All four gubernatorial candidates competing in tomorrow’s primary agree on one thing. The biggest challenge facing New Hampshire in the next decade is the economy. In particular? Jobs. That’s according to an NHPR questionnaire put to all six candidates last week. The four major candidates say they will focus on education and job training in the state. Read all six answers below. Then, check out our Primary Primer at NHPR.org. Continue Reading →
Democratic candidate Maggie Hassan is pushing education funding as key to bolstering the state's economy.
Next week, New Hampshire voters will decide who gets to run for governor this November. And despite the fact that most states would envy our 5.4 percent unemployment rate, jobs and the economy are the issues driving the primary elections. StateImpact lays out the similarities–and differences–between the plans of the leading Democratic candidates.
Q: What is each candidate proposing?
A: Broadly speaking, they’re very similar. Of course, on some level that’s not surprising, considering Maggie Hassan and Jackie Cilley are both Democrats. But unlike the Republican proposals, where you can pretty much go down the line and point out differences on how much they would cut various taxes or their stances on tax credits, it’s a tougher job to boil down their Democratic counterparts’ views at this point. Continue Reading →
Republican Ovide Lamontagne favors making cutting business taxes while also offering new tax credits.
Next week, New Hampshire voters will decide who gets to run for governor this November. And despite the fact that most states would envy our 5.4 percent unemployment rate, jobs and the economy are the issues driving the primary elections. StateImpact lays out the similarities–and differences–between the plans of the leading GOP candidates.
Q: How are Kevin Smith and Ovide Lamontagne’s proposals alike?
A: They’re both going the traditional conservative Republican route of cutting business taxes in some way, in the hope that it draws more enterprise into the state. Which they say would import more jobs. And they would off-set that drop in tax revenue from businesses at first by making budget cuts. The idea is that it doesn’t put more money into the state coffers immediately. But over time, as the number of tax-paying businesses increases, revenues will increase even though taxes were actually cut. You just have more people paying into the system. Continue Reading →
Republican Kevin Smith is proposing deeper business tax cuts than his primary opponent, Ovide Lamontagne.
With the gubernatorial primaries about a week away, the team at StateImpact is taking a closer look at how the leading contenders would boost New Hampshire’s economy. If you tune into Morning Edition tomorrow and again on Thursday, you’ll catch our quick comparisons of the two Republican and Democratic plans. (And, of course, we’ll be posting those discussions here on the blog.)
Starting this fall, seasonal workers in New Hampshire will find a new set of rules when they apply for unemployment benefits. Since 2002, seasonal workers who were rehired each year by the same employer have been able to collect unemployment benefits during the off-season without looking for other work. According to a New Hampshire Employment Security report, that 2002 exemption was based on complaints from year-round employers in the state who felt that “the work search requirement amounted to a complete waste of their time accepting applications from seasonal workers who had no intention of remaining employed with them once the seasonal employer recalled them to work.” Continue Reading →
Labor Day weekend is traditionally the end of the season for New England’s summer drive-in movie theaters. This year, it’s also the end of an era. Hollywood movie studios have announced they’re going digital, and as of next year they will no longer distribute movies on 35 millimeter film. If theaters want to stay open, they’ll have to swap their old-fashioned film projection for computers, at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars. The Northfield Drive-In, on the state line between New Hampshire and Massachusetts, is one of those facing the future. Continue Reading →
State election law limits corporate campaign contributions to $7,000 per election cycle, the same as individual donors. But nothing in the law prohibits multiple limited-liability companies controlled by the same individual to donate on behalf of each LLC, making it easy for wealthy donors to exceed the statutory limits. Continue Reading →
Pangasius – it looks like catfish, it tastes like catfish — but is it catfish?
Believe it or not, this is a question Congress has been debating for the last decade. One seafood company with headquarters in New Hampshire hopes a provision in the 2012 Farm Bill will put an end to the debate. Bill DiMento works at High Liner Foods, a frozen seafood company that employs 250 people at a seafood processing plant in Portsmouth. Catfish or not, DiMento wants to make sure High Liner can continue to import Pangasius from Asia, which they process and sell to school cafeterias, restaurants, and supermarkets. Continue Reading →
Ten companies are being awarded grants this month from the New Hampshire Job Training Fund. The grants total about $200,000 and will be matched by each of the recipient companies. Continue Reading →
The entrance to Rockingham Park includes old-fashioned turnstyles.
Locals wager over a roulette table.
Money is transferred from gaming tables via a double-locked box. This is one of many security measures at Rockingham Park.
Mike, a poker dealer, awaits the next tournament.
Behind the counter at Rockingham Park.
Rockingham Park president, Ed Callahan, uses ultraviolet light to identify counterfeit chips.
Money is collected and counted under security cameras.
Rockingham Park racetrack and table gaming facility, Salem, N.H.
Imagine a high school cafeteria with painted concrete walls and linoleum floors. Then switch out the lunch-tables for blackjack and poker tables — and you’ve got Rockingham Park, the race-track turned gaming room at the epicenter of New Hampshire’s debate over expanded gambling.
Just about every year for the last 15 years, the legislature has voted on whether or not to expand gambling in New Hampshire. Every single bill has failed. But as the race for governor has gotten under way this season, all four major candidates have come out in favor of expanded gambling. Why? It has a lot to do with Massachusetts’ decision to open three casinos across the Bay State. Continue Reading →
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