Agenda items: BIA issues results of business forums.Workforce housing Workforce housing is a relatively new term that is increasingly popular among planners, government administrators and housing activists, and is gaining cachet with home builders, developers and lenders. and lower tuition at four-year and community technical colleges were two of the issues atop the agenda of businesspeople who took part earlier this year in a series of forums sponsored across the state by the Business & Industry Association of New Hampshire New Hampshire, one of the New England states of the NE United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts (S), Vermont, with the Connecticut R. forming the boundary (W), the Canadian province of Quebec (NW), and Maine and a short strip of the Atlantic Ocean (E). . Also mentioned as a key issue by the participants were aging of the population as young people leave the state and the loss of manufacturing jobs to nations with low labor costs. In his report about the forums--which were held to help the organization shape its agenda for the 2007 legislative session--BIA Vice President David Juvet warned the newly created workforce housing study commission is not enough to ensure a strong supply of skilled labor. Health-care costs, the top BIA BIA abbr. Bureau of Indian Affairs issue in previous years, ranked near the top again. Juvet voiced concern that a bill to study health-care cost drivers died near the end of the 2006 session. The BIA was pleased lawmakers passed a bill to reduce mercury emissions from PSNH PSNH Public Service of New Hampshire PSNH Portsmouth, New Hampshire plants. The BIA helped kill attempts to pass new taxes on solid waste and beverages and protected tax breaks for pollution controls in a bill that stripped these exemptions from commercial landfills. Other key issues on the list included the lack of a state economic development plan, the crumbling road system, high property taxes, the lack of mass transit mass transit, public transportation systems designed to move large numbers of passengers. Types and Advantages Mass transit refers to municipal or regional public shared transportation, such as buses, streetcars, and ferries, open to all on a , the threat of a broad-based tax, unchecked residential growth, loss of open space and community character, weak slate support for tourism, and the lack of high-speed communications in the North Country. Other issues discussed at the forums: * Teach communities that affordable housing is different from subsidized sub·si·dize tr.v. sub·si·dized, sub·si·diz·ing, sub·si·diz·es 1. To assist or support with a subsidy. 2. To secure the assistance of by granting a subsidy. low-income housing. * Increase high school standards. * Give high tech companies incentives to relocate here. * Push to make health insurance more affordable through tort reform, universal health insurance and cost transparency. * Reward developers who propose high-density subdivision plans that cut per-unit housing costs. * Urge the state to help build water and sewer infrastructure needed for this greater density. * Have the BIA play a greater role in regional planning regional planning: see city planning. by convening con·vene v. con·vened, con·ven·ing, con·venes v.intr. To come together usually for an official or public purpose; assemble formally. v.tr. 1. forums and spreading best practices in growth management * Boost funding for highways and make sure the gas tax continues to go only for roads. * Participants at most of the forums also opposed broad-based taxes as a threat to the state's economic advantage. --CHRIS DORNIN GOLDEN DOME NEWS |
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