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Lawmakers defer to Lakes Region sentiment as 55 on The Broads bill fails
committee test
By Michael Kitch
May 04, 2011 12:00 am
CONCORD — Defenders of speed limits on Lake Winnipesaukee scored a victory yesterday when the House Transportation Committee, in a show of bipartisanship, voted 11 to 6 to not recommend a bill that would raise the limit on The Broads to 55 miles per hour.
The bill will go before the full House next week.
"It isn't over," said Sandy Helve of the Winnipesaukee Family Alliance for Boating Safety (WinnFABs), "but, this was a very good result." She said that the discussion in committee indicated that members were impressed by the strong and widespread support for speed limits among individuals and businesses in the Lakes Region.
Scott Verdonck, president of Safe Boaters of New Hampshire (SBONH), said that "we knew it was coming." In a prepared statement he said his group was "outraged" by the vote, charging that the committee "fell victim to fabricated stories . . . that the additional 10 miles an hour (from 45 MPH) would result in accidents and mayhem" despite statements by the New Hampshire Marine Patrol to the contrary.
Senate Bill 27, which carried the Senate by the narrowest of margins, appeared to have strong support in the Transportation Committee. The Lakes Region is not represented on the committee, whose chairman, Representative Sherman Packard (R-Londonderry), has always voted against speed limits, and vice-chairman, Representative John Hikel (R-Goffstown) sponsored the bill.
But, Hikel alone spoke in support of the bill. The dozen Republicans on the committee split evenly while all five Democrats voted against the bill.
The split among Republicans on the committee mirrored a rift in the GOP leadership in the House between Speaker Bill O'Brien and Majority Leader D.J. Bettencourt. After twice voting against speed limits and assuring Verdonck he would do so again, Bettencourt told members that he considered speed limits a local issue and would join representatives from the Lakes Region in upholding them.
"He took everyone by surprise," said Verdonck, who said his group will do all it can to ensure that Bettencourt's first term as majority leader is his last.
Meanwhile, as the committee convened, O'Brien swept into the room with five Republican representatives in tow intending to replace any absent committee members by his appointment. Three were missing; two on opposite sides of the issue and one whose position was in doubt. All three replacements voted with the minority in favor of the bill.
Hikel began by claiming that there is no evidence that speed poses problems on the lake and reminding the committee that the bill would permit "55 mph. not 85 mph.on the open water of The Broads.
No one else, either Republican or Democrat, spoke for the bill. Representative Brian Rhodes (D-Nashua) reminded the committee during a four-hour hearing those speaking against raising the speed limit on The Broads outnumbered supporters of the bill by seven-to-one. Moreover, he said they included a mix of business owners, including a number of marina operators, who said that speed limits have benefited the Lakes Region economy.
Representative Lisa Scontsas (R-Nashua) added that not one business owner supported the bill at the hearing. Several committee members stressed the overwhelming opposition to the bill expressed by the those who live and work in the Lakes Region.
When Hikel's motion of "ought to pass" failed 11 to 6, he offered an amendment to form a study committee to consider the issue, which was rejected by the same margin. With that the committee voted to report the bill to the House "inexpedient to legislate."
In New Hampshire, all bills are reported to the floor of the House or Senate for action, even if the committee that studied the matter voted not to recommend the legislation.
Since 2006, when the first speed limit bill was introduced, the cause has drawn a large, broad and diverse constituency, especially but not exclusively in the Lakes Region while the opposition appears confined to a relatively small but articulate group of powerboating enthusiasts. The committee vote suggests that even lawmakers with a libertarian bent, disinclined to extend regulation, sense that the greater reward may lie with numbers rather than principle.