The three words of what has become Governor Romney’s campaign slogan, “We Built This,” are hard to avoid these days.
One could argue they exemplify a political rhetoric that pits business-loving Romney supporters against government-loving supporters of President Obama. And although “we built this” has become a rallying cry for the right, we found that even New Hampshire businessman Jack Gilchrist — who has become the face of the slogan — has had enough of the divisive tactics. So has long-time free-market economist, Brian Gottlob. So what’s behind the We Built This slogan, and how much do entrepreneurs really relate? Continue Reading →
This article was written by Brian Wallstin for NHPR.
In the days leading up to the September 11 primary, a Manchester-based political action committee called New Hampshire Republicans for Freedom and Equality launched a direct-mail campaign to support the re-election of 40 Republican House members who helped turn back efforts to repeal the state’s same-sex marriage law. Continue Reading →
New Hampshire has the lowest percentage of poor and low-income children in the country.
The Census Bureau has some good news for New Hampshire: The state has the lowest child poverty rate in the country. For a family with two parents and two kids, the government considers “poverty” as an annual income of $22,811. So these results are not terribly surprising in a state that has one of the highest median incomes in the country, and a relatively low unemployment rate. Even when you factor in the larger “low-income” category–the same family of four making less than double poverty wages ($45,622)–New Hampshire still has the best numbers in the country.
The American Community Survey (ACS), a biennial report from the Census Department, was released this morning. Among the 50 states, New Hampshire fared well. In 2011, New Hampshire’s median income of $67,308 ranked second in the nation after Maryland — dropping one rung from 2009, when the state ranked first, with a median household income of $68.187.
The national median is $50,443.
Other high-ranking states Maryland, Connecticut, New Jersey and Massachusetts.
New Hampshire also ranked well when it came to economic disparity. Measured with a number called the “Gini Index,” income inequality was lowest in Wyoming, Idaho, and Alaska.
It’s not every day you hear state officials quoting Kipling and Goethe. But in a keynote speech this morning, Sam McKeeman, the Programs Manager at the Maine Bureau of Human Resources, recited the first stanza of Kipling’s “Six Honest Serving Men” to 350 or so people, gathered at the Police Standards & Training Council building in Concord, New Hampshire. Continue Reading →
This November, commuter rail in Maine begins running all the way from Brunswick, Maine, to Boston. Meanwhile, Massachusetts is preparing to extend lines from Springfield to Burlington, Vermont. That leaves some people in New Hampshire feeling a little left out.
Peter Burling is the former chair of the New Hampshire Rail Transit Authority. Speaking at an event this week hosted by the New Hampshire Business Industry Association, Burling said that without commuter rail, New Hampshire will lose its competitive edge. “Everybody around us is doing something amazing. We are becoming the donut hole in the economic system,” he told an audience who had gathered in Concord to hear panelists discuss the future of rail in New Hampshire.
This story was written and produced for broadcast by Sam Evans-Brown, and edited for StateImpact New Hampshire by Emily Corwin. Hear the original broadcast.
Roger Goun / Flickr
It’s been a difficult year for New Hampshire fishermen. Although fishermen have stayed within their catch limits, stocks of codfish haven’t rebounded from a decade-old collapse as quickly as expected.
Facing cuts and closures imposed by regulators, New Hampshire fishermen say the government is putting them out of business. And Thursday, the government heard their call.
The federal government declared a disaster in the Northeast Multispecies Groundfish Fishery, which could mean relief for struggling fishermen. Continue Reading →
Just 21 percent of all arts and culture organizations in New Hampshire create a total of $115 million in economic activity in the state.
That’s according to a report released today by the N.H. State Council on the Arts. Those 161 organizations support the equivalent of 3,493 full-time jobs, and generate $11.6 million in local and state government revenue. The study did not include for-profit institutions or individual artists, and it did not multiply results to account for the 773 nonprofit arts organizations that did not participate in the study.
Arts and culture organizations represent less than 1 percent of the state’s GDP, New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Studies’ Steve Norton points out, but studies like this one have shown “that they play a larger role when you think about indirect impact.” Continue Reading →
The University System of New Hampshire’s board of trustees is requesting that the legislature restore its state funding. At a board meeting Tuesday the board approved a budget request re-appropriating the nearly $50 million that was cut by the legislature last year. In exchange for the funds, the USNH is offering to freeze in-state tuition for two years and increase financial aid for residents. Continue Reading →
New Hampshire is leading the nation in women farmers, U.S. Department of Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan and New Hampshire Commissioner of Agriculture Lorraine Stuart Merrill announced earlier this week in an op-ed to the Union Leader. “One out of three New Hampshire farms has a woman as principal operator: nearly a 50 percent increase since 2002, and more than twice the national average,” they wrote.
In light of this, we thought we would highlight the story of Monadnock farmer Tracie Smith, who was featured in StateImpact New Hampshire’s project, Getting By, Getting Ahead.
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