Following Gov. Chris Sununu’s lead, the Senate Finance Committee recommended that a plan to create a state-run paid family leave program be sent back for more study, in a 4-2 vote Tuesday along party lines.
The vote on the bill, House Bill 628, could dim the bill’s chances as it heads to the Senate floor this month. And it comes after Sununu sent the committee a letter stating his opposition to the bill as written, raising concerns about its sustainability and about certain opt-out provisions.
In a statement after the vote, Senate Minority Leader Jeff Woodburn, D-Whitefield, took aim at the governor for dropping support for an issue he had favored on the campaign trail.
“Governor Sununu has weaseled out of his campaign commitment to support paid family leave as he has just sabotaged a popular and bipartisan family and medical insurance program,” Woodburn said.
HB 628 would create an insurance program, run by the Department of Employment Services, allowing participants up to six weeks of leave at 60 percent of their salary. The program, available to all private sector employees, would require contributions of 0.67 percent of weekly wages. Participants would be automatically enrolled, but could choose to opt out at the start of their employment or once a year.
That last provision has stirred the bulk of opposition to the bill. Critics have said that including employees at the start could trap some who aren’t aware of the ability to back out. And they’ve said the bill’s requirement for notarized documentation in order to opt out is too onerous.
It was a point voiced by Senate President Chuck Morse, R-Salem, in a statement after the vote.
“From the incalculable cost of this paid leave program, to the cumbersome opt-out nature for employees, this program puts our businesses and taxpayers at risk for unknown burdens and future costs,” Morse said.
The bill has survived three votes on the House floor, but faced a more difficult battle in the Senate. In his statement, Morse called it a backdoor income tax, charging that a future Democratically controlled legislature could change the opt-out mechanism to box in more people.
“Not only should we refrain from creating additional burdensome regulation for our state’s small businesses, but there is little doubt that a program like this would lead to an income tax which I will never support in New Hampshire,” he said.
But Democrats have rejected the criticisms, pointing to outside actuarial analyses suggesting the program could be viable even with low participation rates, and arguing that the opt-out provisions are fair.
Sununu has said in recent weeks that he favors a private family leave insurance model for the state. And in his letter last week, he urged the Legislature to conduct another outside actuarial to assess the proposed state-run program before implementing it.
(Ethan DeWitt can be reached at edewitt@cmonitor.com, or on Twitter at @edewittNH.)