CONCORD — Josiah Bartlett Center President Drew Cline has been tapped to host a new morning news/talk show on Manchester radio station WFEA, the flagship news/talk station of Manchester Radio Group. “WFEA Morning Update,” airing from 6-9 a.m. weekdays, will launch on Monday, June 20th, filling a huge void in New Hampshire’s talk-radio market by […]

In 1970, Manchester had more than enough rentals for all who needed one. Over the course of the next half century, the city created its own housing shortage.  It’s a story repeated in many communities throughout New Hampshire. Manchester offers a case study based on Census figures. Manchester had 36,024 total housing units in 1970, […]

Granite Staters support building affordable housing in their communities, and even in their neighborhoods, a new poll from the Center for Ethics in Society at St. Anselm College has found. The results upend the traditional view that residents don’t want new housing built close to them. That view has been used for decades to justify […]

As Republicans in Washington fight Democratic efforts to forgive federal student loans, GOP legislators in New Hampshire are promoting $1 million in tax-funded student loan forgiveness for graduates in one high-tech industry — human organ manufacturing. In 2018, legislators passed a package of subsidies and tax breaks sought by the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute, a […]

The Tax Foundation’s Jared Walczak writes that a push for flat taxes is spreading through the states. This wave of tax reform can make these states more economically competitive, which is worth watching from a New Hampshire policy perspective. Walczak writes: In more than a century of state income taxes, only four states have ever […]

Companies have been working for years on new ways to recycle plastics, and they think they have a breakthrough concept: chemical, or “advanced,” recycling. If the technology is perfected, it has the potential to increase plastics recycling and decrease solid waste.  Naturally, environmental activist groups hate it.  In the Legislature this year, a popular, bipartisan […]

New Hampshire could become one of the earliest states to enable low-cost legal assistance by loosening occupational licensing regulations on the practice of law. If House Bill 1343 passes, paralegals would be able to provide limited legal representation to lower-income individuals in district, circuit and family court.  Paralegals have some legal training but are not […]

With two months left in the fiscal year, state business tax collections are $217.2 million above budget. For context, business tax revenues came in $649.9 million over budget during the entire previous decade.  So surplus business tax collections during the last 10 months have equaled 33% of the total surplus in business tax revenues collected […]

The state’s tremendous budget surplus is a windfall that should be used wisely. The last budget restored funding to the Rainy Day Fund. This year, policymakers would be wise to shift a large portion of the ($252 million so far) budget surplus to the state’s pension fund. This would save taxpayers money in the long […]

New Hampshire’s critical housing shortage has emerged as the No. 1 impediment to state economic growth, and the legislative session could end with no substantial progress on the issue.  In Concord, there is broad agreement that housing is a serious problem. There is little agreement on solutions. Paralyzed by a widespread reluctance to place legal […]