A team of researchers at the University of New Hampshire has announced a new economic tool — something they’ve been developing for almost 12 years. Â The Lodging Executive Sentiment Index, or LESI, is based on a monthly survey of 20 lodging executives who run more than 55 percent of all lodging rooms in the country.
âLodging is known to be closely linked to the general economy,â writes E. Hachemi Aliouche and two coauthors, in the study upon which the index is based. Their study found that lodging executivesâ expectations are not only an indication of the hospitality industryâs well-being, but âcan be regarded as leading indicators for retail sales, employment, interest rates, and stock prices.â Continue Reading →
The Portsmouth Patch runs down the basic list of violations. Robert Cook writes:
“According to [Department of Labor spokesman Edmund] Fitzgerald, the biggest violations that Redhook committed that led to Harris’ death were:
…
The explosion resulted from excess pressure introduced into the keg from the keg cleanout line.
The cleanout line lacked an air regulator that would have limited its air pressure to below 60 pounds per square inch or PSI, the maximum air pressure limit recommended by keg manufacturers.
Other employees who used the cleanout line were exposed to the same hazard while cleaning out steel kegs.”
One of the more mysterious aspects of this accident was the presence of a plastic keg at the brewery in the first place. Continue Reading →
New Hampshire employers pay the 9th highest workers compensation premiums in the nation, according to a report from the Oregon Department of Consumer And Business Services. New Hampshire’s average premium of $2.40 per $100 of payroll is 128 percent of the national median. Click on the interactive map below, for more details.
New Hampshire can now add "baby crib manufacturer" to its eclectic list of Defense contractors
As we’ve frequently noted, New Hampshire’s economy heavily depends on Defense contracting. In the case of large defense-oriented companies like BAE Systems in Nashua, Elbit Systems of America in Merrimack, or GE Aviation in Hooksett, the connection is obvious. And, of course, there are a bevy of smaller high-tech components manufacturers that also benefit from catering to DOD’s needs.
A bipartisan group of politicians and businessmen are reaching out to ordinary Americans, asking them to bring homemade signs and banners to the polls in November (they suggest paint; stencil, or tape). Their goal? Get concerned grassroots organizers to pressure elected officials into finding a bipartisan solution to the impending fiscal cliff.
Former New Hampshire Governor Judd Gregg is a co-chair of the national organization, called Fix The Debt.
The organization was founded by the Clinton Administration’s SBA director Erskine Bowles, and former Senator Alan Simpson — authors of the failed bipartisan debt-reduction plan that came out of President Obama’s 18-member National Commission On Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, which was formed in 2010. Â According to spokesman Jon Romano, Simpson and Bowles founded Fix The Debt as a response to the “unwillingness [of politicians] from both sides to come together.” “CEOs,” Romano says, “are saying this is hurting our business, our economy, and we need Congress to act.” Continue Reading →
Thumbtack is a kind of 21st century classifieds — like a beefed-up Craigslist. Â But they also occasionally publish infographics and interactive survey data. Their newest lets you compare the answers small business owners gave to questions about 2012 election issues, based on the following demographic filters:
Where they’re from (compare N.H. to national statistics)
Before you dash away from your desk for the weekend, hereâs a bit of Friday afternoon refreshment: the top 5 posts from StateImpact this week. Continue Reading →
This week, University of New Hampshire President Mark Huddleston delivered his State of the University address. He used the speech to reiterate his call to restore the cuts to the State University funding. Continue Reading →
In what will likely be the most expensive gubernatorial campaign in New Hampshire history, independent political groups supporting candidates Maggie Hassan and Ovide Lamontagne have reserved nearly $7.5 million worth of television ads in the final month of the election. Continue Reading →
The following was contributed by Jacob Hale Russell.
Next month, Granite Staters will vote on a state constitutional amendment that would ban any new income tax. It’s well known that New Hampshire is a rare hold-out in having no broad-based income or sales tax (Alaska, rich in oil reserves, is the only other state with neither), but how did we get that way?
“Around the big-bellied stove of the country store in a New Hampshire town men sit and growl about taxes,” the Boston Globe wrote in 1930. They could have been talking about almost any of the past hundred years: it turns out the state has come close many times over the past century to adopting a sales or income tax. Politicians — and not just Democrats — predicted, proposed, praised and nearly passed broad-based tax bills in the 1930s, 1960s, 1970s, and even the 2000s. Continue Reading →
About StateImpact
StateImpact seeks to inform and engage local communities with broadcast and online news focused on how state government decisions affect your lives. Learn More »
