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1 week ago | 
nhjournal.com | Evan Lips
Fans of school choice and border security cheered big wins in the New Hampshire State House on Thursday as legislators passed bills allowing local police to assist with federal immigration enforcement and eliminating the income cap on the Education Freedom Accounts. The two issues — school choice and cracking down on illegal immigration — are top priorities for first-year GOP Gov. Kelly Ayotte.
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1 week ago | 
nhjournal.com | Evan Lips
Haters gonna hate. That was the response in the Granite State to a social media post making the rounds this week calling for Massachusetts progressives to boycott New Hampshire over its center-right politics.
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1 week ago | 
nhjournal.com | Evan Lips
Gov. Kelly Ayotte is maintaining the trend set by her Republican predecessor, Chris Sununu, keeping the Granite State near the top of the rankings as one of America’s best places to live and work. During Sununu’s time in office, U.S. News & World Report routinely placed New Hampshire in the top tier of its “Best States” category.
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1 week ago | 
nhjournal.com | Evan Lips
Could April’s sagging business tax revenue numbers put a dent in Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s hopes for a less painful budget? On Friday, the state released its preliminary collection report, showing businesses paid $240.3 million — $27.2 million less than anticipated, and $44.3 million less than New Hampshire hauled in a year ago. The revenue setback continues a troubling trend.
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2 weeks ago | 
nhjournal.com | Evan Lips
Are Education Freedom Accounts a way to rescue children from failing local schools? Or are they part of a plot by a libertarian cabal to bring anti-government activists in their childbearing years to the Granite State to impose their liberty-driven political will? It was no surprise when a Senate proposal to expand EFA eligibility advanced through the GOP-controlled House Education Finance Committee on a party-line vote. But conspiratorial attacks on the popular program from ranking Democrat Rep.
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2 weeks ago | 
nhjournal.com | Evan Lips
With great power — or a concealed weapon — comes great responsibility. Which is why the New Hampshire House held a bipartisan training session Tuesday for lawmakers who, unlike every other New England state, are free to walk the halls of the chamber armed if they choose. The training was conducted by Rob Chadwick, Director of Education and Training at the U.S. Concealed Carry Association (USCCA) and the former head of the FBI Academy’s Tactical Training Program.
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3 weeks ago | 
nhjournal.com | Evan Lips
The billionaire governor of the “Vote Early and Often!” State is bringing his progressive politics to “Live Free or Die” New Hampshire this weekend, at the invitation of Granite State Democrats. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, 60, is heir to the Hyatt Hotel fortune and the second-richest politician in America, according to The Wall Street Journal. (Trump is first.) He will take center stage Sunday in Manchester at the New Hampshire Democratic Party’s annual McIntyre-Shaheen 100 Club fundraising dinner.
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3 weeks ago | 
nhjournal.com | Evan Lips
Wednesday’s state Senate Health and Human Services Committee hearing on legislation banning puberty blockers and sex-change surgery for minors appeared relatively routine. The issue has been debated multiple times as bills protecting minor children from permanent physical alterations made their way through the legislature over the past two years. That all changed when a Boscawen-based therapist sat down to testify.
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3 weeks ago | 
nhjournal.com | Evan Lips
There are no free rides. Not even to the hospital. Which is why, for the second year in a row, New Hampshire lawmakers are grappling with how to reimburse ambulance companies for the services they provide without driving up insurance premiums for Granite Staters. This time last year, New Hampshire Insurance Commissioner D.J. Bettencourt told NHJournal he was “deeply concerned” by a proposal to set commercial insurer reimbursement rates at 325 percent of Medicaid reimbursements.
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1 month ago | 
nhjournal.com | Evan Lips
On the eve of Tax Day, a quartet of free-market state lawmakers and policy gurus used the occasion to call on New Hampshire’s all-Democratic congressional delegation to extend the tax cuts passed in 2017 and set to expire at the end of the year. The bad news is that if the cuts do expire, Granite Staters will see their tax bill surge.
