Blog | Sylvia Larsen for NH Senate

New Hampshire Working Passed!

Posted Feb 25 at 12 PM
February 19, 2010
Cross Posted from the Senate President's Blog

We had a busy week, with some very important pieces of legislation presented to our Senate committees. We are focusing much of our effort on reducing health care costs, preserving jobs and promoting hiring. Among other things, legislation to implement the governor’s jobs initiative “New Hampshire Working” was approved in committee this week. The full Senate is expected to vote on this on March 3 in hopes of giving a quick boost to our business community and job seekers. Click here to read more about this important initiative.

I also want to take a moment to thank the veterans who paid us a visit in the Statehouse last week. Seven residents of the New Hampshire Veterans Home in Tilton met with me and a few other senators in the Senate Chamber after our session. Among other things, I learned about their mascot dog Riley, who recently passed away, and their hopes for a new puppy! They remain engaged and enthusiastic and they were a delight to meet.
Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

Posted Feb 25 at 12 PM
February 12, 2010
Cross Posted from the Senate President's Blog

That’s what has been on my mind this week. I held several informal meetings with groups to explore ways we can work together to add jobs and help the unemployed.

In legislation, I’m proposing a plan to fast track some renewable energy projects that would add jobs. I submit an amendment to a bill this week that would allow any electric utility owing payment to the state’s renewable energy fund to retain a portion of those funds if it can show the money would be used to create jobs through an immediate investment in renewable energy.

I met with officials from Public Service of New Hampshire who, among other things, have plans to install solar panels at municipal landfills and can do so promptly if we pass this amendment.

It is a proposal worth exploring if it would add jobs more quickly. In these times, adding jobs really has to be our number one priority.

Toward that end, I met with representatives from the state Parks division, the Department of Employment Security, AmeriCorps, the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, the Workforce Opportunity Council and the Student Conservation Association to see if we can create jobs and improve our state parks as outlined in the newly developed 10-year state parks plan. Click here to look at that.

We are exploring what federal or other resources might be available to hire young people or get some of our construction workers back to work to improve our parks. I also asked our Employment Security Commissioner to explore whether the state could continue to offer unemployment benefits to workers in the construction trades who are willing to use their skills to make our state parks a better place and train younger people.

Also focusing on jobs, I met this week with the director of the Human Resources State Council of New Hampshire to explore ways our human resources professionals can work with the state to help unemployed workers get information and advice about potential job openings, training, resume building and job hunting skills.

Some members of this group have already volunteered their services in this area and we explored ways to build other alliances and programs.

The idea behind all these efforts is to create links between our state agencies and the people in our community with special skills and talents to see if we can spark those synergies that lead to new jobs and better prospects for people who are unemployed.

We need to be creative and leave no stone unturned as we work to get New Hampshire’s people back to work and our economy back on track.
Addresssing the Impact of Global Warming

Posted Feb 25 at 12 PM
February 5, 2010
Cross Posted from the Senate President's Blog

Earlier this winter, I had an opportunity to participate with a group of women who are part of an international effort to address the impact of global warming. The effects of climate change – whether droughts or floods – hit poor women and children hardest.

In many cultures, it is women who are responsible for providing clean water, food and fuel for their families. Climate change and related weather disasters directly affect the poorest families, making them vulnerable to hunger and disease.

Many of my colleagues here in the Statehouse have signed on as ambassadors for the Sisters on the Planet Campaign run by Oxfam America.

As women involved in government, we’ll be advocating for legislative actions that help women around the globe get the education and resources they need to work together to protect themselves and their families. This includes efforts like planting drought-resistant foods, coordinating food banks for times of shortage, erecting tree barriers to protect against erosion and getting mosquito netting into homes to prevent the spread of mosquito-borne illnesses.

Women are naturally the world’s caretakers both literally and figuratively. While we, as the nation's first femal Senate majority, work to protect our most vulnerable families from the worst recession in recent memory, we must also keep focus on leaving a better world for future generations. It makes sense then, as a sisterhood that we work to empower the state, national and global community of women to address the problems of global climate change and its effect on families.
Governor Lynch's Delivers Powerful State of the State Address Focusing on Job Creation

Posted Feb 25 at 12 PM
January 22, 2010
Cross Posted from Senate President's Blog

We heard the Governor's State of the State address on Thursday and wholeheartedly share his commitment to growing jobs, encouraging entrepreneurs and maintaining New Hampshire's many advantages as we push towards economic recovery.

Governor's Lynch's address got plenty of media attention but you may not have heard about another notable event. On Thursday, the Senate hosted a visit from six former Senate Presidents.

The occasion was the retirement of our own Donna Morin, who has helped me both as Senate President and Senate President Pro Tem in 2000. Most recently Donna has worked for Senate Majority Leader Maggie Hassan. After 30 years, Donna is retiring and we realized that during her tenure, she had worked with more than 106 senators, both Democrats and Republicans, and served under 10 Senate Presidents.

Former Senate President Clesson "Junie" Blaisdell has since passed away but we invited all the other Senate Presidents to Donna's retirement party, which started with a brief ceremony in the Senate Chamber after yesterday's business was complete.

Those who came included William Bartlett, Edward Dupont, Beverly Hollingworth, Arthur Klemm, Thomas Eaton and myself. Ralph Hough joined us later at Donna's retirement party at the Upham Walker House and Joe Delahunty called from Florida.

I was delighted to share the podium with such good company. We will miss Donna but her retirement turned out to be a wonderful opportunity to bring so many of the Senate's past leaders together. Let's not wait another 30 years!
SB300: Electrical Assistance for New Hampshire Families

Posted Feb 25 at 12 PM
January 15, 2010
Cross posted from the Senate President's Blog

Thursday was a good day as we gathered to sign Senate Bill 300, clearing the way for more struggling families to get help with their electric bills.

Time was of the essence. During a typical winter’s week, Public Service of New Hampshire indicated that 1,760 households are informed their electricity will be shut off and 31 are disconnected. The waitlist of families that qualified for electric assistance began growing sharply in April and now represents more than 8,000 households around the state.

Many of these families are dealing with prolonged unemployment and have never sought assistance before. They are struggling to feed their children and pay their bills. They deserve our help until they can find jobs and get back on their feet.

After last week's setback, you can see in the photo below the sense of relief and celebration as this legislation was passed and signed into law. This means help with electric bills can get to the people who need it WHEN they need it most.
First Senate Session of the Year

Posted Feb 25 at 11 AM
January 8, 2010
Cross Posted from the Senate President's Blog

The Senate convened its first session of the year on Wednesday.

Our top priority this year is to focus on helping our state and our people recover from the economic downturn.

So on our first session day, we had hoped to start by passing legislation to shift some existing surcharge funds to help people who are struggling to pay their electric bills this winter.

We already pay a small surcharge on our electric bills that gets divided between an Electric Assistance Program for low-income households and an Energy Efficiency Program to help businesses and homeowners reduce their energy use.

Senate Bill 300 would shift a small portion of the energy efficiency money to help the growing number of unemployed families pay their electric bills.

Our state has seen an enormous boost to the funds available for weatherization and other energy initiatives flowing from the federal stimulus ($23 million, up from $2.3 million) and from our participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative ($17 million distributed to date). As a result, we felt we had room to direct more of the surcharge monies toward helping low-income households this winter and next.

The temporary boost in aid would help 8,000 households that have already qualified for aid but are languishing on a waiting list.

We needed bipartisan agreement to waive Senate rules that preclude us from scheduling a formal public hearing before our first meeting of the session. We needed a two-thirds vote so we could act immediately to help those families.

The Senate Energy, Environment and Economic Development held an informational hearing prior to the vote – one that lasted three hours and drew much testimony. Yet we couldn’t call it a public hearing because of the timing.

I regret that my Republican colleagues voted against the fast-track effort despite earlier indications of support and a precedent for similar votes in previous years.

This emphasis on procedure over people’s needs delays our efforts to get aid out to those in need as quickly as possible.

Nevertheless, we will press on, hold a formal public hearing and vote next week. Then we must wait for the House to fulfill its procedures. Both the House and Senate remain committed to providing the additional assistance to the 8,000 waitlisted households during these dark and cold winter months.

So I hope to be able to report next week that Senate Bill 300 was voted out of the Senate and advanced to the House.

It’s too bad that process took precedence over people this week but we are keeping our eye on the goal. We’ll continue to do whatever we can to get our people back to work and back on their feet as quickly as possible.
Sylvia Larsen: Can NH improve corrections while spending less?

Posted Feb 25 at 11 AM
Published Friday January 8th in the Union Leader

New Hampshire has a low crime rate that has remained stable for years. So why is the number of people we incarcerate growing?

In the last 10 years, New Hampshire has seen a 3 percent increase in the number of offenders sent to prison for new offenses. And yet our prison population has grown by 26 percent.

Why has our corrections system turned into one of the leading cost drivers for our state budget, and is there anything we can do to change that without endangering public safety?
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These questions and others led lawmakers to reach out to the Council of State Governments Justice Center and its funders at the Pew Center on the States and the Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance. We invited researchers here last year to give a presentation on their work in other states.

This year, we were fortunate that our state was chosen for a three-year study that will allow for data collection, study and recommendations for improving our criminal justice system. Not only that, the study will include follow-up once changes are implemented to make sure they work.

As the head of the Interagency Coordinating Council for Women Offenders, I've long wanted this kind of data-based review to help us improve public safety and reduce costs. We need to understand our problem and target our resources to be most effective. As the new year begins, I am optimistic we can make significant progress on this issue in 2010.

Since the Justice Reinvestment Initiative was launched, Justice Center researchers have been meeting with state and county officials, law enforcement, behavioral health professionals, lawyers, judges and victim advocates to get a broad picture of how our system works.

One early finding points to a problem with how we handle people on probation and parole. We are revoking probation and parole and sending a record number back to prison. These revocations now account for about 57 percent of all admissions.

The majority do not involve the commission of new crimes, but technical violations of the rules laid out for the parolee or probationer. Furthermore, the revocation rate varies widely by county. Why do some counties send more of their folks back to prison?

We don't have answers to these questions yet, but what's important is that we're looking for them.

The researchers have concluded that parole revocations will cost our state about $13.3 million in 2009. Would some of that money be better spent on community-based programs that treat underlying problems, such as addiction and mental illness, that challenge parolees and probationers?

The costs are likely even higher when we talk about women offenders with children. When women go to prison, someone has to care for their kids. Sometimes that's a relative, but often the state must step in and find the kids a temporary home. The emotional suffering makes it that much harder for these youngsters to succeed in their own lives, and research demonstrates they are at increased risk of becoming the offenders of the future.

While women make up a smaller portion of all offenders, their numbers are growing. We'd be wise to find ways to successfully treat and maintain or reunite families where possible.

Justice Center researchers have found that community-based treatment is generally more effective than prison-based treatment in preventing recidivism. What does this mean for how we allocate state dollars to get the most for our money?

I and my fellow lawmakers see a big potential payoff to the state if we can find more effective ways to target our money. Some money must continue to go to our prisons because society still needs to be protected from violent predators and other dangerous criminals. But can we do a better and more cost-effective job of treating other offenders and thus keep all of us safer and better able to lead productive lives?

The Justice Reinvestment Initiative is our best hope for the data we need to make these decisions. We want to keep our low crime rate, but we also want to stop pouring money into a criminal justice system if it only recycles offenders. This new year offers hope that we can find a better way.

(Sen. Sylvia Larsen, a Concord Democrat, is president of the state Senate.)
Happy New Year!

Posted Jan 03 at 1 AM
It is hard to believe that 2008 is upon us and with it another session of the New Hampshire state legislature! Yesterday was our first day in session and things are already off to a great start. One of the first pieces of legislation we worked on this year was repealing a portion of HB471, last year's Worker's Compensation bill, that unintentionally misclassified workers and captured contractors who were not apart of the problem. This year we have set out to correct this mistake because we know how vital the small business community is to our state's economy.

I look forward to working with my colleagues for another productive legislative session. Happy New Year everyone!

Sylvia