The Week in Review for Jan. 28: More babies, less welfare

The New Hampshire House and Senate were at full throttle this week.

Guns and eminent domain dominated the Senate discussion, while the House took up consideration of a bill to allow businesses to decline its services to gay couples and a bill that decreases benefits to a welfare mother who has more children.

HB 1658 states that with certain limited exceptions, such as rape or incest, state Temporary Assistance to Needy Family recipients will not receive an increase in financial assistance payments as the result of the birth of a child.

Its sponsor, Republican Rep. Neal Kurk of Weare, according to a Union Leader story, told the House Finance Committee Thursday, “I think it is bad public policy for the state to pay for things we do not want to happen. It is good public policy to pay for things we do want to happen.”

In the same story, MaryLou Beaver, the chair of the Family Assistance Advisory Council, told the committee, “This bill punishes children for the choices their parents make.”

No to gay couples?

The House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday considered a bill allowing wedding vendors to, essentially, decline the business gay couples planning to get married.

HB 1264 is an act “establishing a religious exemption for individuals who do not wish to provide accommodations, goods, or services for marriages.”

A Nashua Telegraph story quoted sponsor Republican Rep. Frank Sapareto of Derry saying: “I’m being called a jerk, a bigot, a hypocrite all because I believe individuals should be able to conscientiously object to playing a role in a marriage that’s not consistent with their beliefs.”

Said Roberta Barry of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays: “This will lead to bigotry and discrimination.”

Guns holstered in the Senate

The Senate Judiciary Committee this week decided it would hold for further study gun-related bills approved by the House.

The most controversial was HB 334, which would have lifted the ban on gun and knife possession on all public property (such as the state’s colleges and universities) and any private parcel supported with government dollars (such as the Verizon Center in Manchester).

Here are two opposing views, as quoted by coverage by the Nashua Telegraph:

Said James Wheeler, of Milford, a leader in the New Hampshire Firearms Coalition: ‘’The Constitution at its heart says everybody has a right to defend themselves. Unelected bureaucrats are making rules in violation of a law that was passed. That is unjust, and it is unconstitutional.”

Said University System of New Hampshire Chancellor Edward MacKay: “Adding deadly weapons into a culture where impetuous behavior can sometimes take place is, in my opinion, unwise. College years are among the most volatile periods in a person’s life, and if guns are present it is far more likely there will be incidents on campuses.”

The Senate committee heard two additional gun bill: HB 194 to permit someone to carry a loaded gun or crossbow in a car or truck, and HB 536 to end a ban on carrying weapons in court.

Gov. John Lynch has called the legislation a collective threat to public safety and vowed to veto each of the bills if they reach his desk.

As noted by the Telegraph: “The Senate panel is recommending shipping this and two related gun rights bills off to study, effectively punting the issue to start over as a new bill before the next Legislature and governor in 2013.”

Eminent domain protection

The state Senate on Wednesday voted 23-1 to prevent a private project like Northern Pass from taking land through eminent domain.

The Northern Pass project proposes to build 180 miles of power lines through the center of New Hampshire, including 40 miles through the North Country.

But the legislation, HB 648, as approved by the House and amended by the Senate, leaves the door ajar for future transmission projects that provide needed power to the region. Senators added protections for property owners and created a commission to develop policies for burying power lines.

Presidential politics

Presidential politics are never too far from the state.

On Thursday, the day after President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech, VP Joe Biden visited a Rochester plant to tout the benefits of business-education partnerships in the creation of manufacturing jobs. Biden also visited an Obama campaign office in Portsmouth to fire up the base for the upcoming election.

Former Republican congressman (and current Senate Majority Leader) Jeb Bradley participated in a press conference this week on behalf of Mitt Romney’s candidacy for president. Bradley was critical of Newt Gingrich and the work he did for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Said Bradley: “The average person looks to a leader to say what they’re going to do and do what they say, not to dance on the pinhead in technicalities of the law. They want honest and forthright answers. And Newt, quite frankly, is not being honest and when he, you know, jumped all over Mitt Romney in the debate, in New Hampshire, that I saw, and said he was full of pious baloney. I’m sorry but Newt is full of pious baloney on the fact he’s not a lobbyist.”

Our delegation to the U.S. House and Senate had a lot to say about the president’s State of the Union message, seen as a blueprint for his upcoming re-election campaign. Read an LFDA blog post about their reactions here.

Navy yard on the chopping block again?

Our delegation, along with those in Maine, expressed concern this week about the latest round of proposed Defense Department cuts and how that might affect the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.

See Portsmouth Herald coverage of the issue here.

Be sure to check in on our Facebook page to see what’s going on. We had a Free Form Friday to solicit topics of discussion from you, our readers.

We’re back in full form next week. See you then.