“Live Free or Die” may again be the first thing visitors see before they come into the state. The House will vote on Wednesday, April 5, on SB 400, which would replace the state’s current highway welcome signs (which read “You’re going to love it here”) with new signs that boast the state’s more forceful motto. The bill received unanimous support in the Senate, which passed it in March.

The House Transportation Committee concurred, recommending the bill by a vote of 10-0.On Tuesday, April 11, the House Transportation Committee will once again look at extending the one-year advisory period for the state’s onboard diagnostic automotive testing system. OBD testing was supposed to take effect in June 2005; however, some state lawmakers were unhappy with the regulations, which they said were forcing motorists to make unnecessary costly repairs to their cars in order to comply with the tests.
The move to ban smoking in New Hampshire bars and restaurants faltered last week when the Senate Finance Committee voted to kill the bill, voting 3-3 against HB 1177. The full Senate will vote on the smoking ban on Thursday, April 6. The odds of the bill passing are unclear—while the Republican leadership maintains they will work to oppose the bill, Senate Democrats are backing it.

“We hold public hearings on pending legislation in the Senate to encourage input from New Hampshire citizens. We should then vote on legislation based on the facts presented to us in the public hearings, and not go into hearings with our minds made up. The public has spoken overwhelmingly in favor of the smoking ban, and the New Hampshire Senate Democrats will bring this fight to the Senate floor,” Sen. Lou D’Allesandro (D-Manchester) said in a statement released after the Finance Committee vote.
The Senate will vote on a host of House bills on April 6. Bills up for consideration include: HB 1362, which permits audio and video recording on school buses, so long as parents of children on the bus are notified that recording will take place; HB 1768, which would establish a committee to study the effects of rescinding the New Hampshire Bar Association’s Charter; HB 1125, which would give the New Hampshire Secretary of State flexibility in setting the candidate filing period for the state’s presidential primary; HB 1765, which would appropriate $2.9 million to communities affected by heavy flooding in October 2005; and HB 1609, which would require the state Department of Environmental Services to set up a program to determine the state’s future water needs and availability. All the bills received support at the committee level and are expected to pass.

On Wednesday, April 5, the Senate Finance Committee will hold a public hearing on HB 1679. The bill would require private businesses located on property owned by the University System of New Hampshire to pay a portion of property taxes to the town in which the businesses are located. Supporters of the bill argue that private businesses leasing space on USNH property, such as fast food restaurants, have an unfair advantage over similar business because they are not required to pay property taxes.

The Senate Public and Municipal Affairs Committee will hold a hearing on Wednesday, April 10 on HB 1582, which would make official the state’s opposition to any sort of national identification card program. The bill is in direct opposition to the REAL ID Act passed by Congress in 2005, which requires states to adopt uniform standards for drivers’ licenses and other forms of identification within the next two years. The Senate Transportation and Interstate Cooperation Committee will look at a bill taking the opposite tack on Wednesday, April 12. HB 347 would force the state Department of Motor Vehicles to indicate a person’s citizenship status on drivers’ licenses.