Emily Corwin reported on economics for the StateImpact New Hampshire blog until the project merged with the New Hampshire Public Radio site in July 2013. She is now NHPR’s Seacoast Reporter. You can follow her on Twitter at @emilycorwin, and find her stories on NHPR.org.
On Tuesday I described findings in a new report from the Trust For America’s Health, which ranked New Hampshire as having very few injury-prevention laws. You can see on TFAH’s nifty map below that N.H. stands out in red — among its more legislation-heavy neighbors — with only four injury-prevention policies.
As of yesterday, however, that may no longer be the case. Not only did the N.H. Senate approve the prescription drug tracking bill I mentioned at the end of the last post, but the Senate also approved a bill requiring that all school boards develop guidelines for preventing and responding to head injuries among student athletes.
According to the new bill, a student who shows symptoms of a concussion or whom a coach, trainer or other suspects has sustained a concussion must refrain from participating until he or she has permission from a health care provider.
If TFAH’s report had come out today, perhaps N.H. would be shaded brown, along with its neighbors.
This map was reproduced from the Trust For American Health website. View the whole report and interactive map here.
According to a report released today by the Trust for America’s Health, 659 Granite Staters died from injuries between 2007 and 2009 — injuries such as concussions, motor vehicle accidents, and unintentional prescription drug overdoses. These injuries are not only a cause of grief for families and communities; they cost state and federal government, insurers, employers and families a total of $6.1 million in medical care and $625 million in lost productivity each year.
Of all 50 states, only nine had fewer injury-prevention laws than N.H. The last time a seatbelt bill was voted down in New Hampshire, Republic State Sen. Robert E. Clegg Jr told the New York Times: “The citizens of New Hampshire don’t like to be told by anyone else what to do … [rejecting this bill] preserves New Hampshire’s way of not succumbing to the bribes of the federal government and New Hampshire’s belief that every adult can make his or her own choices in life.” Other laws N.H. has not passed include required motorcycle and bicycle helmets; drunk-driving ignition interlocks for convicted drunk drivers; and booster seats that meet AAP standards for children. Continue Reading →
Yesterday the New Hampshire House of Representatives passed a bill allowing the sale of specialty beer in New Hampshire. As a spokesperson from Red Hook Brewery in Portsmouth explained to me, until now breweries were unable to brew or distribute in N.H. beers containing either over 6 percent alcohol, or spice and fruit ingredients. This forced the brewery to outsource jobs to nearby states, and incurred significant extra costs. Although “it’s not a light-switch,” the spokesperson explained, Red Hook plans to bring operations back to N.H. as they strategize for the future.
This is good timing for American Craft Beer Week! And if you’re a history buff, keep your eyes open for Red Hook’s historic ale recipe, created through a partnership with Exeter’s Independence Museum.
In 1974 — the middle of an economic recession — President Ford introduced the Tax Reduction of 1975, hoping that tax cuts would stimulate the economy. The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) became federal law the following year, and has grown since. By last year, a family with two children who earned under $40,964 was eligible for a federal tax credit of up to $5,112. Back in the 1980s, states began to add their own EITCs to supplement the federal program. By 2009, 24 states had a statewide EITC. Since New Hampshire doesn’t have a state income tax, it’s natural to assume the state wouldn’t have an EITC, and it doesn’t. But that hasn’t stopped the state of Washington, whose new EITC goes into effect this year.
This past Tuesday the University of New Hampshire’s Carsey Institute issued a brief about the impact of statewide EITCs on children of eligible families. It turns out the effects are substantial — and sometimes counter-intuitive. According to the Carsey Institute, statewide EITC programs are associated with: Continue Reading →
Farmer Charles Reid of Osprey Cove Organic Farm in Madbury, N.H. says getting local food onto restaurant menus is not always easy. That’s where Portsmouth non-profit Seacoast Local comes in. Kind of like a matchmaker, it tries to connect locally owned restaurants with regional farmers. This summer the organization is hosting a fundraising series of “Field and Spoon” dinners at farms near the Seacoast.
Charles Reid’s farm is one of them. He says local farmers are competing with “the big farm at Logan Airport,” meaning produce flown in year-round from Mexico and California. And while New Hampshire’s neighbors in Vermont have been sourcing food locally for decades, Granite Staters are only now just coming around, thanks to hot-button issues like pink slime. As of an April 2010 report from the University of New Hampshire, only 12 percent of food sold in New Hampshire comes directly from farmers. That’s pretty high compared to the national average of .05 percent, but nowhere near what the UNH report says it could be.
Some restaurants have committed whole-hog (no pun intended), like Young’s Restaurant and Coffee Shop in Durham, which — along with other Portsmouth restaurants — clears out farmer Charles Reid’s stock at every farmers market. Others, like the T-Bones restaurant franchise in Laconia, only source a few products such as maple syrup and beer. Why? Jay Bolduc at T-Bones put it this way: “One of the roadblocks is the logistics of getting things on a regular delivery schedule in the quantity that restaurants our size go through.”
Seacoast Local is hoping to help ease concerns like Bolduc’s, making partnerships between restaurants, farms, and local businesses throughout the region.
Is the real estate market heating up along Lake Winnipesaukee?
“Could the era of numerous big dollar waterfront sales be returning?” That’s the question Roy Sanborn, a realtor in Meredith, NH, posed in a column on Saturday in the Laconia Daily Sun.
According to data compiled for the month of April from the Northern New England Real Estate MLS System, the average sales price of a home on Lake Winnepesaukee — $2.15-million — was more than double the average sales price last April.
Paula Hinckley of Lady of the Lake Realty in Sanbornton says her experience selling waterfront homes confirms Sanborn’s observation. “In years past there would be heavy negotiations,” Hinckley says, and buyers would get 20 percent off the asking price. Now, “those deep discounts are not happening.” Today, she says, negotiations are more often within five percent of the asking price. Continue Reading →
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