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Is the state’s new commission studying the charitable gaming industry dealing from the bottom of the deck?

The new state budget that took effect in July created the Commission To Study The Effect Of Recent Changes Made To Charitable Gaming Laws, which held its first meeting Monday morning. Eyebrows were raised when the commission picked Rep. Laurie Sanborn (R-Bedford) as its chair, despite her and her husband operating the Concord Casino since 2018.

“I think Laurie’s a lovely person, but I don’t think she’s the right person to lead this commission,” commission member Sen. Lou D’Allesandro (D-Manchester) told NHJournal. Though he could not attend its first meeting, he said he urged other members to take actions that would be viewed as fair and transparent to the public.

“It should not be chaired by a player in the gaming industry,” D’Allesandro said.

Unlike nearly every New Hampshire state government public hearing, the commission’s meeting was not broadcast on streaming video.

Sanborn did not respond to a request for comment.

Commission member Rep. Fred Doucette (R-Salem) nominated Sanborn for the chair. She sees no problem overseeing a commission that is expected to propose changes to the gambling industry, even with her stake in the casino.

“Anything can seem like a conflict of interest depending on how you look at it,” Doucette said.

He said Sanborn brings an insider’s perspective about the casino business to her role, which will be an asset to the commission. Other legislative committees and commissions include members and chairs involved in the industries they oversee, he said.

“We’re a volunteer legislature, and we have to draw from the knowledge and expertise we have at hand,” Doucette said.

Sen. Tim Lang (R-Sanborton), another commission member, told NHJournal that Sanborn declared her conflict before being nominated, as House rules require. Lang said Sanborn got on the commission in the first place because House Speaker Sherman Packard (R-Londonderry) appointed her.

“The speaker knew Laurie’s background and chose to appoint her to the commission,” Lang said.

Packard did not respond to a request for comment.

Other members of the commission:

• Attorney General John Formella
• Rep. John Janigian (R-Salem)
• Rep. Benjamin Baroody (D-Manchester)
• Rep. Richard Ames (D-Jaffrey)
• NH Lottery Director Charles McIntyre
• Aaron Gomes, COO Peninsula Pacific Entertainment
• Norman Roberge, treasurer of the Concord Lions Club
• Giovanna Bonilla, director of events and partnerships with the Boston Billiards Club and Casino

New Hampshire allows casinos under its charitable gaming rules which limits how much players can bet and requires casinos to donate 35 percent of the house take to New Hampshire charities. The state keeps 10 percent of the revenue.

The state raised the limit on maximum single-play bets from $10 to $50 in this year’s budget as part of legislation that created the study commission. The commission will look at issues that could impact casino operations and how much charitable groups can expect in donations.

And because state revenues are at stake, some people who attended Monday’s meeting raised questions about who, if anyone, would be advocating on behalf of the taxpayers.

“I saw the casinos and I saw the charities, this is their commission. But where were the taxpayers? ” one person in attendance who asked to speak on background told NHJournal.

The commission is also expected to review the rent charities pay to the operators’ establishments that house them. This rent payment can lower the charity’s take, reducing the amount of charitable donations. Concord Casino is located in The Draft Sports Bar, also owned by the Sanborns. According to records filed with the New Hampshire Secretary of State’s Office, the Draft and Concord Casino are separate business entities.

The commission is also tasked with studying how licenses are issued in the state. The commission could recommend limiting new licenses in municipalities where there are already casinos. Andy Sanborn recently won approval from the city of Concord for a new, large-scale, 43,000-square-foot casino, called Image Casino, to be located at the end of Loudon Road.

Former Rep. Edward “Ned” Gordon (R-Bristol), who still chairs the Legislative Ethics Committee, would not comment on Sanborn’s chairmanship. The Legislative Ethics Committee only gets involved in issues where a complaint is filed.

“The Ethics Committee is not a police force,” he said.

New Hampshire has different ethical standards for different types of officials. For example, someone in the executive branch is barred from overseeing an industry in which they or a spouse has a financial interest. And under rules for the judiciary, judges must recuse themselves from cases in which they or their spouses could benefit.

However, Laurie Sanborn’s leadership of the study commission does not necessarily violate House rules for legislators. The rules require legislators to file a declaration of intent when there is a conflict of interest. Those declarations must state the nature of the conflict and whether or not the lawmaker plans to vote anyway. Declarations can also be made verbally at meetings.

D’Allesandro said the current standard simply is not good enough.

“If your husband owns a casino, or you and your husband own a casino, that’s a conflict of interest,” D’Allesandro said.

Gordon tried and failed to get the conflict of interest rules changed for legislators. He sponsored 2020’s HB 1694, which would have forced legislators to recuse themselves where there is a conflict of interest similar to the Sanborn’s. Gordon’s bill died in the Senate.

The Image Casino proposal is now the subject of a lawsuit. A dozen city residents filed an appeal in the Merrimack Superior Court of the city Planning Board’s approval for the casino. The appeal claims the Planning Board voted to approve the project without proper public notice.

A compromise proposal to create an Indigenous People’s Day in New Hampshire was killed by state House Democrats earlier this month, who argued honoring Native Americans was not enough.

Columbus Day, they insisted, must die.

Democrats on the House Executive Departments and Administration Committee unanimously voted HB 1173 as inexpedient to legislate, rejecting the idea of leaving both Columbus Day and Indigenous People’s Day on the calendar.

“I don’t entirely understand their opposition,” said Rep. Oliver Ford (R-Chester).

Ford is one of the bill’s co-sponsors, which would have established an Indigenous Peoples’ Day on Aug. 9 to coincide with World Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Ford’s bill had nothing to do with the October Columbus Day holiday. That was not good enough for progressives who want to eliminate the celebrations for Christopher Columbus, he said.

“I specifically think they are separate issues,” Ford said. “If he wasn’t a nice guy, then don’t celebrate a day for him. But don’t substitute it for another day.”

The other co-sponsor, Rep. Jess Edwards (R-Auburn), said people on the left have been trying to do away with Columbus Day in the State House for years, and some members are burning out on the fight. 

“It’s an unpleasant issue,” Edwards said. “There are people who are advancing the bills who have so much anger and hostility against the United States. They use the Indigenous Peoples’ Day as a weapon.”

Edwards said his bill was a response to a progressive effort last year to eliminate Columbus Day celebrations in New Hampshire in favor of Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Edwards sees Columbus Day as a celebration of this country’s discovery and attempts to end that celebration as un-American.

“I’m a patriot. I love this country. Mankind is flawed, but the United States has done the greatest things on behalf of freedom in the world,” he said,

Rep. Timothy Horrigan (D-Durham) opposed Edwards and Ford’s bill, saying holding the celebration in August is meaningless. 

“Aug. 9 is just another day,” Horrigan said.

Horrigan wants to see New Hampshire stop celebrating Columbus Day in October and replace it with Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Horrigan bases his opinion on the historical record of the atrocities Columbus and his men committed in the New World.

“A lot of good things came out of his voyage, but a lot of bad things came too,” Horrigan said. “According to the historical record, he was a pretty nasty guy.”

However, the historical record also shows the residents of the New World weren’t perfect, either. Slavery, ritual human sacrifice, and cannibalism were all practiced by the indigenous people of the Americas long before Europeans arrived.

When Columbus landed in the New World, he and his men started taking the native people as slaves, using them as forced labor, or selling them off to slaveholders in Spain.

Concord, Manchester, Nashua, and other municipalities have adopted Indigenous Peoples’ Day celebrations to coincide with or replace the Columbus Day holidays. Last year, President Joe Biden became the first president to acknowledge Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

Andrew Bullock, executive director at the Mt. Kearsarge Indian Museum in Warner, does not take a position on when it should happen but says he believes there should be a day to honor indigenous people in America. He would like to see the Columbus Day celebrations come to an end as well.

“I don’t know that (Columbus Day celebrations) reflect the current native perspective in New Hampshire,” Bullock said.

Controversy over Columbus Day is nothing new. Columbus was adopted as a patron for Catholic Italian immigrants in the 1880s. The Italians connected to Columbus as they sought to be accepted as Americans. In the 1920s, Columbus Day celebrations were at times violently opposed by the Ku Klux Klan because of the Klan’s hatred of Catholics.

Sen. Lou D’Allesandro (D-Manchester) says he thinks it is great to have a day for indigenous people, but it can’t be Columbus Day.

“I would be totally opposed to that,” D’Allesandro said. “Columbus Day has great meaning for Italian Americans who have done so much for this country.”

D’Allesandro said the holiday is similar to St. Patrick’s Day for Irish Americans, a great way to celebrate both heritage and the American ideal.

“Italians have done very many good things in this country and stood up for this country,” D’Allesandro said.

In two legislative victories for Gov. Chris Sununu, he saw Republicans unite to pass a state budget and full-day kindergarten. The New Hampshire House and Senate met Thursday for the final session of the legislative year in their respective chambers, and behind-the-scenes negotiations on the budget led to a win for the NH GOP platform. An $11.7 billion biennium budget is on its way to Sununu’s desk for his signature.

The scene was a joyous one for Sununu and Republican lawmakers in the Executive Council chambers at the State House after the budget vote. As Sununu walked into the room, cheering and applause broke out to celebrate their victory.

“Absolutely a big win, a big win for New Hampshire,” Sununu said after the vote. “People sent us to Concord to get a job done and we did it. And we did it the right way, we brought folks in and we listened and we talked, we kept working it the best we could and we came out with what I think is incredible progress for the state of New Hampshire.”

The Senate passed a committee of conference spending plan on a party-line vote of 14-9 in its Thursday morning session. About an hour later, the House passed the same budget on a roll call vote of 198-169. Only 14 Republicans voted in opposition and five Democrats supported the budget.

The margin of passage was wider than many people expected. Just a week ago, the fate of the budget in the House was uncertain, after conservatives tanked an earlier version of the budget in April. After some wheeling and dealing with Sununu and GOP Senate leadership, members of the conservative House Republican Alliance and House Freedom Caucus said while it was an imperfect budget, it was something that had some benefits for Granite Staters.

“Although the caucus as a whole is still concerned about the level of spending, there are definite benefits for the NH taxpayers,” the Freedom Caucus said in a statement. “The majority of our caucus members were able to support the budget in order to bring these benefits to our constituents.”

The business tax cuts added by the Senate were a significant factor in motivating the conservatives to vote in favor of the budget.

“There are many Republican leaders to thank for the passage of this bill — [House] Speaker [Shawn] Jasper, Senate President [Chuck] Morse, and Governor Sununu united the party in Concord and ensured passage of this Republican budget,” said NHGOP Chair Jeanie Forrester. “Republicans of all backgrounds and stripes united to pass this budget and ensure a stable and bright future for the State of New Hampshire. This shows that when Republicans are united, Republicans win and New Hampshire is better off for it.”

A companion bill that made the policy changes reflected in the budget also passed the Senate by a 14-9 margin and in the House by a vote of 212-161.

The companion bill included a phase-in of business tax cuts, elimination of the electricity consumption tax, and authorization of online lottery games. The budget will take effect on July 1, the first day of the new state fiscal year.

While Republicans claimed a win for their legislative agenda, New Hampshire Democratic Party Chairman Ray Buckley sent a fundraising email to supporters, blasting the GOP-backed spending plan.

“Gov. Sununu’s reckless and dangerous budget will take New Hampshire’s progress and turn it into disrepair,” Buckley said. “Republicans assume New Hampshire’s problems will just fix themselves. That’s not leadership, that’s ignorance. Let’s work together to make sure we have the state government we deserve in Concord.”

Later in the day, the House and Senate also passed another of Sununu’s policy priorities: funding for full-day kindergarten. The funding starts with state dollars, but after two years, it would be funded from revenue generated by newly authorized Keno.

Over the legislative session, Sununu stuck by his campaign promise to see full-day kindergarten come to fruition. He called for it in his budget, stood by his pledge after House Republicans stripped its funding from their budget, and then applauded once the Senate revitalized it as a standalone bill. He showed his flexibility when the policy and funding levels changed each time and while the final bill was not what he originally intended, he called it a “first-step.”

The House overwhelmingly passed Senate Bill 191 on a roll call of 251-111. The Senate vote was 15-8, with 12 Republicans and three Democrats in favor, and two Republicans and six Democrats opposed.

It was a difficult bill for some lawmakers to stomach tying online gambling revenue to education. For Sen. Lou D’Allesandro, D-Concord, he’s been a longtime advocate of casino-style gambling in the state, but he voted against the bill since he didn’t believe the two issues should be linked.

On the opposite end, Senate Majority Leader Jeb Bradley is not a big supporter of Keno, but he voted in favor of the bill to invest more in early education.

Still, the bill made it through the legislature and is headed to Sununu’s desk, who applauded its passage and declared that he is “the first governor” to deliver a full-day kindergarten.

“The investments made today will give New Hampshire’s children a strong foundation for tomorrow’s future,” he said. “I am proud to be the first governor to deliver a real full-day kindergarten program for communities across our state, which will close the opportunity gap and provide students, regardless of their economic status, an extra step up as they enter the first grade. Full-day kindergarten is good for children and families, and a critical tool in retaining our future workforce.”

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The Senate Finance Committee finished crafting its version of the state budget on Wednesday. It largely resembles what Gov. Chris Sununu proposed in February, except for new business tax cuts and a multimillion dollar investment in mental health services.

The committee voted 4-2 along party lines to approve a two-year, $11.8 billion state budget. Republicans believe the spending is conservative enough and tackles important issues facing the state, such as the mental health crisis. Democrats argue the budget doesn’t focus enough on higher education, public health, and workforce training initiatives.

“It’s a solid budget that provides what New Hampshire needs,” said Senate President Chuck Morse. “We certainly have had lists of things that we couldn’t fund, like increased funding for the university system, that we just can’t get to in this budget if we’re going to live within our means.”

One of the biggest differences between Sununu’s proposal and the Senate Finance Committee’s spending plan is the cut in the state’s business profits tax (BPT) and business enterprise tax (BET). Sununu’s budget didn’t include them.

Under the measure, the BPT would drop to 7.7 percent in 2019 and 7.5 in 2021. Meanwhile, the state’s BET would fall to 0.6 percent in 2019 and 0.5 percent in 2021.

“The budget passed by the Senate Finance Committee does not increase or create any new taxes or fees and relies on realistic revenue projections,” said Senate Finance Chair Gary Daniels. “The budget also addresses our state’s top priorities including providing resources for those most in need. This budget also includes additional business tax cuts and increases small businesses’ ability to make capital investments. This allows businesses in New Hampshire to create good paying jobs and grow their business, keeping our state competitive with other states in New England and nationally.”

The two Democrats on the committee, Dan Feltes of Concord and Lou D’Allesandro of Manchester, voted against the budget, saying several necessary programs are underfunded.

“This budget fails to fully fund full-day kindergarten, fails to fully fund our efforts to combat the opioid epidemic, and fails to adequately meet the needs of those suffering from mental illness,” D’Allesandro said. “Make no mistake, this is not the budget I wanted and I will continue to work to ensure that the critical needs of the people of New Hampshire are met.”

The Senate Finance Committee’s budget leaves out money for full-day kindergarten, which Sununu included in his proposal. Those funds, though, are part of a separate bill making its way through the Legislature.

The budget also calls for more than $17 million in spending to increase the number of mental health beds and expand mental health services. That measure was not in Sununu’s budget, but he supports it. It also increases funding for additional social workers and supervisors in the Division for Children, Youth and Families (DCYF). The Alcohol Fund is seeing an allocation of 3.4 percent of revenues, which is up from 1.7 percent in the current budget.

“We addressed our state’s most critical needs, including programs to benefit families with a disabled child and adding 60 new beds and community treatment options to relieve the growing mental health problem,” Daniels said. “We also doubled the Governor’s Commission on Alcohol and Substance Abuse Prevention, Treatment and Recovery to bring new resources into our communities combating the heroin crisis. We also made sweeping changes to the leadership at the Division of Children, Youth and Families and added more caseworkers to ensure our kids’ best interests are being taken care of and they are protected abuse and neglect harm.”

The Senate Finance Committee budget also approves the use of $2 million in unspent money from the 2017 Alcohol Fund for renovations and construction of a youth substance abuse treatment wing at the Sununu Youth Services Center in Manchester. An allocation of $250,000 per year for sexual and domestic violence prevention programs was also approved, along with $1 million in funding for 13 rape and domestic violence crisis centers operated by the N.H. Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence.

Despite these additions, Feltes said the Senate GOP budget doesn’t reflect the needs of Granite Staters.

“This budget fails to include job training programs that would boost our workforce and close our skills gap, breaks promises made to our retirees and increases health care costs for our seniors,” he said. “It fails to live up to our obligations to Granite Staters living with disabilities by failing to fund our developmental disability waitlist and does not adequately deal with childhood mental health. And it fails to provide resources to reform DCYF and protect our most vulnerable children. Quite simply, this budget fails to adequately address the critical and time-sensitive challenges facing our state.”

The budget go the Senate floor for a vote. Usually, after the full Senate approves of its budget, the Senate and House confer to iron out differences between the two budgets. However, the House was unable to pass a budget this year. After the Senate approves of the budget, it will ultimately need to be approved by the full House.

The real test of the budget will be in the lower chamber, after conservative members sided with Democrats to sink the House GOP leadership’s plan last month. They cited an increase in spending and lack of tax cuts as reasons for opposing the budget. With BPT and BET tax cuts, it’s possible they might support the Senate’s plan, which included several provisions from the House budget.

If the state budget makes it through the House, it will head to the governor’s desk for his signature. The whole process needs to be done by the end of the fiscal year on June 30.

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