You're listening to New Hampshire Has Issues, the podcast that dares to ask, how guilty do I feel for not having a full episode for you today? Well, the answer is extremely guilty. I am your host, Liz Canada, and longtime listeners know that I am a big fan of musical theater. And so I'm calling this my intermission episode. Where we take a little stretch break and we think about what we've done in Act One. I have some updates for you. The first is about the most recent episode. My guest was Kayla Montgomery, a fan favorite of the show, talking about abortion rights, uh also my boss, by the way. On that episode, we talked about the anti-abortion bill that was heading to Governor Ayotte's desk, and we wondered what she would do. She promised in her campaign she would veto anti-abortion legislation. And so we wondered, what will she do now that it's on her desk? And the answer is she vetoed it. That is what she did, and that's great. Very happy about that. Governor Ayotte also vetoed the bathroom bands that made it to her desk. And there were like four, I believe, across her tenure. And she would never say this, I imagine. Though if she wants to come on the podcast, Governor Ayotte, feel free to contact me. I don't think she would say this, but I'll I'll say it. I have found her veto statements on those bills to be delightfully sassy to her own party, because what she's saying essentially is, you send me the same thing, you're gonna get the same result. So she vetoed all of the bathroom bans. With all that said, she has signed some legislation as well. One of those pieces of legislation is House Bill 1300. Now, I have a big rule, which is that nobody knows what bill numbers means, and so I have to explain it. Except in this case, it's kind of a weird bill and law. It requires a new question on this November's ballot about school district budgets. Even though if you're like me and you live in a town, we don't have a school district budget to vote on this coming November. It happens in the spring. And it's putting a question on the ballot that is about budget caps and like multiple budget caps in one question. And it's complicated, that's what I'm gonna say. I just finished recording with Alex Tilsley, the director of policy at Reaching Higher New Hampshire, all about this new law because boy oh boy is an important one. And that episode will be coming very soon to your favorite podcast platform. However, you're listening to it right now, it will be there. What I want to share, though, before we get into that full episode, is that the lawmakers who have passed this bill and sent it to the governor and she signed it, they haven't really hidden what they're trying to accomplish with it. Now, they're gonna say one thing. They're gonna say that it's going to lower property taxes, which nope, it's not gonna happen. But what they have also said is that they see putting this question on the ballot as an opportunity to get more voters to vote for them in November. They have said aloud and have been quoted to say in the media that they see this as an election turnout opportunity for them to get more ballots cast for Republicans by having this question in November. So, what does that have to do with anything? Well, we've seen the elections in the last year or so. People are really unhappy with what's been happening with the Trump administration. This is not a surprise to you, dear listener. And even here in New Hampshire, there was a pretty big flip in a special election this spring. And so putting this question on the ballot, requiring it to go on the ballot this November for school district budgets, doing that so that they can get more voters for the midterms, for the state legislature, kinda gives me the ick, I'm gonna be honest. Feels a little weird. That's what they've decided to do. Maybe weird is not the right word. So that episode is coming soon that is gonna answer so many of the questions that you have. Questions like, what the heck are you talking about, Liz? Answer coming soon. All right, this is my intermission. Go get your snacks. You can turn your cell phones back on, get in line for the bathroom, which is not banned, good news. And then be back in your seats for act two. Thank you so much for listening.