New Hampshire’s minimum wage would eventually increase to $15 per hour, business taxes would be cut by millions of dollars and guns could be taken from people posing an extreme risk under bills that will be considered when legislators return to the Statehouse for the 2023 session.

There’s also a proposal to have a public vote on giving lawmakers a pay raise.

The state Legislature is scheduled to convene at 10 a.m. on Jan. 4. Legislative Service Requests, precursors to actual bills, were made previously with titles describing subjects, but the actual wording of legislative proposals was not available until the measures began appearing on a state website last week. The list will grow well beyond the 125 bills that were online as of Tuesday afternoon.

Bills are generally first considered in a legislative committee before moving to the full House and Senate for a vote and potentially on to the governor’s desk to be signed into law or vetoed.

Rep. Walter Stapleton, R-Claremont, is sponsoring a proposed constitutional amendment to boost the pay for lawmakers from its current $100 per year to $2,500.

He said the current pay level was set in 1889. There are 400 N.H. representatives and 24 senators.

“People have to give up work, they have to give up time, resources and talents in order to do this job,” Stapleton said.

“Every legislative general session we have at least 20 or 30 people absent and sometimes we have 50 people absent. If there was a little better compensation, maybe they would have that sense of obligation to at least attend and cast the votes like they are expected to do.”

Meanwhile, a group of Democrats are sponsoring House Bill 57, which would boost New Hampshire’s minimum wage, which is now at $7.25 an hour and is the lowest in New England. The bill would increase it to $13.50 on Sept. 1, $14.25 on Jan. 1, 2024, and $15 per hour on Jan. 1, 2025.

Last year, a proposal to hike the minimum wage failed to advance in the Republican-controlled Senate, which voted 13-10 for the issue to be studied in the interim between legislative sessions.

While many Republicans oppose mandating an increase in wages for those on the lowest end of the economic spectrum, they would like to see some tax relief for those at the higher end of the scale.

GOP-backed House Bill 15 would reduce the Business Enterprise Tax rate from 0.55 percent to 0.50 percent for taxable periods ending on or after Dec. 31, 2024. The bill would cost the state more than $24 million in tax revenue in 2025, according to its fiscal impact statement.

The Business Enterprise Tax was enacted in 1993. According to the N.H. Department of Revenue it is assessed on “the sum of all compensation paid or accrued, interest paid or accrued, and dividends paid by the business.”

Another Republican-sponsored bill would repeal the Interest and Dividends Tax on Jan. 1, 2024. The tax is currently set at 4 percent and is scheduled to be repealed on Jan. 1, 2027.

People and some organizations whose gross interest and dividend income exceeds $2,400 annually must pay this tax.

The bill would cost the state more than $187 million, according to its fiscal impact statement.

There is also a partisan divide on the subject of firearms.

Democrats are sponsoring several gun safety measures, one of which would repeal a Republican-backed bill, signed into law this year by GOP Gov. Chris Sununu, that prohibits the state from enforcing federal regulations on guns, including presidential executive orders.

Another, House Bill 106, would allow family or household members or law enforcement officers to petition for a court order to temporarily restrict access to firearms by people who are found to pose an immediate risk to themselves or others.

A third Democratic-backed bill, HB 32, would make it a crime to possess or discharge a firearm in a school zone.

On the other hand, Republicans have sponsored a weapons bill of their own.

House Bill 31 would remove the ban for carrying or possessing with intent to sell a blackjack, slungshot or metallic knuckles.

Rick Green can be reached at RGreen@KeeneSentinel.com or 603-355-8567. These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visit collaborativenh.org. 

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