Legislative preview: business and economic bills to watch

Over 1,000 bills filed for areas ranging from landfill siting to abortion, gun safety, bail reform, LGBTQ rights and more

New Hampshire lawmakers are busy this second session of the 2023-2024 biennium. There were more than 1,000 bills filed for this session and they offer a smorgasbord of priorities ranging from landfill siting and other energy and environmental issues; to abortion and gun safety; bail reform; LGBTQ rights; and even a constitutional amendment proposal for New Hampshire to secede from the United States if the national debt reaches $40 trillion (it’s currently $34 trillion).

NH Business Review asked David Juvet, the senior vice president of public policy at the Business & Industry Association of New Hampshire (BIA), and Phil Sletten, research director at the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute, for their insight on business and economic bills worth watching with a focus on taxation, affordable housing, child care, privacy, food insecurity and tort reform.

HB 1422

Sletten believes that HB 1422 has the most significant, direct and immediate revenue implications of any bill proposed this session. It proposes to substantially reduce the Business Enterprise Tax rate (from 0.55% to 0.25%), the Meals and Rentals Tax rate (from 8.5% to 6%), and the Business Profits Tax rate (from 7.5% to 7%), and to eliminate the Communications Services Tax in 2027 after a phase-out period. The bill’s fiscal note estimates the bill would reduce combined General and Education Trust Funds revenues by about $374 million each year by the time the reductions are in full effect.

SB 364

The affordable housing crisis is the target of a number of bipartisan-sponsored bills.

“There is the most housing-related legislation I’ve seen in my 25 years at the BIA,” Juvet said.

SB 364 would establish, the bill text says, “a historic housing preservation tax credit administered by the housing finance authority. The bill also makes an appropriation to the Invest NH fund in the Department of Business and Economic Affairs for the purpose of developing affordable housing in the state.”

SB 454 would increase the revenue flowing from Real Estate Transfer Tax revenues to the Affordable Housing Fund, doubling the annual revenues from $5 million annually to $10 million. The Affordable Housing Fund provides grants and low-interest loans for the construction, rehabilitation or acquisition of housing affordable to families and individuals with low or moderate incomes.

HB 1611 would establish a Child Care Workforce Fund that could be used to support New Hampshire workers in the child care industry in a wide variety of ways, including training, health insurance, student loan repayment and assistance paying for child care for their own children, Sletten explained.

HB 1193 would establish an employer-based child care tax credit. This would allow employers a credit on their business taxes to assist employees with child care costs.

HB 1492 would re-establish the Interest and Dividends Tax, currently due to be repealed in 2025, with updated statutory language, higher and automatically adjusting exemptions, and a permanent 5% rate. In the 2023-24 budget, the Interest and Dividends Tax was estimated to raise $147.3 million annually.

SB 403 would change several statutes related to health care workers in an effort to support the workforce, including through defining and establishing community health workers in statute with a $35 million appropriation, including enhanced workforce outreach and training opportunities in rural and underserved areas. The bill would be funded by Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Funds from the American Rescue Plan Act that must be obligated by the end of 2024.

SB 462 is a bipartisan bill that would eliminate the state caps for compensatory wrongful death claims by spouses and parents, which currently stand at $150,000 for adults and $50,000 for children. Juvet said if the bill passed it could have an economic impact on business and medical malpractice insurance in the state. “A reasonable discussion increases caps and doesn’t eliminate them,” he said.

SB 499 is designed to expand food security programs for children, older adults and people with disabilities. According to the text of the bill, it would direct “the department of education to expand options for free and reduced-priced meals to students and directs the Department of Health and Human Services to implement a summer EBT program to provide assistance to families with children eligible for free and reduced-priced meals over the summer.

SB 255 would establish a new consumer expectation of privacy with guardrails on how companies can use private customer information. The lengthy, detailed and ambitious bill has traveled a long legislative road since it was filed last year and then retained in committee. The bill passed earlier this month and was sent to the house.