Legislative Priorities 2024
Keeping Our Communities Safe
We will fight to keep New Hampshire the safest place to live in the nation, avoiding the chaos hitting so many other states. Keeping every Granite Stater safe is a huge priority, and that is why we will be focusing on the following:
· Instituting bail reform to ensure violent and repeat offenders are seen by a judge before being released
· Blocking sanctuary cities in New Hampshire
· Protecting the Norther Border Alliance’s ability to stop drug smuggling and human trafficking into New Hampshire through trespassing reform
· Prohibiting the People’s Republic of China from purchasing land near military facilities
· Passing mandatory minimum sentences for trafficking and distributing large quantities of Fentanyl
· Strengthening penalties for DWI
· Considering bonding for a new Men’s Prison
Empowering Parents
· Continuing to improve and protect Education Freedom Accounts and school choice
· Fighting for a Parental Bill of Rights to ensure parents know everything their children are doing in school
· Continuing to keep parents informed and involved in decisions regarding their children’s health care and mental health treatment
Investing in our Students
· Providing communities with property tax relief by sending state aid to local school districts through the Student-Centered Education Funding Formula, which increased by $169 million over the biennium and 31% increase over the next 10 years
· Fighting against judicial overreach that ignores our Student-Centered Education Funding Formula and mandates the spending of over half a billion dollars
· Continuing to invest in New Hampshire students and schools by providing funds to school building aid and the public-school infrastructure fund
Protecting Our Wallets
· No Sales Tax, no Income Tax, no Capital Gains Tax, and no higher taxes
· Blocking policies that will hurt workers and drive-up costs for small businesses
· Protecting business tax cuts that have grown the economy resulting in budget surpluses
· Blocking efforts to re-establish an Interest and Dividends tax
· Ensuring any changes to the New Hampshire Retirement System are sustainable, affordable, and do not impact property taxpayers
· Protecting Republican policies that have resulted in New Hampshire having
- 3rd lowest unemployment in the country
- Lowest poverty rate in the country
- Revenue surplus of over $500 million
- Ranked #1 for Economic Freedom by the Fraser Institute
- Ranked the Freest State in America by the Cato Institute
Delivering Property Tax Relief
Senate Republicans will continue to protect local property taxpayers, building on the state aid provided in last year’s budget.
· Increasing state aid to local schools by $169 million over the biennium, $100 million for Building Aid, and $20 million for CTE renovations
· Increasing Rooms and Meals revenue to cities and towns by more than $100 million, a 90% increase since FY2020-21.
· Increasing state aid for:
- Water and wastewater infrastructure
- Affordable housing
- Local police and firefighters
- Municipal highway and bridge grants
Supporting our Main Street Businesses
· Continuing to streamline the licensing process
· Establishing an Office of Regulatory Efficiency and Oversight to review regulations and reduce bureaucracy
· Streamlining disaster relief programs to get aid to communities faster
· Protect the gains we achieved on lowering business taxes and workers compensation costs
Health Care
· Protecting the hugely successful Granite Advantage program, which helped lower health insurance premiums, and is widely supported by the business community, the social services community, and by families across the state who benefit from it
· Improving incentives to attract and retain trained health care professionals to help the health care field combat the workforce shortage crisis
· Increasing transparency of Pharmacy Benefit Managers
· Renewing and revamping the Medicaid drug rebate program to benefit consumers
· Protecting consumers by ensuring that third party contributions count towards their insurance deductibles
· Expanding screening for cytomegalovirus in newborns
Mental Health
· Increasing the number of available mental health beds
· Continuing the implementation of the secure therapeutic youth development center in Hampstead to serve the needs of juveniles with behavioral problems while ensuring public safety and appropriate commitment to payments in lieu of taxes to the host community
· Continuing to support building the new $40 million forensic psychiatric hospital
Energy and the Environment
· Providing assistance to farmers who have experienced major crop loss in 2023
· Remediating damage to recreational vehicle trails in the North Country
· Continuing to improve and expand net metering
· Continuing to improve water quality in New Hampshire and support clean water initiatives including efforts to reduce PFOAS and cyanobacteria contamination
· Lowering the cost of fees for Granite Stater’s to visit our State Parks
· Encouraging new energy resources in New Hampshire
The New Hampshire Primary and Election Integrity
· Passing a state constitutional amendment to ensure that New Hampshire remains the First in the Nation Primary State
· Updating state law to authorize the use of improved voting machines
· Create and fund an election information portal to maximize transparency in local elections
Promoting Affordable Housing
· Doubling dedicated funding for the Affordable Housing Fund through the Real Estate Transfer Tax
· Implementing the InvestNH program to develop affordable workforce housing
· Addressing bureaucratic hurdles that stifle housing development
Always Maintain the New Hampshire Advantage
· Opposing an income tax, a sales tax, or a capital gains tax in our Live Free or Die state
CHIP IN BELOW TO HELP US PROTECT THE NH SENATE REPUBLICAN MAJORITY IN 2024!