Charity gaming at Rockingham Park in Salem -- the most likely location for a high end Casino.
A new report finds that a casino may create more social costs than tax revenue, mostly because of the 30 percent tax rate included in the Senate bill supported by Governor Hassan.
“The tax rate set at 30% puts us in a situation where the social costs outweigh or come close to outweighing the revenue benefits to the state,” says Steve Norton, the director of the Center for Public Policy Studies, which produced the report.
The so-called “social costs” include unemployment benefits; welfare; arrests; corrections; divorce; health problems and bankruptcy resulting from an increase in problem and pathological gamblers.
Increasing the tax rate proposed in the bill would make a casino more profitable in the long term. However, Norton says, a casino developer would likely only agree to a higher tax rate if the initial license fee were reduced from the $80 million proposed in the Senate bill. Continue Reading →
New Hampshire is attracting more young video game designers. The question is, can the state capture profits by keeping their companies in state? New Hampshire Public Radio’s Ryan Lessard has this story about young designers facing the allure of Boston:
New Hampshire is the birthplace of video games. No, really. Just ask 90-year-old Manchester resident Ralph Baer. He is widely credited as the “forefather” of the video game.
Courtesy of Neal Laurenza
Screen shot of pre-alpha version of Bacon Man. Certain assets like character design have yet to be added.
“All right, take the hand control. My suggestion is that you do what I do. You hold it up against your belly. Put your hand on the English nob. Forget the horizontal one. It will go just straight up and down because as a beginner you can’t handle three controls.”
We’re playing the original pong game on the very first game console. He thought up the idea of making dots move on a TV screen 1966 while working for a defense contractor in Nashua.
Baer’s biggest legacy though, is helping create a video game industry that today has out-grossed Hollywood with a global revenue of $78.5 billion last year. New Hampshire’s economy, however, has never managed to reap the benefits from his innovation. Continue Reading →
The Governor and Executive Council have agreed to study the feasibility of rail transportation.
This post was written by contributor Sheryl Rich-Kern
Despite concern from opponents about costs, supporters of bringing commuter rail back to the Granite State are determined to keep momentum on track.
For the first time in decades, state lawmakers are looking to restore commuter rail by extending existing rail lines from Lowell, Massachusetts, to Nashua, Manchester and Concord.
And with her city being the first stop over the border, Nashua’s Mayor Donnalee Lozeau is leading efforts to make rail a reality. Continue Reading →
Manchester's Dyn, Inc has a farm to table menu for their employees
Lawmakers in New Hampshire are considering a program that would convene industry, nonprofit and UNH representatives involved in the state’s local food and agriculture industry. The group would be charged with researching and reporting back to the Department of Agriculture. The bill’s sponsors are using Vermont as a model.
In fact, New Hampshire’s SB141 is based almost word-for-word on Vermont’s farm to plate bill, which passed that state’s legislature four years ago. The major difference is funding, says Senator Martha Fuller Clark, the prime sponsor of the NH bill. While Vermont has allocated $100,000 annually first from federal stimulus funds and then from their general fund – and more recently appropriated another $1.17 million in grant funding for businesses and technical assistance programs which will be distributed using the Farm to Plate guidelines — the New Hampshire bill will not have an appropriation at all. Continue Reading →
Although Governor Maggie Hassan has thrown her weight behind a gambling bill produced in the Senate, the House Ways and Means committee heard testimony today on two bills sponsored by House members.
Lincoln Representative Edmond Gionet’s bill allows for two casinos – one near the Massachusetts border, like the Senate bill, andanother casino, in the White Mountains. Gionet says his proposal would bring just short of $300 million into the state. And, he says “This bill does not have any politics, it does not have any favoritism.” That’s because it doesn’t specify which towns or developers would get the casino.
The committee also took up a plan sponsored by Representative Steve Vaillancourt. That bill provides for six casinos with a total of 5,000 slot machines. Each would be staffed, managed, and operated by the state. Vaillancourt’s bill estimates around $520 million in revenue, and would allow only for video slot machines, not high-stakes table gaming.
Word clouds may be a little “last year,” but that won’t stop us from posting one here — originally published by the Center for Public Policy Studies.
It turns out the word “health” came up a lot in Governor Hassan’s budget speech. That’s interesting because it stands out in the budget spreadsheets, too. The Department of Health and Human Services is seeing the biggest spending increase within the Hassan budget — a “$573 million increase,” according to the Center for Public Policy Studies. Much of that, however, is federal funding, coming from health care expansion under the Affordable Care Act.
Hassan's budget gambles on New Hampshire allowing one, high-end casino to set up shop in the state
Governor Maggie Hassan used her budget address to propose a new, high-end casino.
Governor Hassan’s budget banks on this casino generating $80 million in licensing fees. And she said the state is already dealing with the social costs of gambling allowed in other states, without benefiting from the revenue.
Like many services with state funding, law enforcement took some hits in the last budget
Calling public safety “our most important responsibility,” Governor Maggie Hassan outlined her funding proposals in today’s budget address. Comparing public safety to the state’s health care system, Hassan said it had taken “too many hits” in the last budget. She called on legislators to “reverse course” immediately, in the interest of keeping New Hampshire residents safe.
Hassan wants to raise the cigarette tax above its original level
Governor Maggie Hassan is looking to raise New Hampshire’s cigarette tax. In her state budget address, she pitched a 30-cent increase as good public health policy.
“New Hampshire has the highest youth smoking rate in the Northeast, with 19.8 percent of high school students who smoke cigarettes,” Hassan said. “Cigarette taxes nationwide have proven to be one of the most effective ways to prevent youth smoking.” Continue Reading →
A number of people involved in the LGC case expressed shock at Carroll's dismissal.
Over the past several months, StateImpact has been keeping up with the various twists and turns in the Local Government Center case. The latest development–the ouster of Executive Director Maura Carroll by the LGC board–has shocked the organization’s supporters and critics alike.
This week, I called some of the players in this ongoing saga to get their reaction to Carroll’s sudden departure, and discussed them with NHPR’s All Things Considered host Brady Carlson.
You can catch our conversation, or read the transcript, after the jump.
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