Two years ago, the House speaker appointed a special committee to solve or at least mitigate the child care crisis in New Hampshire. There’s disagreement among lawmakers and child care advocates about its success.
Committee members have sent a few bills to the governor seeking to tweak staffing ratios to allow workers to take additional children. Others would ease zoning requirements for in-home providers and allow a child to remain in child care for more than 13 hours a day in some situations. One would provide supplemental scholarship funding for children experiencing developmental delays.
“Teeny tiny steps” was how Rep. Mary Jane Wallner, a Concord Democrat on the committee, described the legislative efforts. Some of those steps concern her, she said. Wallner, who ran a day care for many years, worries expanding ratios are a step backward if they mean each child will get less care.
That’s not to say there hasn’t been significant attention or other investments in addressing the child care crisis since the pandemic put the shortage of affordable quality care on lawmakers’ radar.
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The state has invested nearly $160 million in pandemic assistance, most of it federal dollars, to keep child care providers afloat. Last year, in what advocates called one of the Legislature’s biggest investments, the Senate put $15 million in the budget to vastly increase income thresholds for the state’s child care scholarship to make more families eligible. This year, lawmakers supported a bill that would spend $1 million to increase child care workers’ eligibility for the same scholarship.
Meanwhile, as advocates and lawmakers await the governor’s action on pending bills, they are looking ahead to the fall elections and next year’s budget process with hopes of achieving much more next year.
Here’s what to know about the child care landscape in New Hampshire. A single female earning the median income with no state assistance would have paid 61 percent of her earnings on child care for an infant and 4-year-old during 2018-2022, according to a study from the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute. (Screenshot)
Child care remains incredibly expensive and hard to find.
Last year, the average annual cost of center-based child care for an infant and 4-year-old was $31,868, a 12.5 percent increase from the prior year, according to New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute’s recent report, The Fragile Economics of the Child Care Sector.
For married couples earning the median income, $145,289, that would have reflected 20 percent of their annual household income, the report said. Using the same census data, the institute determined that would have equaled 41 percent of annual income for a single man and 61 percent for a single woman.
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That’s far above the 7 percent of annual income the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services deems affordable.
Add the state’s high housing costs, and many young Granite State families may effectively have to choose between buying a home or having a child, the NHFPI report said.
Meanwhile, the pre-pandemic shortage of child care slots continues.
The analysis found that between 2018 and 2022, New Hampshire saw an average annual shortage of about 8,400 slots.
Ratio changes are controversial.
Ross Berry of Weare, a Republican who until recently served in the House and chaired that chamber’s Special Committee on Childcare, believed tweaking ratios would have an immediate and significant effect.
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Lawmakers passed two bills doing that.
One would allow in-home providers to care for four children in addition to their own kids; the current limit is three. The other would slightly increase the number of infants and toddlers allowed in a child care classroom based on staffing.
Berry, who runs a child care center in Epsom with his wife, describes it as a math solution.
“If there are 330 licensed providers (in the state) and we can now take two kids in a demographic that need it most, we just created 660 new slots throughout the state without spending a single dollar in taxpayer money,” he said. “We’d see immediate results.” Annie Hopkins and her son, Alex, of Portsmouth, attended the state’s first Chamber of Mothers meeting in May. (Annmarie Timmins | New Hampshire Bulletin)
Berry acknowledged the results would likely be more modest because not all child care centers would have the space or staff to qualify. And based on the feedback lawmakers got, many providers wouldn’t participate.
Michele Merritt, president of the advocacy group New Futures, was among those who urged the committee to defeat the bill, saying providers opposed it.
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“The opinion of these individuals could not have been more clear – addressing staffing ratios is not the solution,” she wrote. “It would burden already burnt-out staff, create unsafe environments for children, and is simply irresponsible.”
Rebecca Woitkowski, the child and family policy director for the organization, said last week child care advocates will be watching to see how the bill is implemented if the governor signs it. Like Wallner, Woitkowski sees both bills as small changes that won’t solve the child care crisis.
“I don’t think there will be a ton of centers that get a waiver (to expand class size),” she said. “We have to do a lot more in the state overall to strengthen our child care system.”
More people are eligible for more generous assistance.
The most significant child care legislation came last year, not this year, said Jackie Cowell, executive director of the advocacy group Early Learning NH.
Lawmakers included $15 million in the budget to significantly expand the state’s child care scholarship program. Cowell called it transformational. She’s worried, however, that many parents who earned too much to qualify in prior years don’t know they might be eligible now.
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Until the eligibility changes took effect in January, a family of three could earn no more than $65,000 a year to be eligible. That limit now is $89,100. And families who receive a child care scholarship will pay no more than 7 percent of their gross income on child care.
“People, honestly, before the change, could easily spend 20 to 30 percent of their gross income on child care,” Cowell said. “Sometimes more than half of take-home pay was for child care.”
Parents must submit an application through the state’s general assistance portal, NH Easy, though it is difficult to find information about the program on the site. Parents can also complete a paper application or apply at their local Department of Health and Human Services office. Tara Ryan, of Durham, founded the state’s first chapter of Chamber of Mothers in May hoping to increase support for families and children. (Annmarie Timmins | New Hampshire Bulletin)
Advocates want child care on the ballot.
Until her friends began having children, Tara Ryan, of Durham, thought all parents got three months of paid parental leave because it’s common in the technology field she and her husband were working in.
Now a mother herself, Ryan has discovered how untrue that is – and how hard it is to find affordable child care. She launched the state’s first chapter of Chamber of Mothers in Portsmouth last month determined to change that. Ryan’s message was written on their T-shirt: “Vote like a mother.”
The group is still determining whether it will take up paid family leave, affordable child care, or material health supports first. The goal is to make parents and children a key part of the narrative and legislative agenda.
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“We are just moms. We don’t have the political connections,” Ryan said. “My story is not the only one to tell. There are so many stories.”
Her effort won’t be the only one.
Save the Children Action Network, based in Washington, D.C., recently hosted forums with the four gubernatorial candidates focused on the child care crisis. New Futures and Early Learning NH plan to continue their advocacy, too. Wallner hopes to continue her work on the House Special Committee on Childcare, too.
“I was happy to see this year that we were able to demystify that access to child care is not just a mothers’ issue,” said Woitkowski, of New Futures. “That it’s something the state should invest in because it’s a common good and it’s important for child health and development, and really important to the economy of the state.”
Cowell, of Early Learning NH, intends to make that a statewide conversation.
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“One of the priorities for the future is to really work together with the Legislature, business community, policy makers, moms and dads … to find another funding source or sources to really raise the compensation for the child care field,” she said. “It can’t just be on the back of the families that need them.”
Eight New Hampshire municipalities have moved to block the opening of casinos within their borders, taking advantage of a new state law that gives communities the power to opt out of hosting gambling establishments.
Amy Manzelli, president of the board of Granite Staters for Responsible Gaming, said the law, which took effect last year, has been widely welcomed by residents who value the ability to have a direct say in which establishments shape the character of their town or city.
“In New Hampshire, there’s a pretty deep and passionate vein of local control,” she said.
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Henniker, N.H., Candia, N.H., Bedford, N.H., Barrington, N.H., Hancock, N.H., New London and Littleton, N.H., voted to bar casinos within their municipal boundaries. The city of Portsmouth, N.H., moved to block gambling establishments within its city limits within three months of House Bill 737 being signed into law by the governor.
Conway, N.H., is expected to hold a similar vote on April 14.
This is separate from the option towns and cities have to opt out of Keno, a state-run lottery game.
State Rep. Bill Boyd, R-Merrimack, who sponsored both the casino opt-out bill and the legislation allowing social districts in municipalities last year, said the two laws share the same philosophy: giving towns more control over what is allowed within their boundaries.
“I’m not surprised, but I’m very happy with the immediate engagement because it tells me that people are paying attention to local control and how they want their communities to look,” Boyd said of the number of towns that have already acted under the new law.
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When gaming establishments were first legalized in New Hampshire, they were envisioned as small, locally-owned operations. The industry has since grown dramatically, with gaming halls now functioning as large-scale entertainment venues complete with restaurants and live shows. New Hampshire’s gaming industry is on track to become a $1.1 billion market within three years, according to experts.
That rapid growth has left many communities uneasy about the demands large gambling venues could place on local infrastructure, including emergency services and traffic management, Manzelli said.
“New Hampshire doesn’t really have a great mechanism for making sure municipalities have a way of dealing with those impacts,” she said. “As the gaming industry evolved, the laws were written for your classic ‘Mom and Pop’ type bingo night, very small-scale establishments.”
The law includes a grandfather clause protecting casinos that are already operating or were in the pipeline at the time a community votes to opt out.
In Littleton, plans for a casino proposed by an out-of-state operator have been in development for at least three years. In February, a casino developer, GSG Littleton Propco LLC, purchased a property in town for a gaming establishment, according to state and town records.
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Since those plans predate the town’s opt-out vote, they would not be affected by it, Boyd said.
Under the law as written, it only prevents new casinos from being sited in communities that have passed such a vote.
“Even if towns like Littleton don’t want you, you’ve got 260-some odd cities and towns that exist in the state of New Hampshire. “I would think they (casinos) could find a community that would say, ‘we really want you to come to our community,’ and they will welcome them with open arms and work with their local system to make the facility happen,” Boyd said.
General John Stark Day celebrated in New Hampshire
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TRAFFIC AND INTERDICT ILLEGAL ACTIVITY MORE EFFICIENTLY. TODAY, THE GRANITE STATE CELEBRATES THE LEGACY OF GENERAL JOHN STARK. THE SECOND MONDAY OF APRIL IS OBSERVED AS GENERAL JOHN STARK DAY. HE WAS A HERO OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION AND IS CREDITED WITH WRITING THE WORDS THAT BECAME NEW HAMPSHIRE’S MOTTO. HE WROTE, QUOTE, LIVE FREE OR DIE. DEATH IS NOT THE WORST OF EVILS, WHICH WAS LATER SHORTENED TO LIVE FREE OR DIE. A LOT OF PEOPLE IN OUR COUNTRY, EVERY GENERATION, MEN AND WOMEN WHO HAVE SERVED, ARE WHY WE ARE FREE. IT’S NOT JUST GENERAL STARK. HE SHOWED US THE WAY AND GENERAL WASHINGTON, BUT EVERY GENERATION OF MEN AND WOMEN WHO HAVE SERVED OUR COUNTRY HAVE ENSURED THAT FREEDOM. STARK IS MOST WELL KNOWN FOR SERVICE AT THE BATTLE OF BENNINGT
The Granite State honored the legacy of Gen. John Stark on Monday. Gen. John Stark Day is observed on the second Monday in April. Stark was a hero of the American Revolution and is credited with writing the words that became New Hampshire’s state motto. He wrote “Live Free or Die: Death is not the worst of evils,” later shortened to “Live Free or Die.”>> Download the free WMUR app to get updates on the go
MANCHESTER, N.H. —
The Granite State honored the legacy of Gen. John Stark on Monday.
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Gen. John Stark Day is observed on the second Monday in April.
Stark was a hero of the American Revolution and is credited with writing the words that became New Hampshire’s state motto. He wrote “Live Free or Die: Death is not the worst of evils,” later shortened to “Live Free or Die.”
>> Download the free WMUR app to get updates on the go
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“A lot of people in our country, every generation, men and women who have served, are why we are free,” said Gov. Kelly Ayotte. “It’s not just General John Stark. He showed us the way, and General Washington, but every generation of men and women who have served our country have ensured that freedom.”
Stark is known for his service at the Battle of Bennington in Vermont.
He retired in 1810 and died in Manchester in 1822.
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The New Hampshire Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources heard two ideas to address shrinking insect populations in New Hampshire during a Tuesday hearing.
One measure, House Bill 1431, would direct the state Pesticide Control Board to reclassify a group of pesticides that is particularly harmful to pollinators and wildlife as restricted use, meaning their use would be limited to professional pesticide applicators. The group of pesticides, called neonicotinoids, has been linked to ecosystem-wide effects from insect and bird population declines to cyanobacteria blooms.
Another bill, House Bill 1086, would establish a committee to study the feasibility and possible outcomes of a ban on seeds treated with neonicotinoid pesticides. Seed treatments are common in grain crops, including corn.
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Both bills were sponsored by Rep. John MacDonald, R-Wolfeboro.
“We have to do something,” MacDonald said Tuesday. “I’m not trying to take away any powers of the Pesticide Control Board, but nobody’s doing anything. And I don’t know, I can’t figure out why.”
The windshield effect and beyond
Rosemary Malfi, director of conservation policy for the insect conservation nonprofit Xerces Society, said the decline of insects in New Hampshire is evident in the “windshield effect.”
“Do you remember, anyone who drove a car in the ’90s or early 2000s, you actually got bugs on your windshield? I think everyone here probably knows that that doesn’t happen so much anymore. Neonicotinoid insecticides, or ‘neonics,’ are a major contributor to these declines,” she said.
Forty percent of the bumblebee species historically found in New Hampshire are locally extinct or in severe decline, while about 70% of butterfly species are losing numbers, too, Malfi said. Other classes of insects, including aquatic insects, are affected as well.
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This ripples out to affect animals higher up the food chain, including fish and birds. Beneath insects on the ecosystem ladder, meanwhile, are the microorganisms that contribute to harmful cyanobacteria blooms; this means that insect decline can allow cyanobacteria to proliferate, potentially worsening those costly problems, said Rep. Peter Bixby, D-Dover.
Learning from neighbors
As proposed, HB 1086 calls for a committee of three representatives and one senator to assess data from Quebec and New York, where bans on neonicotinoid treated seeds are in place already. They could also assess information from other areas with bans, MacDonald said.
The committee would assess whether bans in other regions have affected crop yields. Some speakers on Tuesday said studies show neonicotinoid seeds to be ineffective at increasing yields.
“We’re concerned that our agricultural community is being asked to pay for a product on seeds that isn’t necessarily helping productivity, but is having serious consequences, both to soil ecology and to water ecology,” said Carol Foss, senior adviser for science and policy with NH Audubon.
Nisa Marks, a wildlife biologist and organic farmer from Henniker, N.H., said neonicotinoids were not necessary for successful crops. But some farmers who attended said restrictions could harm them. Sarah Wrocklage, of Tecce Farm in Durham, N.H., said pests would cause losses on her farm if she could not treat them with chemicals.
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In her testimony, Wrocklage also touched on another area that the committee would be directed to consider: Whether it would be possible for farmers to switch to untreated seeds at all. Some of the sweetcorn that Tecce Farm plants is only available in treated form, Wrocklage said.
She and another farmer, Chuck Souther of Concord’s Apple Hill Farm, called for more involvement of local farmers and New Hampshire experts, including those from the University of New Hampshire. As proposed, they said, they did not support the bill, feeling it did not adequately take into account the unique circumstances on New Hampshire farms.
“We do need to look at this, but we need to look at it under New Hampshire conditions,” Souther said.
Requiring action
Though conservationists and farmers agreed insect decline was a problem, at the Tuesday hearings, some senators and speakers questioned the necessity of the bills.
Sen. Howard Pearl, R-Loudon, who is vice chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, asked if a study committee was necessary given the associated costs.
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MacDonald said it was. The committee called for in HB 1086 would be “targeted, efficient, and time-bound,” he said. It is designed to last through the summer of 2026 and deliver a report in November.
On HB 1431, speakers, including Robert Johnson of the New Hampshire Farm Bureau Association, suggested the task of restricting neonicotinoid use should be left up to the Pesticide Control Board. Johnson said he disagreed with directing the board’s actions through legislation.
But MacDonald said he had been part of conversations and a subcommittee with the Pesticide Control Board regarding neonicotinoids and had seen no action resulting from those meetings.
“This bill provides clarity on whether action is optional or whether it’s required,” he said.
Both bills have been amended from their original form. As introduced, HB 1086 proposed a ban on seed coatings rather than a study committee, while HB 1431 originally proposed more restrictions, including prohibitions on the use of chemicals on state property and on flowering plants. It also originally sought to make the violation of these rules a misdemeanor for individuals and a felony for organizations or companies. But as amended, the bill leaves more elements of the ban in the hands of the Pesticide Control Board.
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Rep. Jonah Wheeler, D-Peterborough, said he had favored a stricter version of both bills in committee discussions, but believed the amended legislation would be a step forward nonetheless. The legislation “deals with a really urgent issue that our constituents are begging us to tackle,” he said.
“The more that we as a society find ourselves away from … symbiosis with the environment in which we live, the natural harmony that exists on this planet, then the more we will find ourselves with problems like pest infestations,” he said.
