Dan Lawlor: Why Can’t We Be More Like New Hampshire?
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Just north of Boston is that perennial presidential primary battleground, New Hampshire. New Hampshire is many things to many people: vacation resorts, nature preserves, bastion of marriage equality, run-down mill villages, a local democracy utopia, racism, under-supported schools, high-tech jobs.
New Hampshire has the second lowest unemployment rate in New England (besting the mighty Massachusetts, but behind Vermont), and is home to a decades-long struggle for equitable funding for public schools. New Hampshire has a strong libertarian bent, and benefits from tourists who drive Federal Highways. New Hampshire has a 400 person House of Representatives - truly a citizen-legislature- and an executive council, an elected body which can veto decisions by the Governor.
A mix of descendants of mostly English, French Canadian, Irish, and Italian mill workers, alongside more recent Asian and Caribbean immigrants (as well as Massachusetts exiles), make up the state's population. Manchester, the state's largest city, is endearingly known to some locals as "ManchVegas." Once hub of the enormous Amoskeag Mill Company, Manchester has reinvented itself as a university city (UNH has a campus here), and an affordable place to do business.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTWhy bring this up? In a state a few miles north, we see a case study of how a New England state could be run, good and bad. Positives: great representative to citizen ratio, in many ways a true democracy. Nature, particularly around the White Mountains and lakes region, is gorgeous. Autonomy and identity is strong, as is a desire for creating a climate to attract business and jobs.
The state prides itself on a "live and let live" attitude that, in my eyes, positively has legalized same sex marriage, but at the same, has neglected the needs and supports necessary for low-income communities to provide a fair and equal education. Older mill towns, like Farmington, truly suffer due to small tax bases and limited state supports. Intolerance unfortunately is still an issue
There you have it. A neighboring state, with some lessons, good and bad. One lesson worth remembering as some Rhode Islanders yearn for an unelected receiver to wipe away our debts and give us order: New Hampshire has a strong economy, and a strong democratic form of a government. It has low unemployment, and a high level of electoral accountability. New Hampshire has roughly 1.3 million people. The House of Representatives in New Hampshire has 400 people. We have roughly 1 million people. Our House of Representatives has 75 people (down from 100 a few years ago). Instead of more democracy, some reformers in our state seem to look forward to either the bankruptcy powers of an unelected receiver, or an even smaller, "more professional," legislature.
Rhode Island has made changes to its tax code, but not in ways that seem to substantially help small business owners, students, working families and the like. If you're GTECH, the RI tax code works fine. I fail to see how having fewer representatives, most likely wealthier or more connected, will change that problem.
New Hampshire isn't perfect. However, with its embrace of a wider form of democracy in the form of a larger legislature, New Hampshire's government appears less accountable to lobbyists behind the throne, and more accountable to people in the neighborhoods. Democracy should not be efficient. It should not be tidy. There are costs, as seen in the unfortunate and ongoing struggles for equity in funding in New Hampshire. Yet, I believe that Rhode Islanders are organized enough to make full use of a more democratic legislature, and demand and push for strong neighborhoods, villages, and smart growth.
The desire for some reformers for elite efficiency over community engagement; for fewer voices, over more; for more control, less diversity, does seem to bode well. New Hampshire's form of democracy makes it more accountable to the people the old fashioned way- elections, voting, neighborhood leadership. The legislative results have created a business climate that favors growth, jobs and supports the rights of people to live their lives. New Hampshire is an interesting case: while we can take steps to avoid and correct faults (particularly around issues of equity and diversity), our Northern neighbor suggests a possible solution to our current funk. If Rhode Island is to prosper, more democracy just might be the key to success.
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