Some Senators are again pushing a constitutional amendment on education funding.
Just last week the House defeated a similar proposal.
Governor Lynch is meeting with House and Senate members gauging the political enthusiasm for such an amendment.
New Hampshire Public Radio’s Dan Gorenstein reports that Senate proponents must decide whether to force the issue onto the House or pick up the debate in the future.
On a three to two vote along party lines, Senate Democrats voted out the latest constitutional amendment from the Judiciary Committee.
Sponsor Senator Joe Foster described the measure- CACR 19- as a hybrid of what House Finance Committee members considered recently.
T.19
2:31 this amendment has never had an up or down vote in the House. There is language that is different from the vote that was taken on it.
Foster is trying to hook House Republicans with language he lifted from a GOP amendment last week.
If enough House Republicans come on board, Senate sponsors like Foster hope they can convince enough House Democrats to follow suit.
But before the measure can even reach the House, it must pass the Senate, which is no sure thing.
Senators are proceeding cautiously.
They worry about the wording of the amendment and the political ramifications of voting for it.
Opposition to the actual amendment ranges concerns over local control to charges that the plan is a sneaky way to limit state spending on education.
Politically, Senate Democrats must weigh the cost of sending the House a bill it has already killed....by a wide margin.
Senate President Sylvia Larsen sees two choices right now: retain the plan for a later day, or muscle it through.
:53 we have a debate whether it’s...keep doors open.
3:19...the pros and cons are right there, you get more time to develop the language, you lose the momentum, those are things we are discussing. I wish I could tell you the exact plan, but when you are dealing with 424 members, you have a lot of people to consult with before the final decision is made.
If public comments from lawmakers Wednesday afternoon are any indication, consulting is pretty much all that’s going on right now.
Many Democratic Representatives and Senators were reluctant to stake out a position on the amendment.
Senator Lou D’Alesandro said before he can decide whether to support the plan, he’s got to know two things: what does the governor want and how will the House respond.
:30 I think at this point, people don’t have the answer to that. So as a senator, I say you got to know where it’s going before you have to think about how to vote.
:22 we support a constitutional amendment, we support that language, it’s primarily what we drafted....
House Minority Leader Mike Whalley.
:15 if it doesn’t happen it will be b/c Democrats don’t want to take up a constitutional amendment. It won’t be b/c Republicans don’t want to take up a constitutional amendment.
Representative Whalley says he is confident 90% of his caucus or about 145 members will back CACR 19 if it makes it to the House.
Last week, House Democrats mustered 108 votes for the amendment.
108 plus 145 would give amendment supporters the necessary votes to suspend House rules and pass the proposal.
But some of those 108 votes were likely one-time votes, and it’s possible the new language in CACR 19 would further erode Democratic support.
While Senators are seeking a message from House leadership, when asked by the press, members of the leadership team spoke in cloaked terms.
For example, this is how Finance Chair Marjorie Smith answered the question whether there are enough votes among Democratic ranks to support the amendment.
7:40 if I had any power, which I don’t, perhaps I am just speaking as a mother, the smart way to deal with people who have different views but are in the same family would be to give time for people to calm down. And to perhaps to hear from others in their extended family about how they feel, and then we could come back.
An interpretation of Smith’s remarks suggests that she would like to see the Senate retain the proposal and pick it up sometime in the fall.
Over the summer, the hope would be that Democratic leaders, potentially including the governor, would try to drum up support for the concept among Democratic constituents.
The ball is squarely in the Senate’s court.
If a measure passes the Senate, the House would take it up June 27th.
For NHPR News, I’m DG.
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