Are the legislator’s priorities ours or theirs?
New Hampshire legislators submit over 1,000 bills each year. Given we have the largest state legislative body in the country, it would seem most issues statewide would have been addressed in our 230-plus years. In fact, some states limit the number of bills to be considered in a given year, including California (35), Colorado (5) and Florida (7).
Further, one might think proposed bills would focus on the stateโs greatest needs. For example, many citizens agree affordable housing is a huge issue in New Hampshire. According to Citizens Count, the Affordable Housing and Property Rights category had 59 bills last session. That is a significant number.
Other categories had similar numbers: Government Process and Transparency (54), Local and County Government (53), Motor Vehicle Laws (59) and Public Health and Safety (67). Are these categories equally important to citizens as affordable housing?
I absolutely recognize one bill can have an immense impact โ so the number of bills is not a metric for impact. But it is a metric for priorities.
Why do you think School Standards and Testing (88) and School Funding (47) had high bill numbers? Considering recent court cases, as well as the 40-year struggle to address school funding, one might think school funding would be the highest number. However, this is obviously not the case. And in thinking about school standards, keep in mind, education is locally controlled/managed in New Hampshire.
Apparently, a large number of representatives are highly focused on public education, but more on creating regulations and not addressing funding of public schools.