On March 13th, Wendy Hunt from the Chamber of Commerce, addressed the Rotary Club of Nashua regarding work that the Chamber does. The Chamber is an advocate for the business community to the NH legislature. There are weekly meetings to review the bills before the legislature and decide on need for chamber support or action.
Senate bill 263 is a permanent version of a Medicaid bill to provide care without going thru a 5-year annual renewal. 90% of funding comes from federal sources with the remaining 10% coming from local funds. This helps care providers give care to those with minimal or no insurance. Many ER care seekers could be treated more effectively and less expensive with the patient having Medicaid regular care versus being seen only in crisis. To continue this program, it depends on support through the House to have it permanently re-authorized. The complexity of this problem was reviewed and we were urged to look out for some key points that will be circulated later to the club.
The housing bill was also reviewed, Senate Bill 145. This bill addresses NH’s lack of affordable housing, which has been a decade long problem. The impact of the housing problem is so severe because employers cannot find workers due to lack of affordable places to live. If passed, this would aid in development of affordable work-force housing.
There are several child-care related bills, due to lack of affordable childcare in the state. With women ages 21-39, 85% used to be in the workforce, now it is 75% due to after-effects of child-care closures related to COVID. Senate Bill 106 would help allow high school students to obtain CTE (credits) and on the job training to aid in childcare services. The cost of child-care is also being addressed in Senate Bill 221 to enable municipalities to give property tax credit to child-care centers. Many employees leave childcare due to not making enough money, so this bill may aid in employers ability to pay child-care related workers.
House Bill 110 would prohibit state funding to rail projects. It was reviewed that younger workers want public transportation and NH’s lack of public train transportation is an issue. It prevents the younger workforce from coming to NH. One argument was that we want workers to stay in NH, however this would be a cross-state transportation system, allowing for workers to also enter NH from different areas in MA.
You can easily go online to support/oppose bills before the state house/senate. Every Friday, the Chamber puts out an advocacy newsletter called “The Advocate,” that is available to everyone.