Senate Majority Leader Responds to Governor Sununu Blocking Paid Leave in NH

May 9, 2019

Contact Name: Sara Persechino

Phone: (603) 271-3479

Email: Sara.Persechino@leg.state.nh.us

CONCORD—Today, Governor Sununu vetoed SB 1, a bipartisan bill that establishes a public-private partnership for paid family and medical leave in New Hampshire.

Following the veto, Senate Majority Leader Dan Feltes (D-Concord), prime sponsor of SB 1, released the following statement.

“This is why people don’t like politics. Politicians—regardless of their last name or where they come from—should actually work for the people, should keep their campaign promises, and should tell the truth. Governor Sununu has done none of that on paid family and medical leave, and he’s left working families and small businesses to fall further and further behind.”

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Background:

• No tax expert has called SB 1 an income tax. In fact, the Granite State Taxpayers Association, a conservative anti-tax organization, testified at the Senate hearing on SB 1 that SB 1 was NOT an income tax. [Senate Finance Committee SB 1 Hearing Report, pages 21 and 22 and Facebook SB 1 Hearing Live Stream; Chris Ager testimony starts at 1:06]

• The sponsors of the House and Senate version of paid family and medical leave insurance (HB 712-FN and SB 1-FN) restructured the legislation to respond to the last time Governor Sununu opposed paid family and medical leave insurance and asked Governor Sununu to meet to discuss their proposals on several occasions. Despite repeated efforts to meet, the governor has never – not once – met with the sponsors in an effort to work on this issue collaboratively. Letter attached.

• Governor Sununu never had a paid family and medical leave plan—he only requested information on a concept. He receivedresponses to an RFI (request for information) from insurers on the so-called ‘Twin State Plan”, some saying that the concept is not developed enough to even provide any information and some saying that costs will be consistent with a payroll tax of 0.8% to 1.2%. See responses here.

• After receiving the RFI responses, Governor Sununu never developed a plan.

• According to a new report from the UNH Carsey School of Public Policy, the public overwhelmingly supports paid family and medical leave information.