Feltes brings Democratic governor campaign to Laconia

LACONIA — New Hampshire Senate Majority Leader Dan Feltes, a candidate for governor, met with Laconia Mayor Andrew Hosmer and former state Rep. Phil Spagnuolo on Thursday in Wayfarer Coffee Roasters to discuss the opioid epidemic and other issues.

Feltes, 40, a Concord Democrat, is trying to unseat two-term Republican Gov. Chris Sununu.

Now in his third term in the state Senate, Feltes has worked for Medicaid expansion and to protect people with pre-existing conditions and he was the sponsor of a bill for family and medical leave that Sununu vetoed over objections to its funding mechanism.

Feltes said he wants to help working families.

“We have some of the highest health care costs in the nation,” Feltes said. “We have the second-worst opioid epidemic, the second-worst treatment capacity. We need to deal with those issues.”

He said he grew up in a working-class family. His father worked in a furniture factory and his mother worked nights while raising four children.

Feltes said that, as a legal aid attorney, he worked for people facing foreclosure and helped people with mental illness, veterans, and people with substance use disorder.

“I carry those fights with me all throughout the state Senate each and every day,” he said.

“If I have the honor and privilege to serve as the next governor, I’ll fight for working families every single day to help people deal with these skyrocketing costs, to lift wages for ordinary folks and to deal with the key challenges facing our state, which have not been addressed under Gov. Sununu.”

Feltes said he believes in closing business tax loopholes.

“If we do a more fair system and we devote more money to our communities and support our communities and partner with our communities, I think we can relieve some of the stress on property taxpayers,” Feltes said.

“We’ve got the sixth lowest overall business taxes in the country, and the second highest property taxes. We need to be focused like a laser beam on middle-income Granite Staters and helping our communities and helping deal with these crises, not singularly focused, like it seems Gov. Sununu is, on pushing taxes to big corporations down.”

Feltes said he opposes instituting a broad-based income tax.

At the start of his re-election campaign, Sununu said adherence to the “New Hampshire Advantage,” which opposes broad-based taxes, is critical to the state’s future.

“We are getting the job done,” the governor said. “More people are working today in New Hampshire than at any time in history. We have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation and wages are at an all time high.”

Feltes took notes during his meeting with Mayor Hosmer, who is a former Democratic state senator, and Spagnuolo. He said he was planning a series of such meetings across the state.

Hosmer told him state government has improved at addressing the opioid epidemic, including implementation of the Doorway program, which seeks to link those with substance use disorder to treatment.

“One of the things we need to look at now is how do we bridge the gaps in the continuum of care,” Hosmer said. “We still have people who are going to our emergency department, which draws an awful lot of people who are suffering from an overdose or the effects of substance use disorder. When they are medically cleared, they are not sick enough to remain in the hospital, but they’re truly not well enough to live on their own.”

Hosmer said a transition environment would help so people don’t return to the same circumstances in which drug use was prevalent.

“Ultimately, how do we get a person in position to fulfill their God-given capacities?” he asked. “How do we get them job-ready, family-ready, learning-ready?”

Investment in helping people get and stay sober is less expensive than costs associated with continued substance dependency, Hosmer said.

Spagnuolo, who runs sober houses, said sometimes there isn't enough communication between state officials and local providers when it comes to the best ways to invest in fighting the drug epidemic.

“How is it that Navigating Recovery and places like Navigating, and SOS, Safe Harbor and all of those recovery centers throughout the state can do essentially the same work as the Doorways program for a fraction of the cost?” he asked. “There’s something wrong in this. We’re wasting precious resources.”

He concurred with Hosmer’s comments about the need to help people work on their sobriety once they get out of treatment programs, including those provided through a house of corrections.

Spagnuolo said those who live in his sober houses are men who are typically between the ages of 21 and 33.

“These are guys who maybe never have filled out a job application, never held a real job, never learned how to cook for themselves, never learned how to make their bed,” he said. “We can get people sober, but how do we keep them sober?”

He said he can help them with these skills, but when they get a job application, there is a box asking them if they are a convicted felon. Checking that box often means they never get an opportunity for an interview.

Last year, the New Hampshire Legislature passed “ban-the-box” legislation, Senate Bill 100, that would have prohibited most employers from asking on employment applications about prior arrests, criminal charges or convictions.

Sununu vetoed the bill.

“I very much appreciate the bill’s goal of providing individuals who have a criminal record or a troubled past with a path toward becoming productive members of society,” the governor said in his veto message. “However, even such a laudable goal does not justify forcing a business to interview applicants that the business may not wish to interview based on the applicant’s own past actions and choices.”