CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - Republican Gov. Chris Sununu vetoed two bills for a second time Friday, along with a third aimed at protecting renters during the coronavirus pandemic.
Sununu also signed a pandemic-related bill into law - a measure that helps town and school districts whose usual process of adopting annual budgets via Town Meeting in March was disrupted. The new law allows communities to hold virtual meetings this year, and to spend money at last year’s rate in the meantime. It also requires the state to publicly list on its website details of how federal coronavirus relief is being spent, including the names of each person or entity receiving payments.
The vetoed bill would have required landlords considering eviction to first offer tenants a six-month repayment plan for rent missed during the coronavirus emergency. Sununu issued a moratorium on evictions on March 13, but it expired July 1. To ease the transition, the state has allocated $35 million of its federal funding to help people avoid losing their housing, including assistance for past due rent and utilities and help securing more permanent housing.
“We must remember that property owners have also struggled throughout the COVID-19 pandemic,” Sununu said in his veto message. Landlords with 10 or fewer units account for 90 percent of the state’s rental market, and if they can’t pay their bills, they could end up selling their property, he said. That would drive up the cost of rent statewide, he said, hurting “the very same group that proponents of this legislation suggest they are trying to help.”
The bill also would have created protections for homeowners who fell behind on their mortgage payments. Senate Majority Leader Dan Feltes, D-Concord, called the veto a “slap in the face” to hardworking families.
“Creating a housing fund is fine, but a housing fund is not housing protection. Rather than allowing baseline housing protections to move forward, Governor Sununu once again sided with lobbyists and big banks over families trying to stay in their homes,” said Feltes, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for governor.
Sununu also vetoed a paid family leave and medical bill for a second time, repeating his characterization of it as an income tax. He also again rejected so-called “no-excuse” absentee voting. While the state will temporarily allow anyone to vote by absentee ballot this fall because of the pandemic, state law limits the use of absentee ballots to only a few circumstances. Supporters of the bill argued that permanently expanding absentee balloting would ensure equal access to elections, but Sununu called it a “radical, partisan piece of legislation.”
“New Hampshire’s voting system works very well and we consistently have some of the highest voter participation in the country,” Sununu wrote in his veto message. “The proponents of House Bill 1672 seek to take advantage of a global pandemic to fundamentally and permanently weaken New Hampshire’s electoral system.”
Rep. David Cote, chair of the House Election Law Committee, said the pandemic has shown how urgent and necessary it is to give voters a choice in how they vote.
“Voters have become very concerned about the health risks they may face by voting in-person. Requiring a narrowly defined excuse for voting absentee is archaic, unfair, and should be changed immediately,” Cote, D-Nashua, said in a statement.
Sununu vetoed just seven bills in his first term when his party controlled both the House and Senate. But after Democrats took control of both chambers, he vetoed more than 50 bills. Democrats were unable to reach the two-thirds majority required to override the vetoes in all but a few instances. None of three bills Sununu rejected Friday had passed with veto-proof margins.
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