Five MORE Things You Need To Know Today

   Here are "Five MORE Things You Need To Know Today", to paraphrase our intrepid editor. Maybe you’re aware of these examples of the Tea-Party madness currently engulfing Concord or maybe you aren’t, but all of us had better get on board before this November or we’ll be staring at the continued devolution of our once-proud state.

   1. The widespread New Hampshire GOP effort to prevent college students from exercising their voting rights next election is in full swing, and represents just another example of the so-called "party of small government" doing its level best to impact our lives negatively. House Speaker William O’Brien’s modus operandi to halt student voting is to install new rules, including making picture college Ids as well as paying out-of-state tuition grounds for refusal. The fact that O’Brien actually admitted during one of his kowtowing Tea Party group meetings that the reason for this obviously-unconstitutional legislation was that college students were "foolish" and "voting as a liberal...that’s what ‘kids’ do" exposes the incredible hypocrisy behind this Republican end-around. And similar GOP attempts to restrict college student voting have already been installed in other states like Wisconsin and Maine.

   2. CACR 6 - This proposed amendment, if enacted, will alter our state constitution, requiring a 3/5 supermajority legislators vote to raise taxes, fees and to borrow money. Under the guise of "fiscal conservatism" this would freeze the New Hampshire state budget, causing the collapse of many public programs, safety nets and infrastructure. Picture paying even more in school tuition than you do now, and watching over a period of years the decay and dissolution of local streets, roads and highways due to the drying-up of highway department dollars, while bearing ever-more spiraling health insurance premiums. Arizona was recently downgraded by Moody’s Investors Service for enacting similar legislation, in their case requiring a 2/3 majority to raise taxes/fees. .

   3. The present New Hampshire budget of $10.3 billion, rammed through by the House and Senate last year and passed unsigned by Governor John Lynch, has decimated several areas that had been national models for the length of Lynch’s first three terms. Education funding was drastically slashed, with an astounding 58% reduction in our state university financing. This has caused tuition hikes for students lucky enough to be able to still afford college, and ended the dream for many others. Health and social services were cut and in many instances ended, including child care programs like CHINS (Children in Need of Services) and SCHIP (States Children’s Health Insurance Program). New Hampshire’s largest 911 Emergency provider had to terminate its services, many state hospitals had to reduce their bed numbers, and hospitals lost over $115 million that had been earmarked for uncompensated care, including emergency room availability. The list is endless and unconscionable.

   4. Only Governor Lynch’s veto last year of HB 474 (the "Right To Work" Act) prevented our worker unions from no longer being able to collect a share of bargaining and administrative costs from non-union members. Apparently the fact that non-paying workers would’ve shared in the bargained-for rewards with the dues-paying union members, along with the collected dues being the only revenue the union hierarchy receives to do their work, never occurred to House and Senate Republicans.

   5. New Hampshire is now one of four states that allow any person to carry open or concealed firearms without a gun permit. Also, anyone has the right to purchase guns at gun shows with no fear of a background check, allowing exactly the kind of people that rational citizens DON’T want to own guns the legality to do so. Also, gun owners don’t have to register firearms, leaving no accountability as to just who is carrying what. Obviously there’s a lot of "Have Gun, Will Travel" fans in Concord, but the result is that we have become a less safe and potentially more violent state.

   All of this would’ve been avoided if more voters had been paying attention during the 2010 campaigning season. By listening to the siren song of a national right-wing cabal that spent their money and speeches appealing to our worst and most uncaring instincts, New Hampshire handed huge GOP majorities to its House (293-104) and Senate (19-5) in Concord, tying the governor’s hands and laying the foundation for a plethora of harmful legislation that threatens the very fabric of our New Hampshire way of life. We have a chance this November to rectify that mistake. And we’d better not drop the ball this time.