Manuse thankful for opportunity to serve the people of Derry

It has been one of my greatest honors to serve the people of Derry in the State Legislature during the past two years. I am grateful that you gave me an opportunity to be a part of one of the best legislative sessions in the state’s history and for taking me at my word that I would work full-time to bring restorative change to our great state.

I tried my very best to fulfill my promise to bring jobs and economic opportunity, better health industry and insurance laws, parental rights and community empowerment, and individual liberty and safety. I am confident that I have done so. The Legislature’s balanced budget, and the $1 billion spending decrease, deregulations, tax and fee cuts, and government downsizing that enabled the responsible budget we passed, will guarantee the state’s economic growth and development in the coming years.

At this time in my life, with a new child and a five-year old preparing for private school, my focus must shift to raising my family, sharing time with my wife and building my career. This decision, I believe, will benefit Derry voters as well. I believe a state representative or senator should be fully devoted to his or her office, and doing the work of the people who sent him or her there. While certainly I have given elected office my all within the last two years, I cannot devote my full attention to public life within the next two years. Therefore, I will not be seeking reelection this year.

My intention is to run for a seat as a delegate to the state convention, and my wife Jennifer plans to join me there. We will ask for your votes, for we are confident we can stay involved at the party level for now and bring our ideals of limited government, individual liberty, personal responsibility and free enterprise to that forum. We also plan to become more active in the community as our children grow, and we hope to meet many of you whom we haven’t met before. I will remain active at the state level to the best of my ability outside my current office. And, when the time is right, whether it is two years or ten years, I will ask for your vote again to represent Derry in the State Legislature.

Please note my accomplishments, as follows, during the previous two years:

• HB 1297, my bill prohibiting a state health insurance exchange, will advance the repeal or amendment of Obamacare at the federal level. Related to this effort, I was also involved with the creation of the Joint Health Care Reform Oversight Committee via HB 601 last year, which oversees the state’s interactions with the federal government regarding Obamacare. I have sat on that body since its inception. I was also instrumental in passing SB 148, which prohibits the individual mandate in New Hampshire.

• SB 266 prohibits certain Smart Meter gateway devices from being installed without a property owner’s consent. Smart Meter gateway devices are add-ons to Smart Meters that allow customers, utilities and potentially the government to remotely view the usage of certain appliances and also control that usage.
• HB 1231 repeals a law that forced people to buy no less than 12 chickens. This repeal will benefit Derry Feed as well as several chicken owners who like to buy a handful of chickens of a different variety at different times of the year. It will also help people get into the hobby by allowing them to purchase a reasonable amount of birds.

• HB 1448 requires administrators who write rules citing documents such as the NFPA Fire Code or Web sites to provide information about how the public can view those documents or Web sites free of charge. This transparency bill ensures the people will always have the right to know the law that governs them.
• HB 1644 deregulates individual home health care service providers. Previously, individuals providing home health care services had to seek the same type of licensing as major corporations. Now, they will simply have to pass a background check and register with the state to provide these services, which will help more small business owners get into the business.
• HB 1701 prohibits N.H. officials from taking drivers’ licenses away from N.H. residents who have failed to pay out-of-state taxes.
• HB 316 allows property owners to appeal a property assessment even if they have not let an assessment official in their home.

• HB 331 requires the state to post its checkbook online. This feature is now available online thanks to the work I did while serving on the State Transparency Web Site Oversight Committee this year. (I was part of another effort this year via amendment to HB 449 to make that committee permanent and rename it as indicated above.) Now, budget writers, activists and citizens can look at what their government is spending and where it is spending that money and make suggestions about where to cut spending in the future. This will help ensure our $1 billion budget cut this session will not be a one-time thing.
• HJR 3 prohibits the implementation of certain rules of the board of mental health practice regarding misconduct investigations.

• HB 1196 repeals the task force on state procurement policies and procedures, which means the state will be forced to hire the cheapest company with the best reputation to complete state contracts.
• Through the administrative rulemaking process, I also prohibited the implementation of rules to regulate corn mazes and rules that would have required expensive sprinkler systems in single and two-family homes.

Again, thank you for giving me the pleasure of serving you in Concord. I’ll look forward to the next opportunity, whenever that may be.