A House committee voted against a proposed tax credit to support recovery-friendly businesses Tuesday, in a unanimous decision that dealt a blow to a key agenda item for the governor.
In a 20-0 vote, members of the House Ways and Means Committee opted to recommend further study for the legislation, Senate Bill 563.
The bill would seek to bolster training programs to create recovery-friendly workplaces through tax credits. Businesses could choose to write off 75 percent of donations to the training programs; the initiative would be capped at $1 million in donations annually. The proposed system would be administered by the state Community Development Finance Authority, which would choose nonprofit organizations and recovery centers to disburse the credits themselves and provide the services.
It was touted as a way to boost effective approaches to combating the opioid crisis and strengthening the economy, and it came to the committee hours ahead of an unveiling by Gov. Chris Sununu of a national program to promote the idea. But committee members took issue with the legislation’s reliance on the Community Development Finance Authority – which has no prior experience with substance abuse treatment funding – and on the treatment centers themselves, which have been struggling financially.
“The whole program seemed to be extremely ill-defined, and it was a question of ‘We give you money and then you figure out what you’re going to do,’ ” Rep. Susan Almy, D-Lebanon, said after the vote.
The committee recommendation moves next to the full House, which could vote to overturn it. Aides to the governor are working to persuade legislators to give it a second shot.
(Ethan DeWitt can be reached at edewitt@cmonitor.com, or on Twitter at
@edewittNH.)