Controversy over state funding for social and health services has already generated a high-profile lawsuit filed by 10 New Hampshire hospitals. Whether more lawsuits in response to the current budget are coming down the pike remains to be seen. But new one case, covered by Elizabeth Dinan at SeacoastOnline.com, has been percolating for years:
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The state is accused of skipping out on its funding commitments to a series of children's homes in favor of beefing-up the general fund.
“Portsmouth’s Chase Home for Children and six affiliated homes for abused, neglected and delinquent youths have been underfunded by the state by millions of dollars, forcing one of them to turn to a food pantry to feed children, according to a Superior Court lawsuit.
At the same time the youth homes were underfunded by the state Department of Health and Human Services, DHHS returned unspent money to the state’s general fund, according to the lawsuit, filed by attorney Lisa Snow Wade of the Concord law firm, Orr and Reno.
The children placed in the seven homes “were some of New Hampshire’s most disturbed children; many had a variety of problems from mental illness to severe abuse, conduct disorders and all kinds of diagnosable mental conditions,” Wade wrote to the court. They were placed in the homes by the state, which failed to increase annual rates as required by law, beginning in 2004, according to the suit.”
“After years of not receiving property taxes, the town may have to take ownership of more than 80 properties later this fall.
Both business and residential property owners owe the town for nonpayment of taxes as far back as 2005. Although it’s a significant number, members of the Board of Selectmen, who make the final decision on taking deeds for nonpayment, hope the number of liens dwindle by Oct. 31.”
In today’s Nashua Telegraph, Michael Brindley summarizes the findings of the yearly New Hampshire Kids Count Data Survey from the Children’s Alliance of NH. Unsuprisingly, the study finds the recession has been tough for an increasing number of kids,
“…an average of 16.8 percent of children aged 0 to 17, or one out of every six minors, participated in the food stamp program in 2008 and 2009. During that period, overall participation increased by 19 percent, according to the study.
This was attributed to factors such as rising unemployment during the recession and the rising cost of food…
…the highest participation rate was in Coos County, at 31.7 percent.”
It's been a crazy week on Wall Street, but how it will affect an already complicated picture of consumer confidence--if at all--remains to be seen.
“The Dow plunged nearly 513 points Thursday, its biggest point decline since Oct. 22, 2008. Only three of the 500 stocks in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index had gains. Oil fell by 6 percent. The yield on the two-year Treasury note hit a record low as investors sought out relatively stable investments.” Continue Reading →
Although New Hampshire is the clear winner in the cross-border business recruitment game, some Granite State businesses are finding our southern neighbor to be a welcoming place.
Are New Hampshire’s low tax policies helping it attract economic development? The jumping-off point for this post, and a related post from last week, is data on the movement of businesses and jobs between Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The image perpetuated by area media more or less fits the mold of a piece in The Boston Globe that characterizes New Hampshire as the beneficiary of jobs and companies leaving Massachusetts. As the writer notes, New Hampshire is a business-friendly, no-frills place, and its super-lenient tax code is a constant temptation for Massachusetts establishments weighed-down by a bloated, spendthrift state.
But various studies and data point to a more complex relationship between New Hampshire, Massachusetts, businesses and taxes. And from that information, we’ve found five points on economic development that are often lost in the broader story.
“Solar energy equipment manufacturer GT Solar International Inc. today said that it has received a $55 million order from a new customer in Asia for its polysilicon production equipment.”
“Beijing announced it was guaranteeing solar developers certain payments for every kilowatt-hour of clean energy they feed into the nation’s grid…
…A feed-in tariff guaranteeing about 15 U.S. cents per kilowatt hour of electricity could put the country in a leadership position, the Financial Times reports…
…Beijing’s European rivals have started cutting back on solar power subsidies, meaning China is set to become a world leader in solar panel purchases.”
To avert an investor takeover, Talbot's is prepping a poison pill.
A Massachusetts-based retailer with outposts in New Hampshire is trying to stave off an investor takeover. An AP piece published by The Boston Globelays out Talbot’s strategy to maintain status quo and hold off Sycamore Partners, LP (and by extension, investor Stefan Kaluzny). The name of the play has a desperately grotesque ring: poison pill.
“A poison pill, or a shareholder rights plan, is a strategic move by the target of a takeover to make its stock less attractive to the potential buyer. The Talbots plan calls for one common stock purchase right to be distributed as a dividend on each outstanding share of the company’s common stock.
The rights become exercisable if any person or group acquires 10 percent or more of Talbots common stock, or if holders that currently own 10 percent or more buy a specified number of additional shares. The rights will expire on Aug. 1, 2021.”
According to the corporate website, Talbot’s maintains four regular retail stores and one outlet in New Hampshire.
“The undergraduates were spared in the package worked out by the White House and Congressional leaders. But graduate students would no longer have access to the subsidy. See the last couple of pages of the debt ceiling agreement for the official language.”
In other words, if nothing changes, graduate students won’t be able to put off paying interest on their student loans while they’re still in school. Lieber reports the policy’s set to go into effect on July 1st, 2012. Continue Reading →
New research from the UNH paints a complex picture of women venture capitalists.
In other words, women are more likely to live up to the stereotype of the cautious female investor when they’re not well-represented in the angel group. And in turn, the whole group tends to be more cautious. But when you add more women to the group, the female investors are willing to take more risks, and there’s suddenly more capital in play.
The UNH press release explains it this way:
“The reason for this behavior appears to be based on ‘stereotype threat.’ According to this psychological theory, when a stereotype exists about a person, that person will behave in a manner consistent with that stereotype when they are in a situation that highlights, or accentuates, this aspect of their status, whether that is gender, race or ethnicity.
‘In the context of this research, this means that when there are few women in an angel group, the stereotype of cautious investing is accentuated. As the number of women increases, there is less of a stereotype -– there are more women so they are more recognized for their ability as investors and less because of their gender,’ [UNH Center for Venture Research Director Jeffrey] Sohl said.”
The conclusion Sohl and other researchers drew from the research is that with their increased willingness to take risks, everyone’s better off with more groups of women angel investors in the market pumping capital into startup ventures.
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