Here in New Hampshire, it is the Independent “party” (if you will) who are and have been in the majority, followed by Democrats and then Republicans. The House chamber seats 400 members with Republicans right now in a very slim majority holding 201 seats. One seat is still up for grabs as that election ended in a tie after all the votes were tallied in November, 2022. 

Incumbent Democratic state Representative Chuck Grassie and his Republican challenger, David Walker, both of Strafford District 8 will be heading towards a special election on Feb. 21. 

At the first vote count, Walker was the winner by one vote, 971-970. A recount was held on Nov. 16 resulting in a tie between the two men, 970-970. 

Grassie’s political career dates back to the 1970’s when he sponsored a bill to decriminalize marijuana (talk about being ahead of your time!). Some of his sponsored bills were to raise the minimum age of marriage and to establish the solid waste management fund and grant program. He’s been a strong advocate for women’s reproductive rights and helped bills such as a cap on the cost of insulin to pass, among other legislation. He also served as head of the House Progressive Caucus. 

Walker is a former mayor of Rochester, who is being endorsed by the anti-choice organization “New Hampshire Right to Life”. 

If you would like to see New Hampshire legislate with the good of the people in mind, please help Chuck Grassie keep his seat so he can continue to do just that. Please go here to donate to help Democrats keep a key seat in the New Hampshire House blue!

As an advocate for both housing and environmental preservation, the proposal before the Keene City Council to reduce the minimum lot sizes in our rural zone from 5 acres to 2 acres has my heart divided. And as a City Councilor, I'll have to make up my mind at some point.

As I have pointed out repeatedly to anyone who will listen, there is a housing crisis going on and we need all the housing capacity we can get. But my primary concern is for those at the low end of the housing latter, and this change seems aimed squarely at the top. 

Will the benefits trickle down? Maybe a little, but of all the housing policy changes we could make, I think that making it easier to build McMansions in the outer parts of Keene ranks pretty low on the list of priorities. 

It concerns me that every house that gets built far out of town is car dependent and comes with a cost that we will have to pay in traffic, and all of those drivers are going to expect parking spots when they come into the city. And every house built out in the woods, every forest that's knocked over to plant a lawn, has an effect on the local ecosystem that extends well beyond the borders of its property.

On the other hand, if there aren't places to build houses in rural Keene, people will got farther out - to Sullivan or Westmoreland or Surry or Swanzey. None of our surrounding towns require lot sizes as big as five-acres, so its creating an incentive for people to go even farther out of Keene, commute a bit longer, and not pay taxes in our city.

And the City Council has already approved some expansion of housing in the rural area. Back in November, we passed a changed that enables "Conservation Residential Development" districts, which allows for development of clustered housing in the rural district on smaller lots, providing that certain conservation measures are met, such as the preservation of open space. I think that was a good approach that balanced housing need with ecological protection.

Where I'm coming down is on all this is that, I'm amenable to making this change from five acres to two, but only within the context of a broader effort toward conservation. There are some highly sensitive wildlife areas in Keene, especially to the north of town, and opening up those places to residential development would come with an environmental cost that I don't want to pay. 

We need a plan to preserve what ought to be preserved, and to build where its appropriate to build. Recently, the Conservation Commission has been discussing the idea of a 30x30 program, in line with national and global efforts to ensure that 30% of habitat is under conservation by 2030. 

There is still a lot to be figured out as far as what a 30x30 program might entail here in Keene, but one thing it would provide is a framework can be used to understand our local wildlife habitat conservation needs and have them integrated into the Master Plan update that we are due for in the next few years.

In general, I would be a lot more comfortable supporting the proposed change to Keene's rural lot sizes if I knew it came coupled with a solid plan for preserving the area's ecology. That might take longer than people would prefer, but I think we should take the time to get it right.  

When I was on the campaign trail running for State Senate last year, and Nick Germana was running for State Rep, I used to love getting voters to ask him about child care. Like me, Nick has family in the industry. He can speak with knowledge and passion about the value of early childhood education and on the importance of having decent salaries for workers in that field.

I was less happy when Donovan Fenton would talk about about child care, because I was running against him. The man has two small children and is well versed in the gross financial burden our current system places upon young families. I think it was pretty smart to make child care a key issue in his campaign messaging. While I still claim that my ideas about early childhood education were better than his (put kids first not business!), I guess the voters saw it his way because Donovan is a Senator now and I'm blogging.

All of this is to say that I'm very pleased that Nick and Donovan, in their new esteemed and honorable roles as legislators, are diving head-first into addressing our state's child care workforce shortage. Together, they have introduced House Bill 566 that would bring in some much needed funding to make sure that early childhood educators can at least get paid enough to stay in the industry.

Watch Nick and then Donovan in the hearing before the House Health, Human Services and Elderly Affairs Committee, and then watch the rest of the hearing:

Its worth watching some of the later testimony, which features child care center administrators explaining how challenging it is to retain teachers when they can pay only $15 an hour at a time when Target will pay $20

Here is some of Rep. Nick Germana's statement:

When we talk about the issues facing our state around childcare, we talk about affordability and accessibility. All too often, however, these two desirables are at odds with each other. Achieving the goal of affordability requires that we keep the cost of childcare down, ideally at 7% of a family’s income or less. The way this is usually achieved is by paying low wages to the women and men who deliver this vital service. 

In my region of the state, the average preschool educator enters the field making $13.51/hr, and an experienced early childhood educator makes, on average, $17.51/hr. That works out to a little over $28,000/year and just over $36,000/year, respectively, in a state with an average cost of living of around $52,000/year (as of December 2021, doubtless considerably higher now). 

To give a more personal example, my wife has been working as an early childhood educator for more than 25 years, and she has two college degrees – an associate’s in early childhood development and a bachelor’s in developmental psychology. She recently became a co-director of a center in Brattleboro, and for the first time in her life she is making just over $40,000. 

Twenty-five years of working in the profession with two college degrees, and she is still earning about $10,000 less per year than the average cost of living in the state. Our 19-year-old son, who has taken time off from college to learn business from the inside, is currently the manager of the Jersey Mike’s restaurant in Manchester, and last year he made almost twice as much as his mother. 

We certainly do not begrudge him that pay – we works extremely hard and has proven himself to be immensely valuable to his employers, but what does this say about how much we value the people who help nurture our children and keep them safe every day? The people who comfort them when we cannot, and prepare them for the academic and emotional challenges of the early school years?

You can see why I always loved to get Nick started talking about that.

Public Service Announcement to my fellow white people: if you make the mistake of overlooking the contribution of a Latina State Representative on the legislative committee you chair, just apologize and move on. Do not compound the insult by joking that she was speaking to you in Spanish.

Republican NH State Rep Mark Pearson forgets to give credit to an Hispanic woman (@mariapz1974) and then proceeds to pretend she wasn’t speaking to him in English. 

Video speaks for itself. #Dobetter Rep Pearson. #NHpolitics pic.twitter.com/nMvyjPAPbL

— Kathleen Cavalaro (@KCavalaro) January 31, 2023

I first got to know my neighbor and NH State Representative, Joe Schapiro (D-Keene), from our work together on Project Home, helping asylum seekers become part of our community. Building humanity into our immigration system is a cause that Joe and I both care deeply about.

Now Joe has a bill before committee that would enable the children of asylum seekers to be eligible for health insurance coverage. It would also provide coverage to asylum seekers who are pregnant.  

HR 282, co-sponsored by Reps Amanda Toll (D-Keene), Jonah Wheeler (D-Peterborough), and others, "directs the department of health and human services to submit state plan amendments under Medicaid and CHIP to provide coverage to children and pregnant women lawfully residing in the United States."

Things you can do:

• Attend the hearing: Wednesday, February 1 at 1:00 p.m. in Legislative Office Building, Room 210-211

• Sign in remotely on the day of the hearing to Support this bill: Online Testimony Submission

• Email the Health, Human Services and Elderly Affairs Committee: HHSEA@leg.state.nh.us

A babbling and irate Florida man was the headline speaker at the New Hampshire Republican State Committee's annual meeting on Saturday. 

The speaker, a well-known associate of Vladimir Putin and serial committer of tax fraud, who is also bears responsibility for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic, was fawningly received by New Hampshire Republicans.

The crowd cheered raucously when the speaker referenced his previous attempt to violently overthrow the United States government, and applauded his efforts to undermine confidence in democratic elections. Later, they all waved flags and pretended to be good patriots.

NH Governor Chris Sununu was not present at the event. Though Sununu has previously expressed great affinity for the tiny-handed speaker, at the time of the speech he is believed to have been hiding under a rock.

In 1919, Congress chartered a veterans organization called The American Legion, whose purpose was to be of service to veterans, current servicemembers and communities. The Legion gradually developed through a group of World War I veterans and has since become an influential nonprofit group in America. Across the country there are 55 posts, one for each state along with the District of Columbia, France, Mexico, Philippines and Puerto Rico.  

Throughout the years, the Legion successfully achieved hundreds of benefits for veterans, created programs for children and brought about significant social change.

In March 2019, the “Buddy Check” program was begun as a comradeship campaign, encouraging posts to reach out to local veterans, to find out what the Legion could do for them. The posts have put together Buddy Check teams to contact their local veterans and families by email, phone, texting and/or visits. It was an instant success, becoming possibly life-saving during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. 

Sen. Maggie Hassan has sponsored a bill which would direct the Dept. of Veterans Affairs (VA) to annually set aside one week as “Buddy Check Week” to educate veterans on how to guide wellness checks and arrange outreach events. The bill would connect veterans to other veterans to make sure they get the support they need. The VA would work with Armed Forces members, mental health experts and nonprofits who serve veterans. The bill would also ascertain the Veterans Crisis Line has a firm plan and enough staffing in the event of potential increases in calls which may occur during a “Buddy Check Week.”

Sen. Hassan stated, “Veterans all across New Hampshire have shared with me their personal struggles with mental health, and their stories have made it exceedingly clear that we must do more to address this issue. Instituting a Buddy Check Week is an evidence-based approach that will make a real difference in combatting veteran suicide, and I am pleased that we will soon pass this into law.”

Several veteran organization leaders voiced their positive thoughts on the new proposed bill:
Manchester VA Medical Center: Dr. Alicia Semiatin, chief of mental health, felt the program would help veterans get the care they need.

National Alliance for Mental Illness (NH): Amy Cook, suicide prevention coordinator, noted this organization directed 650 hours of military culture and suicide prevention training to health care providers and private employers in the previous year.

Disabled American Veterans Dept. of NH: according to Commander Rick Borrazas, veterans who are struggling are more likely to be open to help from another veteran, especially one whose military experiences are similar.

Veterans of Foreign Wars: according to senior vice commander Denis Querrard, there are many soldiers returning after the Afghanistan withdrawal who are experiencing transition difficulty. 

Sen. Hassan would like to see Congress introduce more incentives for veterans to join the mental health profession after their service in the military ends.

The toll free suicide crisis hotline can be reached anywhere by dialing 988, at the prompt, hit 1, which will direct services for a veteran who is in immediate need of help.

Senators Hassan’s Bipartisan Bill to Support Veterans’ Mental Health Set to be Included in Government Funding Bill (senate.gov)

This is a big win that came out of our city's Ad-Hoc Committee on Housing Stability. If all goes to plan, people being released from protective custody at the Cheshire County jail will no longer just be dropped off at the bus stop on Gilbo Avenue in downtown Keene and left to fend for themselves. They will instead have options to get connected to transportation and social services they need to avoid having to be unhoused.

From the Sentinel Article by Hunter Oberst:

Doug Iosue, the jail’s superintendent, told The Sentinel that many of these individuals are taken into protective custody because they’re intoxicated or incapacitated, but haven’t necessarily committed a crime. By law, he explained, the jail cannot hold them for more than 24 hours...

Right now, staff at the jail tries to find a responsible, sober driver to come pick up people who are being released, but often this is not possible, so they are taken to downtown Keene and left to fend for themselves.

Rather than releasing them outside the jail on Route 101, which he said is dangerous, they’re brought to Gilbo Avenue, putting them closer to city services.... This policy applies to anyone from Cheshire County, which census statistics show is more than 700 square miles, regardless of where they’re from.

Cheshire County is a big place. Imagine someone arrested in Ringe trying to find their way back home from Keene if no one will give them a ride. We don't have the kind of public transportation network that can support that.

According to the article, jail staff dropped off 133 people at Gilbo Avenue in 2022. 

The details are still being worked out, with further decisions being made in April, but it appears that transportation is a key part of the fix: 

[City Manager Elizabeth] Dragon said Keene helps those who are unhoused seek assistance, either by helping them find shelter or through connecting them with the community where they’re from.... She added that an idea briefly mentioned in discussions is having a contracted transportation service that could bring someone leaving the jail within a certain radius of where they want to go or where they were originally picked up.

As an eight-year-old, I knew all about co-pays, pre-existing conditions, and cobra. We moved from Pennsylvania to New Hampshire in the early 90s. My dad’s new company wouldn’t cover dependents with preexisting conditions for the first two years, so my family had one insurance plan, and I had another.

I’ve watched healthcare and health insurance change a lot since then. Employers reduce the plan coverage or the percentage they cover, which is the equivalent of a pay cut. Insurance companies restructure the deductible, so that maintenance medications are not covered. A physical is covered but the “first-time visit” with each new doctor was not. Bloodwork at a visit is covered, but not if it doesn’t count when the lab is down the hall from the doctor. I left my job after ten years because I was going to debt.

Ironically, worrying about healthcare can exacerbate medical problems and weaken the immune system. Since the start of the pandemic, there have only been a few months when my medication supply was not interrupted. There were weeks I spent six hours on the phone tracking my medication. I had a seizure on the floor of CVS waiting for my prescription to be filled. EMTs arrived and I think brought me to the ambulance in a stretcher. They wanted to take me to the hospital, but I all I could think about was the cost and the ride home. I signed a form, saying I was leaving against medical advice, climbed out of the ambulance, and walked the half-mile in the dark to get home.

When we talk about healthcare, we’re usually talking about health insurance, which isn’t the same thing. To care about the health of people is the essence of a healthy society, because it empowers them to contribute to society. Making healthcare more accessible will allow people to get the care they need, when they need it. Employers will see workers more engaged, energized, and focused. Teachers will see the same in their students because that is the energy parents are modeling. Nurses will see fewer patients in the ER with health problems that could have been prevented.

Sign in remotely to Support: Online Testimony Submission

Email the Commerce Committee: HouseCommerceCommittee@leg.state.nh.us

Attend the hearing: Thursday, January 26th at 1:00 p.m. in Legislative Office Building, Room 302-304

Freshman lawmaker Rep. Jonah Wheeler(D-Peterborough and Sharon) has introduced HB 508, which would provide paid postage on absentee ballot return envelopes. As someone who can never find a stamp when I need one, this is a great idea for democracy and, as Jonah says, also ends a poll tax. 

Watch the video to see Jonah introduce his bill, and keep watching for testimony by the bill's co-sponsor, Rep. Jodi Newell of Keene.