First, I must thank all of my constituents in District 12 for their support in electing me to a second term serving in the New Hampshire Senate. It is an honor that I take very seriously and I am committed to doing my best to serve my communities.
This session, we continue to focus on job growth and key business issues, among many other top priorities that affect the communities within the Monadnock Region and across the state.
Our priorities continue to support the need to grow good jobs in this state by making New Hampshire a more competitive place to do business through further reducing business taxes, ensuring employees have the freedom to work, strengthening our state’s workforce and lowering high energy costs.
Last session, we lowered the Business Enterprise Tax for the first time ever and lowered the Business Profits Tax for the first time in 20 years. In the months after the tax rates were reduced in early 2016, we saw restored confidence in our employers who created 8,500 new jobs, helping businesses to expand and encouraging new businesses to move into our state. While this is a great start, we are far from the lowest business tax rate in the nation. I plan to support legislation that will further reduce taxes because we know that the end result is more good jobs for our citizens.
In addition, I am supportive of legislation that will give workers the freedom to choose if he or she wants to pay union dues. According to a recent Gallup Poll, Right-to-Work laws are very popular, with 71 percent of Americans supporting such laws including 77 percent of independent voters. Additionally, wages in Right-to-Work states were 4.1 percent higher than forced union states. This session, with the support of Gov. Sununu, we are committed to passing Right-to-Work to improve the jobs and business climate in New Hampshire.
We’ve heard a lot about the increased need for a skilled workforce to fill many of the available high tech manufacturing jobs in the state. There are programs at our community colleges, like Nashua Community College, which is a great example of how students are matched with businesses, like BAE Systems, to provide real-life experience and training in high tech, good-paying manufacturing jobs. I’m committed to supporting more opportunities like this in the Monadnock Region, which provides the skills training needed for the types of jobs available in our state, and believe our colleges and universities should follow the community college system’s lead in expanding these kinds of programs for our students.
The high cost of energy in New Hampshire has been an important issue affecting both homeowners and businesses alike. The issue was highlighted when major employer Sig Sauer publically announced its decision to build a new facility, bringing new jobs to North Carolina instead of New Hampshire because of the burdensome energy costs in our state. The company stands to save over a million dollars in a year by moving future business out of New Hampshire. This is unacceptable for our state, and I doubt it is the only example of a business moving out, or choosing never to come here at all. We simply cannot continue to ignore how big of an issue high energy costs have become and how it negatively impacts job creation.
We need to make sure energy costs are not continuing to rise and the cost of doing business in New Hampshire is competitive with other states. And the way to do that is to responsibly pave the way for new energy infrastructure, increasing supply that ultimately drives down costs for employers and homeowners. But we must do that while also ensuring that there are strong protections are in place for property owners. I supported legislation last session that would provide strong guidelines and protections against eminent domain, and I am the prime sponsor of a bill to add protections, which I believe will garner bipartisan support. I will fight to put those additional protections for property owners in law. Reducing energy costs while protecting property owners is a very high priority and I hope to see progress made this session.
In all that we do this year, we need to focus on job creation and building on the trend to restore New Hampshire’s reputation as a business friendly state. Our citizens and the overall statewide economy depend on it. I look forward to putting in the work this session to make sure that we are a competitive state that encourages job creation and supports small business growth as well as new businesses entering our state.
Sen. Kevin Avard represents the District 12 communities of Brookline, Greenville, Hollis, Mason, New Ipswich, Rindge, and Wards 1, 2, and 5 in the City of Nashua.