#UnionLeader Editorial: Other budget cuts: Separate bills needed #nhhouse #nhpolitics

Other budget cuts: Separate bills needed

11 hours, 11 minutes ago

Stuck in the House budget are two immensely consequential proposals that ought to be separate pieces of legislation.
One is a plan to change the way the state calculates retirement benefits. It would raise public employee retirement contributions, require police officers and firefighters to work five more years before retirement, and calculate retirement benefits based on the last five years, instead of the last three years, of pay.

The other is an amendment from Rep. Neal Kurk that effectively disbands public employee unions if they cannot reach a contract agreement with their employer. If a contract expires and no new contract is in place, the union members would instantly become at-will employees.

Those proposals certainly would affect the state budget. But they deserve to be fully debated and voted up and down on their own merit, not as part of the larger operating budget for the next two years. House leaders should accept amendments to separate these proposals into stand-alone bills.

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