Sweeping Up the Elephant Dung

The primary circus has left town. As we sweep up the elephant dung, and move the furniture back into place, we turn our attention to other matters.

The purveyors of elephant dung emboldened some of our excitable state representatives. Earlier in the month, the NH House, Human Services, and Elderly Affairs committee had a hearing on HB 1620, a bill prohibiting any member of a foreign terrorist group from receiving public assistance benefits of any kind. I am certain that a check box on the application will ferret them out. But, just in case, the bill contains a fink provision. Anyone can turn in a person whom they think is a member of a foreign terrorist organization, and collect a reward. All that potential reward money is going to get spent investigating malicious claims made by bigots with axes to grind. The kind of people who share the views of the lead sponsor of the bill.

State Representative Ken Weyler is from Kingston. He’s serving his 14^th term in the NH House, so we can’t say that his constituents don’t know what he’s all about. After 14 terms, it’s safe to say that not only do they know, they approve. Weyler’s written testimony submitted to the committee stated “giving public benefits to any person or family that practices Islam is aiding and abetting the enemy. That is treason.”

In 2011, Weyler got some attention for saying that mental health providers encourage people to become “patients for life” to preserve state funding. He claimed that a woman who sought help for postpartum depression would be kept a patient for the rest of her life, even though she might not need services “once her baby became a little more animated.” Representative Weyler is a retired airline pilot, which is apparently where he developed his keen diagnostic skills. There should be no place for this kind of talk in the People’s House, but the NHGOP doesn’t care. They know that the toady media in this state won’t hold them accountable, so they keep on giving this guy committee chair positions. Weyler is currently the Vice Chair of the Finance, Division II committee. In other news, the Statue of Liberty has asked to be deported.


A couple of bills to legalize marijuana were voted down. The heroin epidemic has everyone scared, though not scared enough to vote to extend the NH Health Protection Plan, the expanded Medicaid program that actually gives people insurance that pays for treatment. A lot of pious commentary spoke of keeping marijuana out of the hands of young people. One can only assume that they believe that the guy selling weed on the corner asks for ID. Studies done in states where medical marijuana bills have been enacted show a 25% decrease in opiate overdose deaths. Here in NH we passed a medical marijuana bill that (three years later) still is not functioning. People in our state who are eligible are not able to access medication that the law entitles them to. That big bold state motto of ours is a bunch of hooey.  

Except when it comes to GUNZ! And MOAR GUNZ! Because having some of the weakest gun laws in the nation isn’t enough for our gundamentalist friends, who are lobbying hard against the expanded Medicaid bill because it “could” lead to people losing their firearm rights. So could rain falling from the sky, but (so far) they aren’t out there aiming at clouds. The gun crowd is understandably bitter. For 8 years they’ve been wailing that the black guy in the White House was going to take their guns away, and all he did was let them down. Another bill, HB 1416 would have allowed the Dept. of Safety to set reasonable frees for criminal background checks. The gun nuts decided that was anti-gun legislation, too, and defeated it.

SB 471, the bill to create a $5 fee for a handicapped placard is still languishing in committee. This bill would make NH the only state in New England to charge a fee for a placard. I wrote to three of the senators who are sponsoring the bill. One of them ignored me completely. One blew me off with “ha ha, love your column.” One made some “you don’t understand” protestations and blew me off. These were all Democrats, by the way.

It seems the Dept. of Safety is asking for this fee. Ordinarily our Republican brethren would be howling at the thought of a fee increase, but when it comes to people from marginalized groups (old people, handicapped people) they see dollar signs. They know those disabled people are MOOCHERS. After all, a handicapped placard means free parking! Anyone who thinks that’s a great deal is welcome to trade legs with me.

The Dept. of Safety is underfunded, of course, by our legislature who keeps our state government from running efficiently by ensuring a lack of revenue. The sponsors of the bill claim that MOOCHERS are letting their able bodied relatives steal free parking. This cannot be proven. No one has any idea how often it happens, or how much revenue is lost as a result. They know it happens though, because someone told them a story about it, kinda like the stories of busloads of people from Massachusetts voting in NH elections. This is how we run our state – treating people with disabilities like naughty third graders who have to stay after school because someone broke a rule.

Or they think someone did. After all, Joe’s neighbor told him about his friend’s sister-in-law who uses her mother’s handicapped placard, and there’s nothing wrong with her…except that she might be a member of a foreign terrorist organization.

“Man is the only animal that laughs and has a state legislature.” Samuel Butler

Pledge Politics Create a Moral Vacuum

In 2013, State Senator Nancy Stiles of Hampton sponsored SB 190, a bill titled: relative to admission fees for certain persons at state parks and historical sites. It turned out to be a bill to charge persons over the age of 65 for admission to NH state parks and historical sites. Seniors are admitted free of charge. The bill would “allow them” to purchase a Granite Parks Pass at a third of the cost of an individual season’s pass.

An individual pass cost $60. That means that seniors would be “allowed” to purchase a pass for $20. For $10 a US citizen aged 62 or over can purchase a LIFETIME pass to our national parks. Here in NH, Senator Styles and her cosponsors wanted to sell a SEASON’s pass to a senior for $20. Such a deal!

On the day of the hearing, members of the committee referenced the $400,000 budget deficit that the NH park system always has. The park system constantly runs at a deficit because it is the only state park system in the country that is funded by user fees. At the hearing, it was taken as a given that this is the way it is, so gouging old people is one way to fill the gap Apparently it never occurred to any of the legislators to do something about a failed system. Apparently it hadn’t occurred to them that there’s a reason why NH is the only state that does it this way.

I testified before the committee. I pointed out that this was gouging old people who already had property taxes to contend with. I mentioned that it was disproportionately unfair to women, given that they make less than men over the course of a lifetime.  I was asked how I would fund the national parks, given that they’re having some funding problems. I said that if we cut the Pentagon budget in half, there would be plenty of money to fix all kinds of things. They asked me how I’d fund the state parks and the state. I said that I’d support an income tax, so that our state’s 27,000 millionaires were paying their fair share, and not living here in tax-free splendor. I was even asked why I cared about this, why I was paying attention – which was the most depressing question of all.  

The bill didn’t go anywhere in 2013, but in NH, bad ideas never die. They return again and again. This year, Senator Stiles is sponsoring SB 471, an act relative to discounts and admissions without charge at state parks. This bill doesn’t call for charging a fee or  “allowing” seniors to purchase a season’s pass. This bill opens the back door so that in a year or two some fees can be slipped in without anyone even noticing. It also stipulates that seniors will pay full price for using the Tram at Cannon on weekends and holidays, and more importantly, the elderly con artists who have been gaming the system will be paying full price for parking.

According to the numbers compiled by the Dept. of Resources and Economic Development, nearly 20,000 seniors were granted free admission to NH state parks last year. There were 1500 that accessed the Flume. A whopping 49 seniors scammed free admission to the Tramway at Cannon last year. I’m guessing the real problem is the 7, 704 seniors who were granted free parking at two state beaches. Senator Stiles represents the seacoast. That free parking could have raked in $115,500 if it weren’t for those darned elderly grifters.

Thanks to the way we fund our state, we have some of the highest property taxes in the nation. One of my friends retired and had to choose between the upkeep on her historic old house or paying her exorbitant property taxes. She sold the house and moved out of state. And good riddance to her! That’s one senior swindler that’ll never take her grandchild to the park for free again!

Even if the elderly mountebanks pay full price, it only brings in about $200,000. That’s only half of the deficit, so perhaps the senate can find another marginalized group to fleece in order to make up the difference.

It doesn’t stop there. SB 471 is an act relative to parking for persons with disabilities. There is no cost for a handicaped placard at the present time. This bill would establish a $5 fee for both temporary and permanent placards. The permanent placards would be renewed every five years. The fiscal note attached to the bill estimates that this new fee would bring in $162, 285 per year.

It’s worth pointing out that at the same time these bills are being proposed, our legislators are working diligently to cut millions of dollars worth of revenue out of our state budget by decreasing business taxes. It seems they’re going to try to fill in the gaps by taking from the elderly and the disabled; people who are largely on fixed incomes.

(In the interest of full disclosure, I have a handicapped placard.)

The five-dollar fee isn’t even the issue, though it might be a hardship for someone who is getting a series of temporary placards, in increments of a few months at a time. This is just another illustration of the complete moral bankruptcy that governs our state, thanks to our ridiculous tax system, and our allegiance to pledge politics. If this bill goes through, it would make NH the only state in New England to charge for a handicapped placard. Now there’s something to be proud of.

This is what our legislators are willing to do - nickel and dime seniors and people with disabilities, rather than appropriate enough money to properly run our state agencies. In their desperation to come up with some cash, any cash, (to fill in the holes they’ve created) they’ve chosen to go after the vulnerable. After all, the vulnerable don’t have former governors lobbying for them.

That this is what we’ve come to, as a state should be a source of shame to us all.

This was published as an oped by the Conway Daily Sun newspaper, January 22, 2016

Pledge Politics for Seniors, 2013

My notes  from the hearing in 2013.