{"id":13185,"date":"2013-01-18T12:06:18","date_gmt":"2013-01-18T17:06:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/?p=13185"},"modified":"2013-01-18T12:06:18","modified_gmt":"2013-01-18T17:06:18","slug":"coalition-of-communities-pushes-for-voice-in-lgc-appeal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/2013\/01\/18\/coalition-of-communities-pushes-for-voice-in-lgc-appeal\/","title":{"rendered":"Coalition Of Communities Pushes For Voice In LGC Appeal"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_13191\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"A group of towns wants to participate in the LGC's appeal to the state supreme court.\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/files\/2013\/01\/3293465641_a77f520b81.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13191\" title=\"My Trusty Gavel\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/files\/2013\/01\/3293465641_a77f520b81-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/files\/2013\/01\/3293465641_a77f520b81-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/files\/2013\/01\/3293465641_a77f520b81.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Brian Turner \/ Flickr Creative Commons<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">A group of towns wants to participate in the LGC&#39;s appeal to the state supreme court.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>A cadre of communities is <a title=\"Towns seek to intervene in LGC's Supreme Court appeal\" href=\"http:\/\/www.unionleader.com\/article\/20130118\/NEWS06\/130119183\/-1\/news\" target=\"_blank\">pushing the New Hampshire Supreme Court <\/a>to allow them to participate in the <a title=\"New Hampshire Local Government Center\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nhlgc.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Local Government Center<\/a>&#8216;s appeal.\u00a0 Fourteen towns, led by Durham, Peterborough, Salem and Northfield have filed a motion to intervene in the case.<\/p>\n<p>The LGC insures municipalities, school districts, and agencies, <a title=\"What the LGC\u2019s Reorganization Means To Communities (And Taxpayers)\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/2012\/12\/06\/what-the-lgcs-reorganization-means-to-communities-and-taxpayers\/\" target=\"_blank\">handling hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars<\/a>.\u00a0 The state argued that for years, the LGC over-charged for health insurance in order to illegally bulk-up its assets and prop-up its failing worker&#8217;s compensation program .\u00a0 Last summer, a hearing officer sided with the state, and <a title=\"Final Order\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sos.nh.gov\/locgovctr\/Filings\/0237-2012-08-16_FINAL_ORDER.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">ordered<\/a> the LGC to return more than $52 million to members.\u00a0 The LGC is appealing that order to the New Hampshire Supreme Court.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><div class=\"related-content alignright\"><h4 class=\"related-header\">Related<\/h4><div class=\"links\"><h5>Posts<\/h5><ul><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/2013\/01\/11\/will-an-agency-near-you-be-seeing-an-lgc-payout\/\">Will An Agency Near You Be Seeing An LGC Payout?<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/2012\/12\/06\/what-the-lgcs-reorganization-means-to-communities-and-taxpayers\/\">What the LGC&#8217;s Reorganization Means To Communities (And Taxpayers)<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div><div class=\"topics\"><h5>Topics<\/h5><p class=\"topic\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/files\/2011\/08\/6355404323_cf97f9c58e-60x60.jpg\" height=\"60\" width=\"60\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/topic\/taxes\/\">The Essential Guide To New Hampshire State Taxes<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div>The LGC is also arguing it shouldn&#8217;t have to return any money to municipalities that have left its insurance programs.\u00a0 Most of the 14 communities that filed the motion have cut off at least one line of coverage, or <a title=\"Coalition Of Towns Challenges LGC Refund Plans\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/2012\/12\/12\/coalition-of-towns-challenges-lgc-refund-plans\/\" target=\"_blank\">severed ties completely<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>So if the court sides with the LGC, these communities would see a smaller share of money returned&#8230;or none at all.<\/p>\n<p>As <a title=\"Towns seek to intervene in LGC's Supreme Court appeal\" href=\"http:\/\/www.unionleader.com\/article\/20130118\/NEWS06\/130119183\/-1\/news\" target=\"_blank\">Garry Rayno reports in the <em>New Hampshire<\/em> Union-Leader<\/a>, these 14 towns:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\">&#8220;&#8230;claim the refunds should be in proportion to what communities paid for insurance coverage through LGC programs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The (Bureau of Securities Regulations) does not distinguish among members. Some joined the risk pools early or late, some left early or late, and some joined, left, and later rejoined,&#8221; said Durham Town Administrator Todd Selig. &#8220;By ordering the money returned to current members, it created windfalls for some, but inadequate recompense for others. That is, some members will receive an arbitrarily larger share than their contribution, and some an arbitrarily smaller share.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The protesting towns have asked the court to let them intervene to address the issue of refunds proportional to contributions.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Attorney Andru Volinsky, who represents the Bureau of Securities Regulation, has <a title=\"\t 12 towns file complaint against LGC over insurance payments \" href=\"http:\/\/www.concordmonitor.com\/home\/3303780-95\/lgc-surplus-bureau-members\" target=\"_blank\">previously said<\/a> there is nothing in the hearing officer&#8217;s order mandating that money be only be returned to current members.<\/p>\n<p>Complicating matters, the LGC has committed to returning a much smaller sum, $22.5 million, to communities.\u00a0 While it had initially proposed a premium holiday for this return (the rough equivalent of store credit for future insurance purposes), members objected,\u00a0 <a title=\"Coalition Of Towns Challenges LGC Refund Plans\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/2012\/12\/12\/coalition-of-towns-challenges-lgc-refund-plans\/\" target=\"_blank\">In response<\/a>, the LGC later said it would honor requests for cash payouts as well.<\/p>\n<p>This is a really complex&#8211;and high-stakes&#8211;case.\u00a0 So in that spirit, StateImpact has gathered a lot of the key information on our site.\u00a0 To find out how much of the $22.5 million your community is set to get from the LGC, check out StateImpact&#8217;s <a title=\"Will An Agency Near You Be Seeing An LGC Payout?\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/2013\/01\/11\/will-an-agency-near-you-be-seeing-an-lgc-payout\/http:\/\/\" target=\"_blank\">searchable table<\/a>.\u00a0 And, to get up to speed on the twists and turns of this labyrinthine case, stop by and visit our <a title=\"What the LGC\u2019s Reorganization Means To Communities (And Taxpayers)\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/2012\/12\/06\/what-the-lgcs-reorganization-means-to-communities-and-taxpayers\/\" target=\"_blank\">primer post<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A cadre of communities is pushing the New Hampshire Supreme Court to allow them to participate in the Local Government Center&#8216;s appeal.\u00a0 Fourteen towns, led by Durham, Peterborough, Salem and Northfield have filed a motion to intervene in the case. The LGC insures municipalities, school districts, and agencies, handling hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.\u00a0 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":13191,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[53],"tags":[455,573,521,204],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13185"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}