Eric Herr: In 2032, NH could use an update to its State Constitution

Today, civic life is marked by deep divides on policy issues, distrust in government as an agent of the people, and by serious doubts that government at any level can effectively operate.

Government shutdowns, the inability of government to resolve long standing issues, e.g, four decades of failed attempts to address education funding in New Hampshire; and the complex, opaque reality of government activities, e.g., the 33,000 pages of NH Revised Statutes Annotated with the 15 volume loose leaf notebook set of NH’s Regulatory Codes updated monthly; and the downshifting of public services and tax obligations from the federal government to state and even local governments are but a few examples of what fuels growing discontent over the performance of our civic institutions and processes. Our eroding confidence in the future generally exacerbates these concerns.

I doubt that the solution to our civic problems lies in a few policy remedies or a sudden wave of compromise, though that would be progress. Instead, I suspect that today feels more like the early days of the Republic when it became clear that the Articles of Confederation would not provide the civic structure and processes required for our Republic to thrive. The solution addressed foundational change via the Second Constitutional Convention and a new, ratified Constitution that began “We the People.”

New Hampshire’s founders anticipated the need to look beyond public policy by ensuring future generations could regularly grapple with constitutional issues, not under special circumstances but in the regular course of government. Part 2, Article 100 of the New Hampshire Constitution directs the New Hampshire secretary of state to place an article on the General Election ballot every 10 years asking voters to approve or decline holding a constitutional convention to consider revisions and amendments to the New Hampshire Constitution. Since 1792, that question has appeared on the ballot 36 times and been approved 15 times.

The next time this question will appear on the ballot is 2032. While that seems a long way off, revising our State Constitution should be undertaken only with great care and well-informed discussion. Let’s use the next six years to explore our civic issues and the advantages, disadvantages, and risks of various constitutional remedies. Our state’s interest will be best served by exploring a wide range of perspectives. To prompt such debate, let’s take a page of the nation's 2nd Constitutional Convention process. Then the founders used opinion pieces in the newspapers of the day, later published as the Federalist Papers, to spur thoughtful discussion on the proposed Constitution. Today, like them, let’s use the press, in fact, all media to inform our 2032 Constitutional process.

•••

Eric Herr lives in Hill, where he served as town moderator and where he writes frequently on voter engagement and our democratic processes. He is a member of the Advisory Council of New Hampshire Together and has chaired New Hampshire’s Judicial Council and served on several other state commissions. He has held senior positions in the business and not-for-profit sectors and also served on the staff of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers.