MVDC Actions - Week of 2/23/2025
Thank Maine Governor Janet Mills!
Janet Mills was singled out by Trump at this week’s National Governor’s Association meeting in Washington DC. She showed great courage in standing up to him and refusing to submit quietly to his bullying.
We know that politicians routinely hear from their detractors, let’s make sure that Governor Mills is also hearing from New Englanders who admire her courage!
Click here to send her a quick thank you note!
Portland Press Herald Excerpts:
This week’s sign in opportunities…
I’m still playing with the best formats and would love feedback.
The NH Senate is not is session this week. They’ve synched their schedule with school vacation week and will hold no hearings or votes.
Although the NH House is not in session some NH House committees are meeting and holding hearings.
There are several bills impacting public education being heard this week. All are focused in two committees having to do with local school district elections and the adoption of school budgets.
There are also, once again, a number of bills, some good, some bad, focused on NH elections.
SIGN IN by TUESDAY to OPPOSE FOUR bills which seek to change the game against the local school district voters who support their public schools and to weigh in on TUESDAY and THURSDAY election-related bills.
NH HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
If you need further directions for the House Remote Testimony tool, click HERE.
TUESDAY - SUPPORT
SUPPORT THESE FOUR:
CACR2 - Relating to the drawing of district boundaries. Providing that no district boundaries be drawn in a way that favors or disfavors any political party or candidate.
HB363 - Establishing redistricting criteria.
HB600 - Enabling ranked-choice voting for municipal elections.
HB521 - Authorizing online voter registration.
1. Sign into (or stay signed into) the House Remote Testimony tool to voice your support.
2. Enter your personal information.
3. Select:
Tuesday, February 25th on the calendar
HOUSE ELECTION LAW
9:00 AM - CACR2
I am a member of the public.
I am representing myself.
4. Click: "I support this bill", then click the submit button at the bottom of the form. Adding remote testimony can help make your case, but just sharing your opinion is also useful.
Repeat steps 3 & 4 for HB363 @ 9:20 AM, HB600 @ 1:00 PM, and HB521 @ 3:10 PM
TUESDAY - OPPOSE
OPPOSE THESE FOUR:
HB356 – Allowing Partisan School Board Elections: This bill would allow school district voters to make their elections for school boards partisan elections where the candidate’s political party must be listed on the ballot.
HB367 - Changing the method for adopting partisan town elections to be the same as rescinding partisan town elections.
HB151 - Relative to the term for supervisors of the checklist.
HB220 - Closing the presidential or state primary of political parties
1. Sign into the House Remote Testimony tool to voice your opposition.
2. Enter your personal information.
3. Select:
Tuesday, February 25th on the calendar
House Election Law
10:00 AM - HB356
I am a member of the public.
I am representing myself.
4. Click: "I oppose this bill", then hit the submit button at the bottom of the form. Adding remote testimony can help make your case, but just sharing your opinion is also useful.
Repeat steps 3 & 4 for HB367 @ 10:40 AM, HB151 @ 11:40 AM, and HB220 @ 3:30 PM.
THURSDAY - OPPOSE
OPPOSE THESE THREE:
HB 200 - This bill would specify that a tax cap adopted by a municipality or school district can only be overridden by a 3/5 supermajority. The bill also stipulates even more restrictive measures for individual school district budgets that are in a school administrative unit (SAU). Please oppose this bill that will artificially hurt local school district budgets.
HB 613 - This bill would create a mechanism for SB2/ballot voting towns to adopt a "reduced default budget" to replace the default budget that is adopted should the proposed budget warrant article fail. The reduced default amount would be based on an arbitrary percentage reduction from the proposed budget picked by the petitioner. Like the new school spending caps people are seeing this year, this would be yet another way for extreme politicians to try to cut their school budgets. Don’t allow them to hurt our students’ education by creating this new budget slashing tool!
HB 475 – Cutting school default budgets – this bill would reduce the default budget by the amount of salary and benefit reductions as part of position turnover before the public hearing for the proposed budget takes place. This would artificially reduce the default budget simply because someone leaves their funded job voluntarily or retires. Sometimes the default budget is all that ensures a school district is not decimated by other outside fringe attempts.
1. Sign into the House Remote Testimony tool to voice your opposition.
2. Enter your personal information.
3. Select:
Thursday, February 27th on the calendar
House Municipal & County Government
09:00 AM - HB200
I am a member of the public.
I am representing myself.
4. Click: "I oppose this bill", then hit the submit button at the bottom of the form. Adding remote testimony can help make your case, but just sharing your opinion is also useful.
Repeat steps 3 & 4 for HB 613 @ 1:00 PM and HB475 @ 1:45 PM
The 5 Calls App makes it easy to do something every day - even if it’s small!
Have time to do just a little more advocacy every day but need suggestions and tools?
5 Calls is for you!
The developers have done all the legwork to help you key in on actions that can make a difference. The app helps you focus on the issues of greatest interest to you.