This time, Sununu administration officials showed up at an April 12 hearing to defend the governor’s Granite State Paid Family Leave program, though they didn’t have much to say about a bill to repeal it. And most of the senators on the Commerce Committee didn’t have much to ask either.
If House Bill 1165 becomes law, it would put an end to the program just as it was being implemented. Indeed, as the hearing took place, the state was in the process of fielding questions for a request of proposals released earlier in the month.
The paid family leave program would piggyback on a taxpayer-funded benefit given to the state’s over 11,000 employees, using generous business tax credits to entice employers to participate and subsidized low rates to get individuals to sign on. The insurance would pay 60 percent of wages for up to six weeks to take care of a family member or oneself.
Last year, there wasn’t even a hearing on the program in either chamber because it was tucked into last year’s budget at the last minute. The Senate put it in the budget at the request of Gov. Chris Sununu, although House members removed it, but in the con ference committee, the governor insisted it be included, said Rep. Jess Edwards, R-Auburn.
“It was so important to the governor. It was dramatically more important to him than to our House,” said Edwards. “I didn’t like the process,” adding that he was “ambivalent about a repeal.”
House members objected to it because of the uncertainty of the cost and, because it would interfere with the free market.
“This cost is not guaranteed to stay within the rosy forecast by proponents, and taxpayers will be on the hook for the increased costs,” said Rep. Andrew Prout, R-Hudson, sponsor of the repeal bill. The program would “grant de facto monopoly status to the winner of the state (request for proposals) … and end all competition in the short-term disability family leave marketplace.”
Rep. Len Turcottte, R-Barrington, noted that Republicans in the House overwhelmingly voted against the program, while Democrats backed it. Despite it being pushed by a Republican governor, “this is not a Republican issue. It’s a very liberal issue.”
But the department is “very excited” about the program because it is a “New Hampshire-based solution. It’s free market,” testified Insurance Commissioner Chris Nikolopoulos, who had skipped the House hearings, although he did plead for the program in front of the House Labor Committee just before members voted for repeal.
Deputy Commissioner Catherine Keane of the Department of Administrative Services, which is evaluating the RFP, didn’t say how many potential bidders are interested and what the cost would be. She said that those questions will only be answered when the bids come in. The RFP from insurers is due May 9. A separate bid, to market the program, is due May 2. The program is scheduled to go live on Jan. 1.
Richard Lavers, deputy commissioner of the Department of Employment Security, made a pitch for the program.
Noting that 44 percent of the 14,000 people who moved to the state were between the child-rearing ages of 25 and 34, he said, “We see this as another opportunity for employers to use as an incentive to keep this workforce.”
— BOB SANDERS
