Governor Chris Sununu recently struck a blow in favor of childhood lead poisoning when he vetoed HB 342. 

The bill would have changed the health form that parents fill out when their child enters school or child-care to include the results of a blood lead test. Parents who do not get their kid this routine test would be provided with a brochure explaining the risk that lead exposure poses to their child’s developing brain, with the goal of encouraging them to get their child tested.

Such things have been effective in encouraging blood lead testing in other states. 

There are, of course, opportunities for parents to opt out of all this based on religious beliefs or whatever half-baked ideas they might have picked up listening to right-wing talk radio. It’s important to recognize that nobody is forcing parents to do anything here.

Although, let’s be clear: anyone who intentionally dodges lead testing for their child is being a reckless and neglectful parent - straight up. The impact of lead exposure on a child’s brain can be lifelong and debilitating, and all children deserve parents who will protect them from this danger.

Current law – signed by Gov. Sununu in 2018 – requires that kids aged one and two get tested for blood lead test. Compliance with that law isn’t great – in 2021, 40% of two-years-olds and 50% of one-year-olds did not get tested. In particular, a lot of testing was skipped during the pandemic years, meaning that a lot of children will soon be entering school who have never been tested at all.

But the Chris Sununu of 2023 wants to make sure that nothing is done about this. He called the bill an “unnecessary check on parents.”

Its interesting to me that Sununu would reach for the “parents rights” rhetoric here, a la Moms for Liberty and Ron DeSantis. It’s a dog whistle as loud as a tuba.

As a parent myself, I take particular exception to this rhetoric.

But for all their bluster about Critical Race Theory, panic about transgender people using the bathroom, and deep concern over woke library books, it’s funny how Republican leaders don’t give a fig about something that actually harms children.

More good news for New Hampshire, thanks to the Biden administrations policies for clean energy and environmental issues, specifically the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021!

According to a recent  new report from the U.S. Department of Energy, between 2021-2022, NH added nearly 650 clean energy jobs. We are also seeing energy jobs experiencing an increase nationwide. 

The report listed the (nationwide) clean energy jobs:
11,299 positions in energy efficiency
8,199 jobs in motor vehicles
5,842 jobs in electric power generation
3,448 jobs in transmission, distribution and storage
1,367 jobs in fuels

For those who are interested in learning more about clean energy in NH or to become active in promoting the work towards a clean energy future: Clean Energy NH

Other good news is the expansion of clean energy jobs such as solar and wind power and zero emissions vehicles, surpassed that of all other jobs nationally! The United States has set a goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. “Net-zero emissions” refers to achieving an overall balance between greenhouse gas emissions produced, avoided, and removed from the atmosphere.

Good news indeed, as we watch and experience for ourselves the negative effects of climate change and extreme weather!

What is libertarianism? It is a political philosophy that advocates only minimal state intervention in the free market and the private lives of citizens.

According to Brittanica, “Libertarians are classical liberals who strongly emphasize the individual right to liberty. They contend that the scope and powers of government should be constrained so as to allow each individual as much freedom of action as is consistent with a like freedom for everyone else. Thus, they believe that individuals should be free to behave and to dispose of their property as they see fit, provided that their actions do not infringe on the equal freedom of others.”

Libertarianism is a combination of minimal government fiscal conservatism, free trade, low taxes. They favor more gun rights, less restrictive drug laws, and (sometimes) favorable views on gay marriage. The Libertarian Party has been in existence since about the 1970’s.

What is agorism? It is a free-market anarchist political philosophy that believes the ultimate goal is bringing about a society in which all "relations between people are voluntary exchanges”, a free market.

Agorism believes the government has no right to ban, regulate or tax any exchange of goods or services through mutual consent. In other words, do what you what, when you want, however you want. Agorism is a plank of the official 2023 New Hampshire Libertarian Party platform, run by Free Staters and other Anarcho-Capitalists. 

The founder of the “Free State Project” (FSP) is Jason Sorens, now in his 40’s and a lecturer at Dartmouth. In 2001, he organized a migration of 20,000 Libertarians, anarchists, anarcho-capitalists, pacifists, even some like-minded Democrats and Republicans, to New Hampshire. Here they sought to create an even freer NH, free from laws and rules; free from government-issued currency, public schools and libraries; free from rules and laws that keep us safe such as environmental and zoning regulations, speed limits, drug laws (think fentanyl).

These new transplants immediately assimilated into NH life; lawyers, hair stylists, business owners, crypto dealers and most importantly, politicians. They quickly discovered there were already some elected officials and residents who were like-minded and formed the Liberty Alliance. Many of their members (FSP) got themselves elected to local planning, zoning, library and school boards. 

In the NH House, this group called themselves the “House Freedom Caucus.” They generally run as Republicans, however, there was at least one who ran as a Democrat. By the year 2000, the NH House Republicans were under their control. They began the process of defunding public education with the help of Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut. They opposed vaccine mandates, and strangled the governor’s emergency powers. All this and more was accomplished with the help of FSP board member Greg Moore, who is also the (NH) State Director of Americans for Prosperity. (think Koch brothers, although one is now deceased.)

Each year in NH, the Free State Project officially sponsors two events; the Liberty Forum, and The Porcupine Freedom Festival, or Porcfest. The Porcfest is a week-long festival held at a campground in Lancaster. At the Porcfest, those who are interested in doing so, are advised to seek volunteer positions in their towns. This way, when they want to seek an elected position they already have name recognition. 

As of May 2022, roughly 6,232 people had moved to NH for the Free State Project,17 of them hold seats in the NH House.  One of them is House Majority Leader and FSP member Jason Osborne.

2024 will be here before we know it. Before you vote, learn all you can about the people running for office who want to represent you! 

This guy!

Thanks to everyone who voted for me in the Monadnock Shopper-News' Best of Monadnock 2023 Awards. I was hoping for a bronze and won the silver.

It was a clean sweep for Keene City Hall, with Mayor George Hansel taking gold, and Randy Filiault, who sits next to me on the City Council, taking bronze. 

“Broadband,” more commonly known as high-speed internet, is the wide-bandwidth transmission of data, transporting many signals through a range of internet traffic types and frequencies. This can be optical fiber, satellite, wireless internet or coaxial cable. Broadband is always on and is much quicker than dial-up or analog. 

No, I don’t understand any of it but am glad I have access to it! 

However . . .

When Joe Biden ran for President part of his platform was his idea of “Investing in America.” After his election, one of the bills brought forth was the  Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Included in that bill was monies to be set aside for a Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program. After the process of making it’s way through both the Senate and House the bill was passed on Nov. 5, 2021 and signed into law on Nov. 15. Included in the bill was $65 billion, the largest investment ever, for broadband expansion. A large chunk of that money $42.45 billion was earmarked to the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program. This program will expand high-speed internet access (especially to underserved rural areas) with planning, upgrading, infrastructure, deployment and adoption programs. When these goals are met, left over funding can be used for eligible access and equity related uses.

The pandemic brought about the need to create a longer term version of the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program. Therefore, $14.2 billion is now designated for an Affordable Connectivity Fund, granting monthly subsidies of $30 for eligible households (down from $50).

All fifty states will benefit from this along with Washington, DC, Puerto Rico, Guam, US Virgin Islands, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and American Samoa.

On Monday, June 26, the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration announced the distribution of the $42.45 billion in funds. New Hampshire will be receiving $196,560,279.00 which should go a long way in implementing jobs and bringing those who live in rural areas up to speed with their internet needs! 

The bill passed the House on Nov. 5, 2021 by a 228-206 vote, with only 13 Republicans voting for its passage. All four of our Democrat elected officials in Washington, DC voted to pass this bill and we are now seeing the fruition of it. 

SB70: relative to the establishment of an election information portal and relative to the purchase of election equipment.

Did you know New Hampshire is just one of eleven states that does not have online voter registration? Yup, this is according to an analysis by the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire. In this state, we go in person to our local clerk’s office or make a request by mail. 

SB70 was meant to allow the Secretary of State to establish an “Election Information Portal”, thereby allowing residents, who move to a new city or town, the ability to register to vote online. The information portal would also give access to absentee ballot requests along with updating name and address information.

Supporters of the bill stated this choice would help decrease the amount of same-day registrations at the polls while encouraging more folks to get registered before any upcoming election day. 

In February, the Senate passed the legislation but then the House went and added an amendment to the bill. The amendment would have given the Secretary of State permission to release some of its federal grant money to towns needing help in replacing old voting machines. The argument was that there are many old voting machines still being used across the state, some for thirty years. Federal and state funding was seen as being able to go a long way to the replacement costs for these machines while easing the burden on property owner’s taxes.

The federal grant money came to the state through the “Help America Vote Act” of 2022. The argument against the amendment was this money should be used for state expenses relative to elections, trainings for election workers and voting machines for those with disabilities. There was worry that sending a portion of that grant money to purchase new voting machines could drain state reserves. Sen. James Gray (R), chairman of the Senate Election Law and Municipal Affairs Committee, felt towns should pay for new voting machines themselves, the state not become a party to funding them.

Sen. Rebecca Perkins Kwoka (D), introduced a compromise amendment allowing the Secretary of State to dedicate funding to towns to help pay for new voting machines, reducing the impact on the state’s grant funding. Only one member of the committee, Rep. Steve Smith (R), voted against the proposed amendment. In order for committee of conference reports to advance, the vote must be unanimous.

Therefore, this past week, SB70, a bill originally allowing for online voter registration, was killed.

On Monday, June 12, nationally renowned urban designer Jeff Speck came to speak in Keene, in relation to our ongoing discussions surrounding proposed updates to the city's downtown infrastructure. Speck is known as an expert in walkability, and the cost of his visit was crowdfunded by the Keene Downtown Group, including a contribution of $5000 from the City of Keene.

This was seen as needed because the downtown infrastructure project seems to have reached something close to a stalemate. While opponents of the project, through a vote of the City Council's MSFI Committee, have managed to remove many of the aspects of the plan that appeal to its proponents - like bike lanes, traffic pattern fixes, and added greenspace on the square - these changes leave the project in a place where it would be unlikely to draw significant funding through federal transportation grants. As a result, city residents would be on the hook for almost all of the $14+ million price tag of a project that fixes a lot of pipes underground but does little at the surface.

Jeff Specks' full presentation is worth watching if you haven't already. One point he made is that there are ample opportunities for placing dense residential development in the downtown area, particularly along Gilbo Avenue. According to the city's recent housing needs assessment, there is a need for 1400 new housing units in Keene over the next 10 years. 

Speck also made the point that several of Keene's roads, including Main Street and West Street, are currently built to support a much higher number of cars than are actually served. There are several locations where the number of lanes of traffic could be reduced without reducing the ability of our streets to support the number of cars we actually have. 

On Main Street, for example, we do not actually need to have two, and even three lanes of automobile traffic in each direction. One lane in each direction, plus appropriate turning lanes, can serve our traffic volume while creating room for bike lanes, broader sidewalks, and much better and safer pedestrian crossings. 

Speck even figured out how to do it all while maintaining parking in the center of Main Street - which is a huge priority for some, though I think its misguided. Speck's plan entails replacing the space-consuming mini-lawns and extra sidewalk of the current median with a more efficient design that creates a flexible-use parking plaza and (the good part) lots and lots of trees.

It was Speck's proposal for Central Square that I really like. I feel that the fundamental problem with our traffic pattern downtown is that it combines the worst aspects of traffic lights (the waiting) with the worst aspects of a traffic circle (the merging, the confusion, and the consumption of valuable real-estate). It would be far better to have one or the other, but not both.  

Specks proposal for a simple 4-way traffic light resolves this issue in a clean and effective way, while also creating new green space in front of City Hall and making it so that the center of the Square is no longer an island surrounded by asphalt and traffic.

I like it as a pedestrian, but I think its good for drivers too... cars on Roxbury Street will now be able to proceed straight, directly on to West Street, without having to go up and around and merge across traffic coming in from Court Street. Cars going from Main Street to West Street would simply need to take a left at the arrow. Traffic coming down from Washington Street will proceed similar to the way it always has, as it won't be effected by the reclaiming of the street on the east side of the Square.

All in all, I think these are some strong suggestions that I expect the City Council to take seriously as we consider the issue again at our upcoming workshop on July 6.

Not all the news coming out of Concord is negative, what with a closely divided legislature. Some of it actually works in the people’s favor. For instance, on April 6, the House passed a $15.9 billion budget, seeing the most bipartisan cooperation since 1989! The budget then went on to the Senate where it was passed, down to $15.2 billion, on June 7.

Today’s focus will be on the issues of child care and affordable housing, two important issues that so many young families continually face. Included was a bill sponsored by Sen. Becky Whitley (D-Hopkinton) that would spend roughly $15 million to expand access to affordable, quality child care. Child care has become such a challenge of late, what with some families having both parents working or even a single parent household. This budget will now increase funding for childcare and Family Resource Centers. A win for young families!

Also according to the Senator, nearly 6,000 children are eligible for free or reduced-cost school lunches. These children are not signed up for the program due to the application form which tends to be complicated. Among nearly twenty other amendments, that one was defeated in the Senate. 

Affordable and available housing has been another immediate issue for the state. New Hampshire is experiencing a housing shortage and the fact that the cost of a home has more than doubled in the last ten years has created a challenge to hire and hold onto quality employees. This would include those in the medical and educational fields along with city and town employees. Now with this recently passed budget, $25 million will go into the affordable housing fund with another $15 million geared towards new housing programs. The latter is designed to motivate new, workforce housing in NH. Another win for those looking to purchase their first home or to re-locate to the state.

The budget now awaits the governor’s signature which appears to be he will sign it.

Did you know that here in New Hampshire the average cost is more than $19,400 per student per year? Me, neither.

Did you know NH’s current school funding system is the MOST regressive in New England? Me, either.

So, when the folks from “Fair Funding NH” came to Keene the other day, I made it a point to stop in and listen. I would like to share a little of what I learned.

Even though the average cost is $19,400, NH calculated the cost of an “adequate” education FY 2022-23 to be $3,787 per student with some adjustments bringing the cost to $4,600! No where near the $19,400 per student, right? 

But a little history first . . .

Back in 1993, the NH Supreme Court ruled that the state has a constitutional duty to pay for all public school students, K-12 to receive an adequate education. In 1997, the NH Supreme Court ruled for the state to have a uniform tax rate, STATEWIDE, for the support of public education.

Elected officials have all but ignored these two rulings since 1993!

In 2019, the state put together The Commission to Study School Funding. The following year a report was released pointing out problems, results from those problems and solutions. This Commission report is in Concord, by the way. . .

Problem: The state’s current estimated cost for an adequate education is not reproducible by any empirically based approach.
(Empirical: relying on or derived from observation or experiment.)

What they found: Districts with greater student needs, and small districts, require more spending per student to achieve a common desired level of student outcomes.

Problem: Communities with higher poverty rates and lower property wealth are doubly penalized under the current system.
What they found: The state could generate revenue more fairly by collecting it centrally then distributing that revenue using a weighted formula.

Problem: As district poverty rates increase, student outcomes decrease – even after accounting for other district factors that may also be relative to poverty, such as district size, special education and English learner rates.
What they found: Under a weighted formula as proposed by the Commission, MORE THAN 70% of NH towns could see reduced property tax rates.

This report came out in 2020! Yet, we are still burdened with high property taxes and with some elected officials now in Concord wanting to distribute some of that revenue to private schools and home schoolers. Taking AWAY from public school students.

The NH School Funding Fairness Project advocates for changes in policy while engaging in activities to promote fair school funding in NH. To learn more about them; www.fairfundingnh.org

In the meantime, they recommend contacting your elected officials (and those running for office), and ask where they stand on the school funding issue and how they plan to address and ultimately fix it! https://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/house/members/

Subsequent to this blog post, and associated Letters to the Editor, concerning the need for a public input on the use of opioid settlement money in Keene, State Representative Jodi Newell and I met with City Manager Elizabeth Dragon and Police Chief Steve Stewart. 

We had an engaged and fruitful discussion that reminded me of why I appreciate our public servants, and it addressed a lot of the concerns that Rep. Newell and I brought to the table. 

Based on that discussion, today I submitted a letter to the Mayor and City Council, cosigned by City Councilor Bettina Chadbourne, that asks the City to sponsor a public forum about our community response to the opioid overdose crisis.

Here is the letter:

June 13, 2023

City of Keene Clerk’s Office  
3 Washington St  
Keene, NH 03431

To the Honorable Mayor and City Council,

With the settlement of lawsuits against companies responsible for instigating the opioid crisis, financial resources are now available in our city and at the state level to put toward projects aimed at preventing overdose deaths.

As a City Council, we will need to make decisions about how to spend the money that the city is receiving as part of the settlement, and we will need to understand how the City can benefit from grants available from the state-level pool of funds. We also need to ensure that our efforts take place in coordination with those of other organizations in the region, including the County, as well as various local social service organizations engaged in the work of overdose prevention.

Further, as the Council considers these things, we must listen closely to the voices of members of our community who have been personally affected by substance use and overdose, who are in the best position to understand the reality of the challenge we have before us. That challenge is to save lives.

To that end, we – Councilors Williams and Chadbourne – are requesting that the City sponsor a community discussion on our response to the overdose crisis. This would be a public forum, at an appropriate venue and in concert with appropriate partners, and we hope that all City Councilors will attend. 

Sincerely,

Bobby Williams 
City Councilor, Ward 2

Bettina Chadbourne 
City Councilor, At Large