O P I N I O N

THE SOAPBOX

Stand up. Speak up. It’s your turn.

I live in Bedford and in March 2025 the town overwhelmingly voted “NO” (3663 NO to 1220 YES) on a petition warrant article to implement a tax cap on the school budget. Therefore, I was confused and upset when five of the seven of our district’s representatives in the NH House voted in favor of implementing automatic budget caps on school budgets. Our town helped to elect those five representatives, and they knew how Bedford had voted in March. Why weren’t they thinking of their constituents?

As I looked at this and other bills that have been coming out of Concord, I began to do my own research. I learned that the NH legislature is not made up of Republicans and Democrats. It is made up of Democrats and 120 NH Liberty Alliance Free Staters, and Republicans who are voting with the Free Staters, whether they agree with the proposed bills or not. I learned that many bills that I consider terrible are attacking local control, attempting to dismantle the NH government structure, and now cutting significant funding in multiple areas in an approved House budget, and that those bills have been sponsored by the NH Liberty Alliance Free Staters, led by Jason Osborne, speaker of the House. The NH Senate also has Free Staters. There are five state senators in districts 1, 3, 11, 16, and 18 who are endorsed by the NH Liberty Alliance.

These people ran as Republicans, but that is not what they are. I am old enough to remember what a fiscally conservative Republican is, and these people are not that. The Free Staters are Libertarians that are looking to change New Hampshire and our way of living. Some of the Free Staters moved here, some were paid to move here, and some are homegrown. They are supported by out of state money: Americans for Prosperity (the Koch brothers) and Young Americans for Liberty, headquartered in Texas. On April 25 and 26, 2025, the NH Liberty Forum will occur at the Grappone Center in Concord. It is a two-day conference and that is where you will find the NH Liberty Alliance Free Staters. There will be discussion on how to get more libertarians to move here and how to get more in the NH legislature.

Are New Hampshire citizens aware that our legislature has drastically changed and that there are no longer two parties there? There is no bipartisanship. There is one party, the NH Free Staters, controlling the House. Are NH citizens aware that some of the bills being produced by the Free Staters will cause property taxes to increase, that local control will disintegrate, that services for NH citizens will decrease, that businesses will be economically hurt, that citizens will not have more rights, but will have fewer rights, and that it is all supported by big money PACs from out of state? It is time for NH citizens to pay attention and to understand what is really happening in the legislature. It is time for NH citizens to step forward and speak up. NH does not belong to the Free Staters.

Ann D. Grossi lives in Bedford.

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