Josh Rogers

Governor Sununu's pick to lead a lead a new state department dedicated to economic development had his day before the Executive Council today.

The Governor likes to describe the goal for this new department, which would oversee business development and travel and tourism, as being a "one stop shop" for folks doing business in New Hampshire.

That sounds simple, but it touches areas as diverse as education, housing, and labor policies, all of which can get complicated, as can the business-speak of Sununu's pick to spearhead development efforts, Taylor Caswell.

The backers of marijuana legalization think the study commission set up by legislation that's soon hitting Governor Sununu's desk will be stacked against relaxing marijuana laws.

Governor Chris Sununu has issued his first veto since taking office in January, on a bill aimed to set statewide standards for votes on zoning variances.

Governor Sununu says New Hampshire should turn over public information on voters to a Trump administration voter fraud commission, a view shared by the state's top election official, Secretary of State Bill Gardner. But Gardner says the matter is under review by the Attorney General.

Governor Chris Sununu is nominating Taylor Caswell to be New Hampshire's first Commissioner of Business and Economic Affairs. The position was created in the new state budget.

Governor Sununu proposed the new commissioner-level job, to oversee what he says will be a revamp of state economic development efforts, and lawmakers bought into it from the start.In Taylor Caswell, Sununu is nominating someone with background in business development and as a bureaucrat.

Utility regulators in Vermont have signed off in the $1.5 billion purchase of FairPoint Communications by Illinois-based Consolidated Communications.

Regulators in Maine and New Hampshire have already approved the merger.

Governor Chris Sununu says he remains committed to reforming Obamacare but opposes the plan proposed by Senate Republican leaders.

The governor's opposition comes as the Senate's top Republican says he is pushing off a scheduled vote on the Senate's version of the bill.

The GOP-led legislature is sending Governor Chris Sununu a $11.7B dollar budget and a bill to fund full-day kindergarten via Keno.

The outcomes are big wins for a governor who hasn’t always gotten his way with the legislature.

Governor Sununu says this year’s budget process has kept him busy meeting with Republicans, talking to lawmakers one-on-one, and trying to stick with the sales approach he’s learned works best.

Governor Chris Sununu’s pick to join New Hampshire’s Supreme Court, Bobbie Hantz, was questioned by the Executive Council Monday.  

House and Senate negotiators say they have a deal on a two-year state budget that spends less than the $11.8 billion plan passed by the Senate, which trimmed money from than the $11.9 billion proposal backed by House leaders that failed to win approval in April.

New Hampshire's legislative budget writers have until Thursday to reach agreement on a spending plan so the full House and Senate can vote next week. They have lots more work to do, but a decision that doesn’t involve money could shape the trajectory of this debate.

Update: 12:55 PM:

This bill has passed the New Hampshire House by a vote of 186-170. We will continue to update this story.

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The New Hampshire House votes Thursday on a bill that would allow fetuses older than twenty weeks to be considered people in cases involving murder, manslaughter and negligent homicide. The debate over what are often called fetal homicide laws isn’t a new one in Concord, but with Republicans controlling the legislature and the governor's office, this year the bill is expected to become law.

Governor Chris Sununu thinks the state and Dartmouth-Hitchcock have cleared the air over their dispute about mental health staffing at New Hampshire hospital.

That was Sununu's take after a meeting Wednesday with Dartmouth-Hitchcock CEO Jim Weinstein.

The House finance committee has given its unanimous backing to a full-day kindergarten proposal tied to the lottery game Keno.

Under the bill, the state would send school districts that have full-day kindergarten an extra $1100 per pupil starting in 2019.

The bill would also authorize cities and towns to allow Keno. The state's take from the video lottery game would be deposited in the state's education trust fund. The account the new Kindergarten aid would be drawn from. Neal Kurk is chairman of the House Finance Committee.

Budget writers in the N.H. House are eyeing the lottery game Keno as a way to fund full day kindergarten. The state senate has always opposed Keno and Governor Sununu says he's yet to see the details of the plan.

The Senate Ways and Means committee has adopted revenue figures for the next state budget.

The numbers are higher than the senate's earlier forecasts, but about $20 million shy of what Governor Sununu proposed.

In the context of a $12 billion dollar budget, a $20 million difference may seem small, but reaching agreement was a challenge.

The final vote added $53 million dollars to what the senate projected last week by bumping up estimates on businesses taxes, real estate transfers, and the tax on interests and dividends.

Budget writers in the New Hampshire Senate are predicting Medicaid caseload will drop over the next two years.  But underestimating caseloads in the program that benefits the poor helped cause the current state budget shortfall.

Charlie Arlinghaus is expected to win confirmation as New Hampshire’s next Administrative Services Commissioner. Right now, Arlinghaus is serving as Governor Chris Sununu’s budget director, but for years he’s run the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy.

That free market think tank has deep - and increasingly conspicuous - ties to the Governor.

When Charlie Arlinghaus had his Executive Council confirmation hearing last week, Councilor Andru Volinsky noted something conspicuous about Arlinghaus’s resume.

A legislative committee is set to begin its review of controversial online comments of two members of the New Hampshire house.

 Laconia Republican Robert Fisher, who was outed as the founder of the misogynistic forum on Reddit called 'The Red Pill," will get his hearing Tuesday.