GMCC Capitol Insight

Sponsors

Editorial Board

Brad Cook
Sheehan Phinney

Bass + Green

Bruce Berke
Sheehan Phinney
Capitol Group

Valerie Acres

Sheehan Phinney
Capitol Group

Henry Veilleux

Sheehan Phinney
Capitol Group

Erle Pierce

Sheehan Phinney

Capitol Group

Will Stewart
Greater Manchester
Chamber of Commerce

Casino battle moves to House

Henry Veilleux, Sheehan Phinney Capitol Group

To no surprise, the State Senate passed legislation to allow one asino in New Hampshire. Right now, the only serious contender for the license is the Rockingham Race track in Salem, which has committed to investing about $300 million into a slots facility. This is a bit smaller than the $600 million to $1 billion destination casino resorts proposed for Massachusetts.

The real battle will now occur in the House, which has killed similar casino proposals over the past two decades. Governor Hassan is relying on passage of this casino proposal to support her proposed budget. If it fails in the House, legislators in the House and Senate will face off in June for a heated discussion on the budget.

Senate Bill 152 proposes a pretty aggressive schedule to try and get a casino license fee paid to the State by a winner bidder within the next two years to support the Governor's two year budget. Casino licenses in Massachusetts are expected to be issued almost two and a half years after casinos were approved in November of 2011. In New Hampshire, rules for the bidding process will have to be developed, bidders will have to respond to an RFP, bids will have to be reviewed, background checks will have to be performed, and local approvals will need to be secured.

The vote in the House will likely occur sometime in May. While Governor Hassan has tied her budget to passage of Senate Bill 152, the House will have to vote on its version of the budget in early April, well before it votes on SB 152. Without a revenue measure available at the time of the vote on the budget, the House is expected to remove $80 million from its version of the budget.

Meanwhile, the debate continues on just how much to expect from a casino in southern New Hampshire. The New Hampshire Center for Public Policy estimates that the State would realize about $50 million per year from a casino in southern New Hampshire once the Massachusetts casinos are up and running. Advocates for education, mental health, North Country economic development and road improvements would all have to duke it out for their share of this $50 million.

There's a lot of debate left over the course of this legislative session for this casino proposal. Expect it to get more heated as the session goes on. Stay tuned.....

Northern Pass bills in limbo

Will Stewart, Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce

After holding a number of grueling public hearings on a slew of Northern Pass-related bills last month, the House Science, Technology and Energy Committee opted to retain the most concerning bills.

This is mostly good news, but we're not counting our chickens quite yet.

Generally speaking, the committee saw the bills as flawed proposals. As such, members opted to retain them all to give most of them a quiet death over the summer. It's expected that a new bill will evolve out of the study the committee does over the summer and fall. While it's unclear at this point, it seems this new bill will be more an omnibus proposal that will attempt to reform the Site Evaluation Committee (SEC) process.

While the House rules on the subject of retained bills are a bit murky, there is some speculation that a move could be made on the House floor to overturn the committee recommendation on HB 580, a bill establishing moratoriums on the construction of wind turbine plants and on electric transmission line projects until the state issues a comprehensive energy plan.

On the Senate side, a moratorium proposal was added to SB 99, a bill which would make changes to the process for applying for a certificate for an energy facility. To this bill a non-germane amendment was added to include a one year moratorium for electric energy generating facilities or elective electric transmission facilities.

As always, the future is difficult to predict, especially where the New Hampshire General Court is concerned.