Paid family and medical leave for all workers is critical to the challenges facing working families across New Hampshire. From dealing with our caretaking crisis, to attracting and retaining the workforce of tomorrow, to combating the opioid public health epidemic, solutions to these problems start by finally passing bipartisan paid family and medical leave insurance.
No one should have to risk their family’s economic security simply to take care of a loved one, take care of oneself, or be there for a new baby. That’s what paid family and medical leave insurance is all about.
Here in New Hampshire, our working families and small businesses face the highest health care costs in the nation – the highest co-pays, the highest premiums, the highest deductibles. That’s in part because we haven’t established paid family and medical leave insurance.
After dozens of years of study, it’s long past time to move forward with this insurance critical to the health and well-being of all of our citizens.
In 2018, Gov. Chris Sununu stopped a bipartisan paid family leave and medical leave insurance plan sponsored by the late Rep. Mary Stuart Gile. And again in 2019, Gov. Sununu vetoed the bipartisan paid family and medical leave insurance plan that I sponsored. Both pieces of legislation had Republican support and Republican co-sponsors.
On the Fourth of July of 2019, Gov. Sununu auctioned off a copy of his veto of paid family and medical leave at a partisan political fundraiser to the highest bidder. He also celebrated his veto by auctioning off the U.S. flag and the New Hampshire flag that had been flown over the State House the day he vetoed paid family and medical leave insurance.
Gov. Sununu called workers and working families protesting his opposition to paid family leave “paid volunteers,” he uses the tired right-wing talking point of calling paid family leave an “income tax” because he opposes it, and, on three different occasions, Gov. Sununu called paid family leave a “vacation.”
Last year, Gov. Sununu brought the divisive Washington, D.C.-style politics to the New Hampshire State House with a record-setting 57 vetoes, 80% of which had bipartisan support. The average number of vetoes going back 50 years was 6.8 vetoes per year. Everything from job training and apprenticeships, to addiction treatment services, to a bipartisan independent redistricting commission to stop gerrymandering, to several bipartisan clean energy initiatives were vetoed by Gov. Sununu.
And just before his State of the State speech two weeks ago, Gov. Sununu vetoed his third bipartisan clean energy initiative on net metering in as many years.
In his State of the State address, Gov. Sununu said he now fully supports “voluntary” paid family leave. And that his idea is the “only” way to get it done. This is a pattern.
Another one of Gov. Sununu’s record-setting vetoes last year was bipartisan support for our Land and Community Heritage Investment Program (LCHIP), a key environmental and cultural preservation initiative. After vetoing bipartisan LCHIP legislation last year, this year Gov. Sununu says he also supports legislation for “voluntary” support of LCHIP.
Let’s be clear: Nothing is stopping anyone from voluntarily contributing to LCHIP, just like nothing is stopping any business from voluntarily providing paid family leave. Voluntary contributions to LCHIP and voluntary paid family leave are already the status quo.
But, when voluntary contributions to LCHIP and voluntary paid family leave take the form of legislation, Gov. Sununu tries to say they are real proposals. They are not. They are simply meant to “check the box” in advance of the 2020 election, where Gov. Sununu wants to be elected to a rare third term in office.
Well, I didn’t run for public office to “check the box.” I ran to get things done. Time is short and working families simply can’t wait until after the next election; they need and deserve real results, right now. That’s why this year’s actual paid family and medical leave insurance plan, House Bill 712, sponsored by Rep. Mary Jane Wallner that has Republican co-sponsors and Republican support once again, should be signed into law by Gov. Sununu.
(Dan Feltes is a former legal aid attorney with New Hampshire Legal Assistance and lives in the South End of Concord with his wife, Erin, and their two daughters, Iris and Josie. Dan serves as state senator for Concord, Henniker, Hopkinton, Penacook and Warner, and as the Senate’s majority leader. In the 2020 election, Dan is running to serve as governor.)