| Pass the bills, hold the drama
Will Stewart, Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce
While issues like gambling, abortion and redistricting seemed to be the focus of the legislature in the mad scramble before Crossover Day on Thursday, several bills on which the Chamber has taken a position were also addressed, albeit without as much drama.
Cases in point are Senate Bill 203 and Senate Bill 205, bills supported by the Chamber which seek to modernize the state's LLC and corporation laws, which haven't been touched since the 90s. These bills, which were passed by the Senate in slightly amended versions, are arguably among the most important and impactful business-related bills being taken up by the legislature this year, but there's been nary a peep about them in the media.
Not that I can really blame our colleagues in the Fourth Estate. The bills are long and, frankly, kind of dull. But they do aim to make the existing LLC and corporations laws easier for the layperson (read: business owner) to understand.
This is good as a majority of LLCs - by far the state's most popular business entity choice - formed in New Hampshire are done so without the assistance of legal counsel. The use of plain English favored by SB 203 over legal jargon will help make business formation and governance easier to understand for new and existing entrepreneurs.
SB 203 also defines a number of technical terms in the current LLC laws that aren't spelled out. These terms include "allocation," "distribution," "dissociation" and "dissolution." Left undefined in the current statute, these terms have been a source of confusion, particularly when business partnerships dissolve.
The bill updating the Business Corporations Act, SB 205, would offer such modernizing aspects such as allowing for electronic notification with regard to corporate governance and meetings. The bill also increases the ability for entities to convert to a corporation, among other provisions.
Laid on the table
Very rarely, it seems, are bills "killed." Practically speaking, of course, they're dead, but such bills are put down politely using terms like "Inexpedient to Legislate" and "Laid on Table."
The latter was the fate this week of two bills followed by the Chamber. For the first, House Bill 1238, this was a very good thing. HB 1238 sought to force PSNH to divest its power generation assets, which would have left area power customers - both business and residential - at the complete mercy of an often volatile energy market.
On Monday, the Chamber joined with the Nashua, Concord and Portsmouth Chambers to publicly speak out against HB 1328 at press conference in the Legislative Office Building in Concord. After seeing the writing on the wall, Rep. James Garrity, chair of the House Science, Technology and Energy Committee, which had recommended the bill pass, made a motion to table the bill seeing that he would lose a floor fight if it came to that. Garrity noted that he plans to amend a Senate bill to bring back some of the divestiture language, so the battle might not be over quite yet.
The second bill laid on the table by this week was House Bill 1221, which clarifies that a taxpayer may apply the credit for the Business Enterprise Tax against the Business Profits Tax on a quarterly basis when making estimated tax payments. Like Senate Bills 203 and 205, it's not the sexiest bill taken up by the legislature this year, but it would have helped businesses, which is why the Chamber supported it.
But despite being passed by the House and receiving an "Ought to Pass" recommendation from the Senate Ways and Means Committee, the bill was Laid on the Table in the full Senate after a motion by Sen. Bob Odell, R-Lempster. Alas.
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