Week Eight - February 26, 2010

This electronic publication, known as The Advocate, is brought to you each Friday by your Greater Nashua Chamber of Commerce, in partnership with our friends at Devine Millimet & Branch, and ActiveEdge. Please use this piece to review what has happened in Concord this past week, read about our Chamber's lobbying efforts relating to those activities, and preview what we are doing on behalf of our Chamber members in the coming week.

This Week’s Update

The legislature was on break this week. Even still, the week saw some very interesting developments.

Repeal of LLC Tax?

Breaking news emerged late this week courtesy of The Telegraph’s highly respected political reporter, Kevin Landrigan, that the Governor and Democratic legislative leaders have agreed (at least in principle) on a repeal of the much-criticized LLC Tax which was enacted as part of the budget discussions last June. The details of the repeal have not yet been made public.

It goes without saying that this would be a great outcome for businesses in New Hampshire. The Chamber, along with many other businesses and business organizations, has been calling for repeal, and your Chamber has especially been on the leading frontlines of this discussion. The heated controversy that ensued after this tax was enacted could hardly have surprised anyone, since the tax was passed without any public hearing (something which fortunately is a rare event in this state). Let’s hope that this repeal really does happen, and that the folks in Concord use this as an object lesson regarding the importance of public hearings on matters of this impact.

An important note - even if the LLC Tax is repealed, the Chamber will continue its efforts to advocate for the passage of SB 497, which addresses the issue of reasonable compensation. Let’s not forget that this is an issue that is bigger than just the LLC Tax, and was around long before the LLC Tax was ever discussed and enacted. Your Chamber is carrying the banner on this important bill, and we were the only business association involved in an intense work session this week with the sponsor of the bill, representative of the Department of Revenue, the Legislative Budget Authority, and other private sector attorneys to pinpoint the actual financial impact of this bill to the State. Some very good progress was made, and we are confident that the pieces are coming together that will allow this bill to receive a favorable recommendation from the Senate Ways & Means Committee.

State Control of Hospital Rates?

Late last week, the Senate rolled out SB 505, which is sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Maggie Hassan and apparently will be one of her leading issues this session. You may recall Senator Hassan is the same senator who helped champion the State Warn Act last session, of which we continue to be highly critical as very unfriendly toward small businesses; additionally, she was quite vocal earlier this year in her defense of the LLC Tax that passed in the midnight hours of the last session.

Her current initiative, SB 505, would establish a PUC-like commission to oversee the rates charged by hospitals in New Hampshire. Not surprisingly, this proposal has been met by some strong criticism. We understand that the New Hampshire Hospital Association has come out swinging, although it also appears that some individual hospitals, at least behind the scenes, may be willing to at least hear this thing out before they take any public position.

Needless to say, philosophically speaking, the Chamber is not thrilled at the idea of government dictating what private businesses can charge for services. We will be keeping a close eye on this one, and we will be very interested in garnering further information as this bill gets out of the starting gate.

The process for vetting this bill also raises concerns. The hearing for the bill is set for this coming Tuesday and will have to be voted upon that very same week in order to follow the legislative calendar. The timing of this alone raises some eyebrows, and makes one question the intentions of those who are sponsoring this bill when the timing is taken into consideration. This bill would represent a huge shift in public policy, and should therefore receive a full vetting. Regardless, they announced for the first time just last week that this bill even existed; furthermore, they scheduled it as late as possible in the calendar for bills to receive initial hearings; now, they’re going to vote upon it the very same week it receives a hearing. Didn’t our legislators learn already that it’s not good politics to play games with the legislative process, when they did the same thing to the LLC Tax issue last session?

Acknowledgements

This weekly update is made possible by the generous support of Devine Millimet & Branch, one of the state’s top law firms and our Chamber’s contracted representative in Concord. If your business has a legislative or local issue that needs strategic consulting and attention, they are a valuable resource that can help navigate you through both local and state processes.

This weekly update is designed and maintained by our friends at ActiveEdge, and we thank them for their help in delivering this piece to your inbox every Friday!

If you have questions about this update, or comments to share with us about other issues in Concord, please email Chris Williams at cwilliams@nashuachamber.com. We want to be sure we're representing you to the best of our ability, so do not hesitate to reach out to us!

J. Christopher Williams
President & CEO
Greater Nashua Chamber of Commerce
151 Main St.
Nashua, NH 03060
Phone: 603.881.8333
Fax: 603.881.7323