Paul Briand's Member Post (146)

By Paul Briand



Democratic Rep. Terie Norelli of Portsmouth, as speaker of the New Hampshire House, has a unique view of her members from her elevated perch in the chamber.



She also has a unique view of the casino gambling issue that played out in Concord on Wednesday, with lawmakers voting 199-164 to agree with a House supercommittee recommendation  to kill SB 152,…

By Paul Briand

Gov. Maggie Hassan occasionally talks about her past life as Senate Majority Leader and how she worked to…

By Paul Briand



Democrats shouldn’t get too hyped up about the fact that Republican U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte’s approval numbers dropped after her vote opposing more thorough background checks for gun buyers.



Voters in the Granite State have more than three years before the referendum on Ayotte’s first term in office. And it won’t be a single issue, especially so far down the road, that determines whether Ayotte is elected to a second term in…

By Paul Briand



Washington, D.C., has its Cherry Blossom Festival.



The golf world has the Masters in Augusta, Ga.



And when it comes to rites of spring, New England has the Boston Marathon. And today, something went horribly, horribly wrong as at least two explosive devices at the marathon finish line killed two, according to reports, and injured scores more.



Law enforcement officials, political leaders and media outlets are trying to sort…

By Paul Briand



Interesting storylines are already taking form around the 2014 off-year election.



With former House Speaker William O’Brien, former gubernatorial candidates Ovide Lamontagne and Kevin Smith, Senate Majority Leader Jeb Bradley, and even former Massachusetts U.S. Sen. Scott Brown part of the current conversation, you can sense it’s going to be another interesting election cycle.



First, let’s dispense of this notion that Brown…

By Paul Briand



By approving an $11 billion biennium state budget on Wednesday, the House showed it can balance the budget and restore some funding to certain programs without the revenue from a casino.



It may be the incentive and political cover some House members, particularly Democrats, need to vote against the casino bill when it comes up for consideration.



In past sessions, the House, as a group, has not approved bills authorizing casino…

By Paul Briand



As much as Granite Staters don’t like to compare themselves to Bay Staters, it’s instructive to compare the Massachusetts timeline for casino licensing and New Hampshire’s timeline for casino licensing.



Massachusetts has a big head start on the licensing of up to three casinos and it expects to issue licenses by November 2013 at the earliest, February 2014 at the latest.



New Hampshire is just now debating legislation to…

By Paul Briand



Legislative budget writers are correct to create a Plan B biennium budget that doesn’t include $80 million in casino money that Gov. Maggie Hassan proposed in her revenue and spending plan.



It’s better for the state if lawmakers separate the the casino from the budget.



As proposed by the governor last month, the revenue for the…

By Paul Briand



When the new state budget puts an $80 million stake on a casino, you can’t help but make gambling references.



And that is exactly what Gov. Maggie Hassan’s new budget is: A gamble. She’s rolling the dice on the state’s financial health, and she’s hoping snake eyes don’t come up on her political future.



Her budget included propping up programs she had championed during the gubernatorial campaign -- higher education and better…

By Paul Briand



Decisions about certain provisions of health care reform are proving nettlesome for New Hampshire lawmakers.



There are two aspects of the Affordable Care Act that are on the table at the State House in Concord.



One is the optional expansion of Medicaid. The other is state participation in the creation of health care exchanges.



The U.S. Supreme Court during the summer, while holding up the provision of Barack Obama’s…

By Paul Briand



Gov. Maggie Hassan fulfilled a campaign promise today with the naming of a Consensus Revenue Estimating Panel.



The idea behind the panel, according to Hassan, is to develop and update revenue estimates through both the creation of the state budget…

By Paul Briand



Part of the fun of watching the inauguration of our 44th president is thinking about who the 45th president will be.



And a lot of that action, as it has in the past, will take place here in New Hampshire, home of the first in the nation primary, probably sooner than you think.



Each presidential campaign cycle seems to start earlier and earlier.



Once the 44th president -- Barack Obama -- settles into his second term of office…

By Paul Briand



Gov. Maggie Hassan has to deliver a two-year budget to the state Legislature by mid-February.



In the meantime, there is a lot of speculation about what will be in the budget, particularly on the revenue side of the ledger.



There is low-hanging fruit she can pick from the tree, revenue that, on its face, might be easy to get through the Democrat-controlled House and, perhaps, the moderate Republican-controlled Senate.…

By Paul Briand



While legislative budget writers hear about state revenue estimates this week, and as Gov. Maggie Hassan prepares her first biennial budget, the question arises as to how much the two sides will work together in crafting a spending plan.



That was Hassan’s hope during her successful campaign against Republican Ovide Lamontagne.



She had proposed reforming the process so that the governor’s office and legislative budget writers would…

By Paul Briand



Maggie Hassan today completed her journey from gubernatorial candidate to governor-elect to governor.



Her inaugural address to a crowd inside Representatives Hall in the State House sought to not serve not only as coda on her campaign promises but serve also…

By Paul Briand



Maggie Hassan, at least so far, is sounding more like the man she’ll replace as New Hampshire governor, not the tax-and-spend leftist she was made out to be during the election.



It’s quite obvious in these early days, as Hassan prepares to succeed Gov. John Lynch,…