The Committee of Conference has released a compromise report on HB1645. The compromise bill is in line with the Senate’s version of HB1645 with a compromise reached on the maximum benefit for members hired after July 1, 2009.
The maximum benefit section was the last section being worked out late into the early morning hours last Friday, when the House walked out of the Conference meeting announcing there would be no agreement and they intended to pass their version of HB1645. The Senate members, remaining strong behind all public employees, most especially those in Group 2, vowed to pass their version of HB1645.
Our own Steve Arnold, working diligently with the Retirement Coalition, rallied the troops for a press conference at the State House on Monday where the House members were publicly called upon to get back to the table and get a Retirement Bill done that everyone could live with. At the press conference several spokespeople pointed out the hard work of the Senators and thanked them for their support. At the same time it was brought out that it was the House side, specifically the House members on the committee that were in essence failing the Public Employees of NH.
It looks like the effort did what it was intended to do, and that was to bring the House back to the Committee and come up with a compromise bill. This link, http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/cofcreports/HB1645.html will bring you directly to the compromise report.
The NEPBA, again thanks our own Steve Arnold for his tireless work on behalf of all of our members. We also encourage all our members to contact their representatives and urge them to pass this compromise bill. You can use the following link to locate your Representative, http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/house/members/housemembers.html.