April 03, 2010
Legislative Updates April 2010
All bills that are moving forward have now crossed from one chamber to the other within the NH General Court. It is likely that a significant portion of the remainder of the session will be spent revisiting the budget which the Governor has indicated is short $140 million. For updates on all of our priority bills and links to New Futures testimony, visit our website. These are the highlights (and low-lights) of the past month:
- HB 1493 (establishing a committee to study comprehensive mental health and substance use disorders parity). HB 1493 has passed the House and crossed over to the Senate where it has been assigned to the Health and Human Services Committee.
- HB 1664 (making appropriations reductions into the operating budget for fiscal year 2011 and relative to state revenues and expenditures). As introduced, HB 1664 makes significant cuts in the SFY 2011 across many program areas, including a $1 million reduction to the “Alcohol Fund.” After much discussion and advocacy, the House Finance Committee made number of changes, including reducing the cut to the Alcohol Fund from $190,000. The full House voted to lay HB 1664 on the table to ensure that the Senate could not summarily kill the bill. This and other budget cutting bills remain in play.
- SB 331 (establishing a governor's commission task force on substance use disorder treatment for Medicaid eligible individuals). The House Health and Human Services committee does not believe the bill is necessary and, despite our best efforts to convince them otherwise, voted 12 – 8 to kill the bill. We are working with the bill’s sponsors to develop an alternative plan to complete the work called for by the bill.
- SB 475 (relative to alcoholic beverage advertising restrictions). This bill would have removed many restrictions on alcohol advertising. With the assistance of leadership partners and the excellent work of the university system, the NH Association of Chiefs of Police and numerous community coalitions, the Senate killed SB 475.
For more information, contact Tricia Lucas at 225-9540.