The legislature has to determine whether allowing Cancer Treatment Centers of America into the state will benefit both New Hampshire's cancer patients and its economy
The crux of the debate: Should NH change its laws governing medical facilities so a for-profit cancer center can come into the state?
Lawmakers are now considering whether to give exemptions to for-profit cancer centers so they can do business in the state. Under current regulations these cancer centers are likely to be deemed redundant. But a new bill would allow them to avoid what is known as a Certificate of Need–to which all other hospitals must comply. These centers would also be exempt from Medicaid taxes. Continue Reading →
Expanded gambling is one of the economic issues on StateImpact’s Watch List this session. HB 593, which would allow two casinos in the state, was slated to hit the floor today. And as NHPR‘s Political Reporter Josh Rogers tweeted from the statehouse, it promptly got sent back to committee:
While job counts and unemployment numbers are the most common ways to measure the national employment situation, they aren’t the only angle worth examining. The Conference Board, a global business research firm, recently released a set of data looking at online Help Wanted ads from May of 2005 to January of 2012. Continue Reading →
Should NH's main power company be forced to give up its generating capacity?
One of the big issues in the New Hampshire business community this legislative session is the push to continue deregulating utilities. The state’s current power regulation model is something of a hybrid between old-fashioned regulation and deregulation. The idea is, there are regulated utility companies (like PSNH, which the Public Utilities Commission reports serves 70 percent of the state’s “retail customers”)…but customers aren’t forced to use it. With some deregulation going into effect about 10 years ago, customers were allowed to shop around for cheaper rates from other, unregulated electric providers.
Now, HB 1238 would move toward completing the process of deregulation by making PSNH sell off all its generating assets–“fossil, hydro, and biomass”–by the end of next year. While the committee hearing for the bill took place on Thursday, February 2, the House Science, Technology, and Energy Committee is holding an executive session tomorrow at 10:00 am. Given the complicated nature of this issue, we decided to highlight some of the arguments for–and against–continued deregulation. Continue Reading →
High Tech Council President Fred Kocher offers his perspective on the state of manufacturing in New Hampshire
What we’ve seen since President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address has been a series of press events at various factories (including a vice presidential visit to Albany Engineered Composites in Rochester) and media stories touching on the state of American Manufacturing. It’s part of the president’s latest jobs initiative that focuses on reviving the manufacturing sector.
Given this sector’s importance in New Hampshire, from historic mills to high-tech components assembly, we’ve decided to dig deeper into what manufacturing means to the state. Our plan over the next week or so is to give you a potpourri of news, data, and opinions tied to fabrication in New Hampshire.
And in that spirit, we kick-off with our Q&A of Fred Kocher. He’s president of the New Hampshire High Tech Council. A significant number of the council’s member businesses are manufacturers, which means Kocher is plugged-in to the strengths–and weaknesses–of this sector in the Granite State. Continue Reading →
Parts of Dodd-Frank are set to go into effect this year.
One of the key consequences of the economic collapse a few years ago was the passage of a massive piece of legislation called the “Dodd-Frank Act.” The bill was co-sponsored by (now-retired) Democratic Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut and (soon-to-be-retired) Democratic Massachusetts Representative Barney Frank. In a nutshell, their idea was to prevent another massive financial crisis by more heavily regulating key players in the financial industry.
As one would suspect from a sweeping overhaul of accountability and transparency standards, it’s very, very long, complex, and difficult to understand.
And, of course, it’s also incredibly controversial.
“It is believed that Nashua is the only city in the country that owns a private water utility that is supervised by an independent board but still answers to state regulators, while serving customers outside of the city. Other communities operate municipal water works that are clearly part of local government and subject to the Right-to-Know Law, for example in Milford, or are served by private water companies which are not subject to the state law.” Continue Reading →
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First, a bit of background. It’s well-known in the state’s business circles that, despite the decline of mills, manufacturing is still New Hampshire’s powerhouse industry. Smart Manufacturing/High-Technology is the state’s largest economic sector, far outpacing tourism, which is often thought of as a “signature” industry for New Hampshire.
And all the recent political buzz about manufacturing got us wondering…where are these economic juggernauts concentrated?
We’ll admit it: The telephone pole property tax sounds like a dry topic for the 2012 Legislative session at first glance.
And at second glance, for that matter.
But fortunately for us, John Toole of the Eagle-Tribune took a third look, rustled up some sources, facts, and stats, and managed to make the story not only interesting, but also compelling. We highly recommend you check out his article.
But if you don’t have time (or need a bit of convincing), here’s the backstory in a nutshell: Until two years ago, it was state law that municipalities couldn’t charge telecoms property taxes for phone poles. When the legislature lifted the exemption, the telecoms objected on the grounds that customers’ bills would go up. (In fact, the Public Utilities Commission allowed Fairpoint Communications to at least temporarily issue a surcharge on phone bills to off-set the newly reinstated property tax.) Continue Reading →
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