The New Hampshire House and Senate meet Wednesday to take up the 31 bills that Gov. Kelly Ayotte vetoed this year. NHPR's senior political reporter Josh Rogers and Morning Edition host Rick Ganley discussed the bills on the table and what we might expect.
Below is a lightly edited transcript of their conversation.
Rick Ganley: So, 31 vetoes. That does sound like a lot, particularly given that we have a Republican governor, and both the House and Senate are led by Republicans. So what's going on there?
Josh Rogers: It is a lot of bills. I think several things are going on. Some of these bills are ones that Ayotte has vetoed in the past that Republicans still very much want to pass. Some of these bills are policies lawmakers want that Ayotte expressed opposition to prior to their passage. But many of these policies are ones that didn't meaningfully weigh in on as lawmakers considered them.
But I think the sheer number does say something about how Ayotte operates as governor. She generally doesn't get too involved with the legislature's policy work until it reaches her, and if she doesn't like the final product, or it falls outside the priorities that she's chosen to emphasize, she's got no problem wielding the veto pen. And as far as I can tell, no modern governor has vetoed anything near the number of bills, as has Gov. Ayotte.
What are some of the high-profile vetoes that lawmakers are looking to override?
I think the biggest one is the state's 10-year highway plan, which is, as it sounds like, basically the state's roadmap for construction projects dealing with roads. Typically, these plans pass with bipartisan support and without opposition from a governor. At issue here is this plan's inclusion of a provision that would double turnpike tolls for vehicles that don't use New Hampshire E-ZPass transponders. Ayotte really doesn't like that, she says. It sends the wrong message and might hurt tourism. Backers of the plan say New Hampshire drivers pay tolls in other states, and that turnabout is fair play, and that these adjusted tolls for out-of-staters would still be among the lowest in the country.
They also note that the highway fund has a $400 million shortfall, and that charging out-of-staters more could help close that gap.
There's been some public lobbying on this front from road contractors, but Gov. Ayotte’s quite dug in, and we'll see if lawmakers can get the two-thirds majority vote in both chambers that they need to overturn this.
What other bills, Josh, of note that will be voted on Wednesday?
One that's getting significant attention is a bill that would remove the state's three-year deadline to seek a new trial if there's new evidence that emerges. Backers of this bill say it could make it easier for people who were wrongfully convicted to receive justice. Ayotte, meanwhile, argues it's unnecessary.
This debate is interesting for several reasons. One is that New Hampshire is a real outlier on this front: Only three states have fixed time limits for defendants to seek new trials. One of them is New Hampshire. And New Hampshire also has a remarkably low exoneration rate, maybe the lowest in the country. But Ayotte is a former attorney general. Criminal justice is really the policy she most emphasizes, and she's pretty unbending on this front.
And you mentioned earlier, some of these bills have been vetoed before. What are those?
There's a bill that would allow segregation by gender in certain circumstances, a so-called “bathroom bill.” Ayotte’s vetoed multiple iterations of that, and that veto is likely to stand. There's a bill to make it easier to remove books from public schools. She's vetoed that before.
Before you go, Josh, I want to ask you about something I've been thinking about Veto Day. This doesn't normally happen this time of year.
No, it's special this year, Rick. It normally happens deeper in the fall. In mid-August attendance could be down, which will make mustering the two-thirds of all members, both Senate and House, a taller order.
And there's also the political moment. We have state primary day in three weeks. So this could be a moment when Republicans want to unite as they look towards Election Day. And for Kelly Ayotte, it's also a moment when expressing dominance with vetoes that stand could be a real priority. So we'll see how the how the date affects dynamics.
