New Hampshire’s minimum wage would eventually increase to $15 per hour, business taxes would be cut by millions of dollars and guns could be taken from people posing an extreme risk under bills that will be considered when legislators return to the Statehouse for the 2023 session.
There’s also a proposal to have a public vote on giving lawmakers a pay raise.
The state Legislature is scheduled to convene at 10 a.m. on Jan. 4. Legislative Service Requests, precursors to actual bills, were made previously with titles describing subjects, but the actual wording of legislative proposals was not available until the measures began appearing on a state website last week. The list will grow well beyond the 125 bills that were online as of Tuesday afternoon.
Bills are generally first considered in a legislative committee before moving to the full House and Senate for a vote and potentially on to the governor’s desk to be signed into law or vetoed.
Rep. Walter Stapleton, R-Claremont, is sponsoring a proposed constitutional amendment to boost the pay for lawmakers from its current $100 per year to $2,500.
He said the current pay level was set in 1889. There are 400 N.H. representatives and 24 senators.
“People have to give up work, they have to give up time, resources and talents in order to do this job,” Stapleton said.
“Every legislative general session we have at least 20 or 30 people absent and sometimes we have 50 people absent. If there was a little better compensation, maybe...
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