts on grassroots campaigns for local office. Ellison ran for the chairmanship and had the backing of New Hampshire Democratic party Chairman Ray Buckley before losing to Tom Perez.
Child protection
Lawmakers are considering ways to enhance state laws governing the protection of children in the wake of a report that illuminated several systemic holes in the child protective services assessment process. Late last year, the report indicated one troubling trend by the Division of Children, Youth and Families
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was to mark cases with evidence of abuse as “unfounded” due to a high legal bar to prove such cases and internal policies. NHPR reported a special legislative commission is recommending a middle step in determining which cases are founded or unfounded. During an assessment, if a social worker has concerns or recommendations in a case that is nevertheless marked as unfounded, the department will issue a confidential letter to the subject of the report that would identify problem areas and recommendations that would enter the case record.
CONCORD
Manchester School Superintendent Bolgen Vargas proposed a plan to deal with a $5 million budget shortfall at a recent board of aldermen meeting. NHPR reported the plan includes selling the district’s Millyard office space and eliminating 47 staff positions. Vargas’ tax-cap-compliant budget totaled $165 million; an alternative $170 million budget would allow the district to hire more elementary reading teachers.
A nurse pulled her car over when she saw a barn fire in Boscawen and saved a 27-pound bunny named Duff from certain death, the Hooksett Concord Monitor reported. The nurse, Denise Bailey, is the school nurse at Salisbury Elementary School. Goffstown
Casino gambling
The full Senate voted 13 to 10 to legalize casino gambling in the state, NHPR reported. Specifically, the bill would enable two casino gambling locations in the state with a total of 5,000 slot machines and 240 table games. The state Lottery Commission estimates the state would rake in $194 million in the first year of both casinos operating, according to the story. Unlike past bills that attempted to legalize expanded gambling with specific locations like Salem’s Rockingham Park in mind, this bill has no prescription on casino locations. A bill last year that would allow one casino in Salem was tabled by the Senate. Over the past several years, the Senate has passed a form of expanded gambling legalization only to have it fail in the House.
Kickbacks
According to a press release from the office of acting U.S. Attorney General John J. Farley, Christopher Clough of Dover was
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Bedford
Hundreds marched Amherst in Nashua during the city’s third Awareness is Healing Walk Milford to Stop Heroin on March 25. The Telegraph of Nashua reported participants walked through rain and sleet from Greeley Park to Main Street holding signs and images of loved ones.
arrested and charged with conspiracy and receiving kickbacks from a pharmaceutical company for prescribing a powerful fentanyl spray. Clough is facing federal prosecution for the scheme, in which drug manufacturer Insys allegedly paid Clough more than $41,000 for speeches he never gave at dinner events. Clough, who is a physician’s assistant formerly employed by PainCare Centers since 2004,
The Nashua school board has selected Dr. Jahmal Mosley as the new Superintendent of Schools for the Nashua School District. According to a press release, he will begin in his new role July 1. Mosley said in a statement that he was honored to be selected. “I’m looking forward to working with and meeting parents, teachers, students, staff, and all stakeholders of the Nashua community,” Mosley said. He’s worked in a number of administrative roles in Massachusetts schools since 2002, including as principal for Somerset Berkley Regional High School, which received the highest level of academic recognition a school can attain in the Bay State during Mosley’s tenure. He will be relocating to Nashua with his wife and children.
A Bedford school foodservice worker was diagnosed with theDerry MRSA virus, Merrimack which is caused by a staph infection, the Union Leader Londonderry reported. Both middle and high school kitchens were sanitized as a precaution. NASHUA
had his medical license permanently revoked in late 2016 due to a pattern of overprescribing opioids. NHPR previously reported Clough was the state’s third most prolific opioid prescriber in the Medicaid program from 2010 to 2013. Eight of the top 10 prescribers on that list were employed by PainCare, according to the story. The arrest is part of a larger investigation into Insys.
ASCENTRIA EMPLOYEES
Ascentria Care Alliance, a community social services organization that helps relocate refugees entering New Hampshire, has cut its staff by one-third due to slowing arrivals, the Concord Monitor reported. Formerly Lutheran Social Services, Ascentria’s Concord offices laid off or cut hours for employees in the New Americans program. While the two executive orders from the Donald Trump administration banning Muslim refugees were largely blocked by judges, there is still a stipulation in force to reduce incoming refugees by 64 percent. Roughly half the number of refugees arrived in Concord in February and March this year compared to the same period last year, according to the story.