Josiah Bartlett Center - RGGI Market Down

RGGI Market Down as NH Senate consider Repeal

 

As the New Hampshire Senate convenes to consider overriding the Governor's veto of a bill pulling the state out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a new report shows that the secondary RGGI market is crashing.

Following June's massive falloff in demand, New Hampshire Watchdog reports that trading under the cap and trade compact is also slowing down.  Weak RGGI demand could cut New Hampshire revenues which RGGI supporters counted on to help sell the program in 2008.

Read the full story at New Hampshire Watchdog.

How is NH spending your money?

The Josiah Bartlett Center is providing unprecedented insight into how New Hampshire is spending your money.  Through our searchable online database, NH Open Gov, we're providing access to every check that the State of New Hampshire writes.  We're updating the database all the time, and we're currently adding Fiscal Year 2010 and 2011 transactions.

Check out the ability to search for specific spending.  Maybe you'll uncover a way to save us all millions.

Go to NHOpenGov.org now.

Political Traffic Jam at the Toll Booth

In the Concord Monitor, Grant Bosse explains what's holding up the nomination of Christopher Clement to take over at the Department of Transportation, and explores the prospects for building a toll booth on I-93 in Salem.

Read the full story here.

Romney leans on business experience in NH

We continue to provide unmatched, in-depth coverage of New Hampshire's First in the Nation Primary.  On Labor Day, Grant Bosse interviewed Governor Mitt Romney about his relationship to the Tea Party and Michelle Bachmann's decision to skip New Hampshire.

We also have exclusive video from Mitt and Ann Romney's speech following a pancake breakfast at the Derryfield in Manchester.

Here the interview and watch the speech for yourself by clicking on this picture..

Save the Date- November 2nd!

On November 2nd, the Josiah Bartlett Center will host our First Annual Dinner, paying tribute to Governor John H. Sununu.  We hope you can join us at the Grappone Center in Concord.  Details to come.  In the meantime, please support the Josiah Bartlett Center.  We need your donations to keep doing our work as the only free-market think tank in New Hampshire.

Josiah Bartlett Center - $1,000 per page?

Rich Ashooh takes over at Josiah Bartlett Center

 

We're happy to welcome our new Chairman, Rich Ashooh.  Rich takes over as Chairman of the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy from Eugene Van Loan, who will remain an active member of the Board.

“The Josiah Bartlett Center exists in order to help New Hampshire citizens better know and understand their state government,” said outgoing Chairman Eugene Van Loan. “Rich Ashooh brings unmatched experience and insight in the public and private sectors to help us better fulfill that mission.”

Ashooh is Vice-President at BAE Systems, and has served as a legislative aide to New Hampshire Senators Warren Rudman and Gordon Humphrey. In 2010, he was a Republican candidate for Congress in New Hampshire’s First District. He and his wife Lori are raising five children in Bedford, NH.

“I’m honored to have the opportunity to guide the Josiah Bartlett Center as we begin our next chapter,” Ashooh added. “With so many complex and important public policy questions facing us as a state and as a country, we will continue to demand transparency and accountability from our government.”

State paying almost $283,000 for energy study
How much would you pay for a comprensive report on energy issues facing New Hampshire.  $1,000 per page?  That's what the Public Utilities Commission is paying a Vermont consulting firm for a 286-page report, costing just under $283,000.  Grant Bosse has full story at NH Watchdog.

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What's causing the unfunded liability in the New Hampshire Retirement System?
We've provided in-depth coverage to New Hampshire's public pension crisis, a $3.7 billion unfunded liability that threatens state and local budgets and the secure retirement of New Hampshire's police, firemen, teachers, and public employees.  Now, Reasearch Associate Joshua Elliott-Traficante provides an unprecedented look inside that unfunded liability to determine which groups of public employees are putting the most pressure on the New Hampshire Retirement System.  He finds that funding gap for one group of workers is three times larger that for others.  Find out by reading the full report, State Pensions: The Unfunded Liability and What It Means.

Put The Cloakroom back on the air
Throughout the New Hampshire budget debate, we kept you informed with our weekly video magazine, The Cloakroom.  Unfortunately, some dasterdly culprits have stolen our video camera equipment, knocking The Cloakroom off the air.  We need your help to buy a new camera.  Please make a donation to the Josiah Bartlett Center today so that we can bring back The Cloakroom for another season.

Josiah Bartlett Center - Why is NH the Freest State?

Josiah Bartlett Center and Mercatus Center Hold Briefing on

“Freedom in the 50 States” Ranking NH Most Free State

Monday June 27, 10:00 a.m.

Legislative Office Building Room 210

 
 
The Josiah Bartlett Center will hold a briefing with Profs. Jason Sorens and William Ruger, authors of the Mercatus Center study “Freedom in the Fifty States” which ranked New Hampshire as the most free state in the country on Monday at 10:00 in the Legislative Office Building. Center president Charlie Arlinghaus said “Sorens and Ruger have created a very provocative objective index based on freedom. The index is thought-provoking and there’s definitely enough here to not only please and annoy both Republicans and Democrats but to make all of us think differently about policy.” The briefing is free and open to the public.
 
The authors’ analysis of New Hampshire’s standing follows:
 
New Hampshire is, by our count, the freest state in the country. Depending on weights, however, it really shares the slot with South Dakota. New Hampshire does much better on economic than personal freedom and on fiscal than regulatory policy. Under unified Democratic control in 2007–2008, the state saw a respectable increase in freedom. A smoking ban was enacted, but so were same-sex civil unions. Taxes, spending, and fiscal decentralization remain more than a standard deviation better than average, and government debt actually went down slightly. Gun laws are among the most liberal in the country, but carrying a firearm in a car requires a concealed carry permit. Effective retail-tax rates on wine and spirits are zero. Marijuana laws are middling; low level possession could be decriminalized like it is in Maine, while low-level cultivation could be made a misdemeanor like it is in both Maine and Vermont. New Hampshire is the only state in the country with no seatbelt law for adults. It lacks a motorcycle helmet law but does have a bicycle-helmet law and authorizes sobriety checkpoints. State approval is required to open a private school. Homeschool laws are slightly worse than average; standardized testing and recordkeeping requirements are stricter than those in most states. Eminent-domain reforms have gone far. The state’s liability system is one of the best, but campaign-finance regulations are quite strict. The drug law-enforcement rate is low and dropping, while arrests for other victimless crimes are high and dropping. Asset-forfeiture law is definitely subpar, with potential for abuse.

Josiah Bartlett Center - What matters to conservative voters?

Josiah Bartlett Center joins Heritage and AFP for Pre-Debate Panel

 
The Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy, New Hampshire's leading free-market think tank, is pleased to partner with the Heritage Foundation and Americans for Prosperity for a panel discussion kicking off next week's Republican Presidential Debate.

The GOP Primary Debate Kick-Off Luncheon, "Issues that Matter to Conservative Voters" will be on Monday, June 13th from 12:30pm to 1:30pm at the Auditorium at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics on the campus of St. Anselm College in Manchester.

Josiah Bartlett Center President Charlie Arlinghaus will be joined by The Heritage Foundation's Mike Franc and AFP-NH Director Corey Lewandowski.  CNN Correspondent Tom Foreman will moderate the panel discussion.

"New Hampshire's First in the Nation Primary is important because we expect candidates to address issues," said Arlinghaus.  "From balancing the budget, to health care, to foreign policy, New Hampshire voters expect anyone asking for their votes to be able to talk substantively about policy."

CNN, WMUR, and the Union Leader are presenting the Republican Presidential primary debate at St A's on Monday evening at 8pm.  Seven GOP candidates will participate.

Josiah Bartlett Center - NH Open Gov is live

New searchable online database includes state spending down to transaction level

 
The Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy, New Hampshire’s free-market think tank, has launched NHOpenGov.org a free searchable online database that  makes all state spending down to the dollar available online. “In an internet age, citizens should be able to google government spending,” Josiah Bartlett Center President Charlie Arlinghaus said. “Your government checkbook should be just as accessible as your personal checkbook. We’re pleased to be able to build this infrastructure and offer it as a public service, like a modern encyclopedia of government spending,” Arlinghaus said.
 
The site has been and will be funded entirely by private donations and the information has been collected through right-to-know requests from official state sources. “We are constantly collecting and processing new information and will update the information available frequently. Having the eyes of thousands of individual citizens looking at every piece of government spending from a $4 car wash to a multi-million dollar grant can only make government better and more accountable,” Arlinghaus added.
 
“The government transparency movement is supported by political leaders from President Obama to the Tea Party Movement. Modern technology can make government not just an open book but an online, searchable, detailed book you can access from anywhere in the world through the internet.”
 
The project has been led by our transparency director Josh Elliott-Traficante and is the result of thousands of hours of work and web development. It also would not have been possible without the cooperation and advice of the Department of Administrative Services and commissioner Linda Hodgdon. Elliott-Traficante added "This is only the beginning of this project and of a site that should continue for years as an important research tool for all our citizens."
 
The Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy is a independent free market think tank focused on state and local public policy issues that affect the quality of life for New Hampshire's citizens. The Center has as its core beliefs individual freedom and responsibility, limited and accountable government, and an appreciation of the role of the free enterprise system. The Center seeks to promote policy that supports these beliefs by providing information, research, and analysis.