{"id":8476,"date":"2019-05-28T19:22:58","date_gmt":"2019-05-29T00:22:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/?p=8476"},"modified":"2019-05-28T19:22:58","modified_gmt":"2019-05-29T00:22:58","slug":"tell-the-house-no-on-sb-241","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/2019\/05\/28\/tell-the-house-no-on-sb-241\/","title":{"rendered":"Tell the House: NO on SB 241"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Word has it (not posted yet on bill status page) that the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gencourt.state.nh.us\/house\/committees\/committeedetails.aspx?id=12\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">House Public Works and Highways Committee<\/a> has &#8216;recommended&#8217; that SB 241 (the Commuter Rail Boondoggle for &#8220;project development, analysis, and funding&#8221;) &#8220;Ought to Pass&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The House of Representatives is in NO WAY obliged to follow this recommendation.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You can write to the House Public Works and Highways Committee and ask, who voted yes&#8230; as we need to know who to blame for this travesty when it fails to deliver. Their contact information is below.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/gencourt.state.nh.us\/house\/members\/member.aspx?member=377778\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Michael Edgar<\/a> (D)<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/gencourt.state.nh.us\/house\/members\/member.aspx?member=375829\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">John Cloutier<\/a> (D)<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/gencourt.state.nh.us\/house\/members\/member.aspx?member=377126\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jack Martin<\/a> (D)<br \/>\n <a href='http:\/\/gencourt.state.nh.us\/house\/members\/member.aspx?member=377093'>Karen Ebel<\/a> (D)<br \/>\n<a href='http:\/\/gencourt.state.nh.us\/house\/members\/member.aspx?member=377279'>Michael Abbott<\/a> (D)<br \/>\n<a href='http:\/\/gencourt.state.nh.us\/house\/members\/member.aspx?member=407628'>Barry Faulkner<\/a> (D)<br \/>\n<a href='http:\/\/gencourt.state.nh.us\/house\/members\/member.aspx?member=408537'>Sue Newman<\/a> (D)<br \/>\n<a href='http:\/\/gencourt.state.nh.us\/house\/members\/member.aspx?member=364729'>Daniel Eaton<\/a> (D)<br \/>\n<a href='http:\/\/gencourt.state.nh.us\/house\/members\/member.aspx?member=408946'>Michael Pedersen<\/a> (D)<br \/>\n<a href='http:\/\/gencourt.state.nh.us\/house\/members\/member.aspx?member=408858'>Joshua Query<\/a> (D)<br \/>\n<a href='http:\/\/gencourt.state.nh.us\/house\/members\/member.aspx?member=408931'>Matthew Towne<\/a> (D)<br \/>\n<a href='http:\/\/gencourt.state.nh.us\/house\/members\/member.aspx?member=377319'>Ivy Vann<\/a> (D)<br \/>\n<a href='http:\/\/gencourt.state.nh.us\/house\/members\/member.aspx?member=376343'>John Graham<\/a> (R)<br \/>\n<a href='http:\/\/gencourt.state.nh.us\/house\/members\/member.aspx?member=376829'>Walter Kolodziej<\/a> (R)<br \/>\n<a href='http:\/\/gencourt.state.nh.us\/house\/members\/member.aspx?member=376632'>Franklin Tilton<\/a> (R)<br \/>\n<a href='http:\/\/gencourt.state.nh.us\/house\/members\/member.aspx?member=377147'>David Milz<\/a> (R)<br \/>\n<a href='http:\/\/gencourt.state.nh.us\/house\/members\/member.aspx?member=408412'>John Janigian<\/a> (R)<br \/>\n<a href='http:\/\/gencourt.state.nh.us\/house\/members\/member.aspx?member=376993'>John O&#8217;Connor<\/a> (R)<br \/>\n<a href='http:\/\/gencourt.state.nh.us\/house\/members\/member.aspx?member=408344'>Paul Somero<\/a> (R)<br \/>\n<a href='http:\/\/gencourt.state.nh.us\/house\/members\/member.aspx?member=408299'>Jim Fedolfi<\/a> (R)<br \/>\n<a href='http:\/\/gencourt.state.nh.us\/house\/members\/member.aspx?member=408820'>Richard Beaudoin<\/a> (R)<\/p>\n<p>Remind them that special interests would not have needed to hire these <a href=\"https:\/\/www.montagnecom.com\/client-experience\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">high-priced lobbyists<\/a> (same folks who pushed the Balsam&#8217;s Boondoggle) if Commuter Rail was really worth NH risking its low-tax, high-livability status!<\/p>\n<p>Cui bono? It&#8217;s not you&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s start with the biggest lie:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Recent media reports that that &#8220;75.5% of all NH residents want commuter rail&#8221; is blatant stretch of the truth when only 668 respondents were polled \u2014 by a local college!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Some folks have mistakenly envisioned this as a &#8220;high-speed&#8221; train, but this in fact would be nothing but an extension of the old, <a href=\"https:\/\/pioneerinstitute.org\/better_government\/working-from-facts-on-the-crisis-at-the-mbta\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">bankrupt MBTA<\/a> which enjoys average speeds of 33-44 MPH<\/p>\n<p><strong>MBTA extended to Concord, with its limited ridership would NOT do ANY of the following:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8211;  have enough ridership to alleviate traffic<br \/>\n&#8211;  help the environment (trains use diesel oil, <a href=\"https:\/\/patch.com\/new-hampshire\/concord-nh\/an--passenger-rail-overpriced-underutilized\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Vermont<\/a> found its train polluted more!)<br \/>\n&#8211;  have enough ridership to be sustainable (less than 2% of the population)<br \/>\n&#8211;  keep youth in NH, when <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unionleader.com\/news\/business\/more--somethings-suddenly-choosing-to-live-in-new-hampshire\/article_1e7284a8-88da-5b6c-bcdc-7d22ed4eed19.html\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NH is already the top destination for youth<\/a><br \/>\n&#8211;  create jobs (see report on Brunswick, Maine)<\/p>\n<p>According to statistics reported by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhpr.org\/post\/what-drives-nh-commuters-take-bus-boston#stream\/0\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NHPR<\/a>, <em>\u201c82,000 people travel from New Hampshire to Massachusetts each day, but only about 2,000 of them take public transit.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>What does that say about transit? <strong>It says that transit is a better choice than driving for only two and a half percent of those people.<\/strong> Out of 100 commuters who weigh the advantages and disadvantages of transit versus driving, <strong>97.5 percent of them have concluded that driving is better.<\/strong> This is not the kind of ridership that solves ANYTHING, let alone traffic on Rte 93.<\/p>\n<p><strong>We challenge you to find ANY system in the country that is NOT actually in debt.<\/strong> There are at least 10 links in the information file below with articles that point to those debt-ridden train systems.<\/p>\n<p>Those of us who are wisely opposed have no paid lobbyists.  But you can <a href=\"mailto:nhhouse@leg.state.nh.us\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">write to the full House of Representatives<\/a> who will soon vote on SB 241 and ask them to save the NH Advantage by voting NO. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.governor.nh.gov\/contact\/index.htm\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">You can also ask the Governor to VETO it if it passes the House.<\/a><br \/>\n<strong><br \/>\n<font color=\"red\">Governor Sununu once admitted it was a &#8216;boondoggle&#8217;. Remind him that it still is and he should not add a third mistake to his legacy.<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nhcvrc.org\/pdf\/CommuterRail.pdf\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">INFORMATION FILE<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ipetitions.com\/petition\/no-commuter-rail-for-nh\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">SIGN THE PETITION<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Word has it (not posted yet on bill status page) that the House Public Works and Highways Committee has &#8216;recommended&#8217; that SB 241 (the Commuter Rail Boondoggle for &#8220;project development, analysis, and funding&#8221;) &#8220;Ought to Pass&#8221;. The House of Representatives is in NO WAY obliged to follow this recommendation. You can write to the House [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,36,111,50,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles-nh","category-articles-us","category-commuter-rail","category-taxes","category-dishonorable"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8476"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8477,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8476\/revisions\/8477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}