House, Senate finish year with special session

A roundup at:

http://www.nhcitizen.org/modules/content/index.php?id=2

Here's Greg Sorg's condemnation:

Citizens of New Hampshire who fail to follow the activities of their
state government do so at the peril of their freedom and property. A
stark demonstration why took place this week.

On Wednesday, June 4th , Governor Lynch invoked an obscure, nearly
obsolete provision of the New Hampshire Constitution to call a 'special
session' of the Legislature, to convene that very day, a day in which
the Legislature was already scheduled to meet in regular session and was
in fact actually assembled in Concord and conducting business when his
proclamation was officially issued. Why did he do this?

He did it because House and Senate rules prevent the introduction of new
bills this late in their regular annual sessions unless authorized by a
two-thirds vote of each chamber. Governor Lynch wanted a new bill
introduced that would allow the borrowing of over $100,000,000 in order
to cover the record budget deficit he and his fellow Democrats in the
Legislature have run up. He realized that House Republicans, who
comprise over one-third of its membership, would never accede to such a
bill; that we would instead demand dealing with the deficit by rolling
back the Democrat spending spree of the past two years that has created
it. But if he were to call a 'special session' of the Legislature, not
only could a new bill be introduced, but new rules of procedure,
stifling inquiry of and opposition to it and guaranteeing its immediate
passage, could be adopted by simple majority vote.

And so it came to pass that immediately after completing the business of
Wednesday's regular session, we were called into special session, and
all the normal safeguards to open government and mature consideration of
proposed legislation were summarily jettisoned. The Governor's bill,
which few of us had even seen before we were required by our
newly-adopted rules to debate and vote on it that very day, was not
referred to a committee; was not given a public hearing; and was not
discussed, voted on and forwarded to the full House with a committee's
written recommendation. So outraged were House Republicans by the
resulting caricature of representative government that we staged a
walkout that brought matters to a standstill for two hours, before
yielding to the inevitable and watching the Undemocrats have their
wicked way with Lady Liberty.

I had never expected to witness such an egregious, cynical display of
raw political power in the Legislature of this state, and I hope never
to again. The Lynch administration and legislative Democrats would do
well to heed Alexander Hamilton's warning: "No man can be sure that he
may not be tomorrow the victim of a spirit of injustice by which he may
be a gainer today. And every man must now feel that the inevitable
tendency of such a spirit is to sap the foundations of public and
private confidence, and to introduce in its stead universal distrust and
distress."

Gregory M. Sorg, R-Easton

Member of the NH House

Grafton District 3