There is an ongoing problem with the GOP legislature in that they are promoting bills that will do harm to New Hampshire and the “New Hampshire Advantage”. And in the upcoming legislative session we see even more of these harmful bills.
We receive many alerts warning about bills on voter integrity, illegal immigration, pro-2A, pro-life and school choice. We agree with all of them, but we are at loss for why GOP groups are not warning about the state’s overreach on local control or censuring those promoting these dangerous policies.
We are stunned at how many Republicans are unaware of the push by House and Senate Republicans to “Mass Up” NH with a form of housing “DEI”. Governor Ayotte claims to want to preserve “local control” but also seems to have fallen for the fake “housing crisis”. If she cares about families and local control, she will veto these bills or support repeal of bills already passed.
Example: SB84 was a bill which was written about in a recent Union Leader op-ed by NH Sen. Murphy and was proposed by Republicans (Sen. Murphy, Dist 16; Sen. Innis, Dist 7; Sen. McGough, Dist 11; Rep. Alexander Jr., Hills. 29; Rep. Osborne, Rock. 2.
Murphy cites “better integrating of communities economically” which is one of the Sustainable Development Goals of UN Agenda 2030. It’s about as far-left an agenda as any. And now Republicans are asking us to embrace it. It is NOT ‘merit-based’ but more like a “DEI” for housing. Groups such as Smart Growth America are constantly having “Equity Summits” proving it’s not about merit but about socialism.
HB 399 passed on voice vote in the House. It created a commission to study NH’s zoning laws and make recommendations on how to eradicate them, or at least take the ability to create them away from NH’s towns.
In 2023, 68 Republican Reps voted with 152 Democrats to destroy their own neighborhoods with HB 1291. When we asked some of the Republicans why they voted for it, as it could destroy some of their own neighborhoods, they didn’t even seem to know what they had done. Thankfully a Senator from District 9 got the bill killed in the Senate. But there is no longer a majority of the Senators who are with us on this, so without serious push back from the voters, these types of bills will continue to pass.
There is no housing crisis that would be fixed by destroying single-family neighborhoods as some of these bills have done, notably HB 577, or by adding more high-density housing where it’s not wanted, especially since the result of more high-density is that the cost is shifted to the single-family homeowners in the form of added taxes.
Most Housing bills were assigned to a newly-created and specially stacked “Housing Committee”, and in the Senate they were being heard in the Commerce Committee. We will be keeping an eye on bill hearings and let you know when they will happen so you can contact the legislators.
Sponsors of these bills are usually Sens. Murphy, McConkey, Innis, and Reps. Alexander, Berry, Sweeney, and Osborne along with many Democrats.
There is a lot more information on the housing issue on this local taxpayer website at bedfordresidents.com (https://bedfordresidents.com/bra/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/BRA_Housing_Policy_Paper02-10-2025.pdf) and in this file “The Affordable Housing Scam” (https://cascadepolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/2024-04-The-Affordable-Housing-Scam.pdf)
Don’t “Mass Up” NH!