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Breaking story from the AP describes the consequences of NOT genuflecting to the all-Republican Executive Council. Read every word; if it doesn't make your toes curl, you're already enlightened... The moral to this story: that capitalist bullshit about open fair competition is for sissies. When we [insert any NH GOP leader's name here] control, we dictate the terms and the players -- even if it is illegal. APNewsBreak: Whistleblower suit filed against NH By Norma Love Associated Press / June 17, 2011 CONCORD, N.H.—A health policy analyst with the New Hampshire Insurance Department who was fired after challenging her bosses over a federal health care contract is now suing them under the state's whistleblower statute. Concord attorney Chuck Douglas told The Associated Press on Friday that he filed a lawsuit in Merrimack County Superior Court on Thursday against Insurance Commissioner Roger Sevigny and Deputy Commissioner Alexander Feldvebel on behalf of Leslie Ludtke. Ludtke was fired May 31 after challenging her bosses over their push to change bidding procedures for a contract to design an insurance exchange under the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. They said she was fired for refusing to work with them. Their office said they were out of town Friday and unavailable to comment on the lawsuit. Douglas said Ludtke is seeking back pay, attorneys' fees and other compensation for wrongful termination under the whistleblower statute as well as on civil rights and constitutional grounds. The lawsuit claims her firing was due to a push by the department to satisfy the Republican Executive Council's opposition to the federal health care law and Ludtke's warnings the agency's actions could be illegal. Ludtke was the point person on developing a key federal health care reform contract that was put out to bid for presentation to the Executive Council last winter. The contract was to explore different options for lawmakers to consider in deciding whether to set up a state exchange or default to a federal exchange established by the federal government. The state received a $1 million federal grant to do the planning. The exchanges are intended to promote competition among health insurance companies and give customers several plans to choose from. After the November elections, Republicans captured the five council seats, which changed the political tone in the Statehouse against the health care reforms. House Republican leaders called on the council to reject anything to do with the federal act. Wakely Consulting Group Inc. of Massachusetts won the bid for the contract, but the council had issues with Wakely, partly because not enough New Hampshire residents were employed to work on the project. At an April 5 council meeting, some councilors said they were interested in a sole source contract, with one vendor completing the work. According to the lawsuit, Ludtke raised concerns about the legality of handpicking a consultant to do the work and of including a provision about requiring New Hampshire residents to be part of any contract. Ludtke later learned that the attorney general's office had advised the department that a sole source contract could not be issued and that a condition requiring work by New Hampshire residents would be invalid. Ludtke claims her bosses accused her of being unwilling to work with them while she was still working to find a legal way to utilize the grant to plan for the exchange. On May 3, she was received a letter that suspended her for two weeks and accused her of engaging in behavior "obstructing collaborative efforts to develop a plan consistent with the decision of governor and council," the lawsuit states. Ludtke responded with a letter addressing their concerns. After receiving the response, Sevigny added two additional weeks to the suspension. She was fired on May 31. "Defendants Feldvebel and Sevigny discharged Ms. Ludtke because she in good faith raised concerns that she reasonably believed were violations of laws or rules adopted under the laws of New Hampshire, or the United States, namely introducing considerations into the selection of a vendor under a competitive bidding process that were illegal and improper," the lawsuit states. Douglas said Ludtke serves at the commissioner's pleasure based on her good behavior. "Good behavior is a well-known standard which is good cause," he said. The lawsuit argues that she was denied a hearing before her termination, which violates constitutional due process rights. © Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The new Republican majority is not dedicated to job creation, it's devoted to job reduction -- even if it means one job at a time. --
NH Legislature’s focus has veered far off course By SYLVIA LARSEN With all the coverage of the House Republicans’ disturbing budget recently, many other outrageous bills passed by the House have gotten lost in the mix. Now that these bills are in the Senate, we must deal with them swiftly and focus on the real reason we were elected: to strengthen our economy, en-sure that New Hampshire is still the best place to live and raise a family and, most importantly, serve the people of New Hampshire. While we will consider these ill-conceived bills over the next weeks and months, I thought that it was the perfect time to highlight just what the Republican-dominated House has sent to the Senate. House Republicans have attacked New Hampshire’s economy and the working families of our state in so many ways: n Passing a right-to-work-for-less bill that would significantly reduce wages (HB 474). n Passing a bill eliminating the minimum wage (HB 133). n Repealing the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which helped create jobs in New Hampshire, reduced utility rates and helped our environment (HB 519). n Creating a committee to turn down federal grants, which would prevent federal money and the jobs associated with that funding to New Hampshire (HB 590). n Repealing the New Hampshire Rail Transit Authority, which did not spend a dime of New Hampshire taxpayer money and was designed to bring good- paying jobs to New Hampshire (HB 218). With an all-out assault on public education, the Republican–led House passed proposals to: n Lower the dropout age from 18 to 16, even though it has helped reduce New Hampshire’s dropout rate to less than 1 percent (HB 429). n Eliminate compulsory education, essentially meaning that if kids don’t want an education, they can drop out at any time (HB 542). n Eliminate the judiciary’s role in protecting the fundamental right to an adequate education, which would ensure inequality in New Hampshire’s education and property tax increases statewide (CACR 12). While touting their support for New Hampshire’s tradition of liberty and personal freedoms, they have passed: n A bill that would infringe on a woman’s right to choose her own medical decisions (HB 329). Our status as the safest state in the nation is threatened by House-passed bills that would: n Allow violent and sexual predators to “max out” and be released from prison without any supervision (HB 524). n Allow anyone to carry a concealed weapon without a permit (HB 330). House leaders have made New Hampshire look like we skipped Civics 101 as they ignore the importance of the separation of powers in: n Passing a bill requiring our attorney general to join a lawsuit he does not support (HB 89). n Forming a House committee designed to impeach judges they don’t like (HR 7). n Proposing their own militia or “permanent defense force” (HB 343). n Passing a resolution that declares they will nullify federal laws they don’t like (HCR 19). This list of bills has distracted the Legislature and its leadership from the real issues on the minds of New Hampshire residents. The troublesome budget that the House produced further exacerbates public anxiety. Instead of strengthening our social safety net in a time of difficulty, we face deep questions about the ability of state government to fulfill the needs of our most vulnerable populations, including the elderly, people with disabilities, children and working-class families struggling to get by every day. In the weeks ahead, I hope that together with my Senate colleagues we can refocus our mission on the economic and fiscal goals, as well as the community needs, that we were sent here to address. State Sen. Sylvia Larsen of Concord is the Democratic leader in the New Hampshire Senate. ___________________________________________________________________________________
House Budget Cuts Will Affect All of NH
By Rep. David B. Campbell (D-Nashua) I was born and raised in Newport, New Hampshire a half-century ago and since college have lived in Nashua. Throughout my lifetime, New Hampshire has been, for the most part, a Republican state and our state budgets (except for the last two) have been adopted by Republican legislatures. New Hampshire Republicans created the structure that is currently our state government, which has historically been conservative and frugal.
In the four years that the Democrats were in the majority, we did not add any new social programs, or change the structure that was largely dismantled by the recent House budget, but we, like the Republican legislatures before us, did fund these programs at respectable levels. Over the decades, it was these successive Republican legislatures that put a social safety-net in place, maybe not as tight a safety-net as some Democrats wanted; but over the years, Republicans have tried to take care of New Hampshire’s neediest citizens.
The recently adopted House budget drastically reduces funding and totally eliminates gigantic portions of that safety-net. I submit that this budget breaks the long-standing social contract between our state government and its people. It breaks faith, not only with the people directly affected by these cuts, but with the rest of the citizens of our state as well. Remember, the social safety net not only holds the needy up, but it also keeps them from dropping through that net and crashing in our society, landing in our towns and on our streets.
This budget didn’t just reduce funding levels; it eliminated or drastically cuts-back programs for thousands of children in need, thousands of domestic violence victims, and thousands with mental illness or who are developmentally disabled. It devastates programs for child care, Head Start, nursing home and Alzheimer care, vocational and post-secondary education and job training for the unemployed.
This is the ultimate DOWNSHIFT to local communities and property taxpayers. What is going to be the societal impact in our cities and towns with these programs eliminated or financially crippled? Add to this the volatile and dangerous combination of newly passed legislation that lowers the high school dropout age, allows individuals from age 18 to conceal handguns without permits, while simultaneously cutting the number of State Police officers.
This budget will put tremendous new and costly pressure on our local police forces, welfare departments, school systems, charities, churches and our communities and citizenry as a whole. Make no mistake: we will all see the impact of this budget very close to home. This budget reshapes our New Hampshire’s government, into a state that shows little or no compassion for its neediest citizens, while failing to protect the rest of those in our state from the resulting social ills. And finally, this House approved budget has vilified our public employees, including teachers, police and firefighters; and pits public workers against the very government that employs them.
This is not the New Hampshire that I was born and raised in.
We the people of New Hampshire must ask ourselves: is this the kind of state government we want? Is this the kind of society that we want to live in? At the recent State House rally, the voices of thousands of people, who were directly affected by this budget, went unheeded. It will take a louder voice from the New Hampshire’s residents who are indirectly, but still dramatically and personally affected by this budget, to make a real difference. |
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