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 Preshow Return to index of stories... |
Next on New Hampshire Outlook tonight. What will it cost New Hampshire to fund education? We'll look at the numbers and talk to the chair of the commission which issued today's long awaited report. Plus.a conversation with Walpole film maker Ken Burns about his latest project - the story of America's music - Jazz. |
| Headlines Return to index of stories... |
Good Evening. I'm Allison McNair. Welcome to New Hampshire Outlook. We begin tonight with a summary of today's state news. |
| Education report Return to index of stories... |
The long awaited report on how New Hampshire can fund education is now public. Today Governor Jeanne Shaheen's blue ribbon tax commission released its report. Although there are no recommendations, commission Chairman David McLaughlin says it was obvious to the panel that a combination of taxes would be the least harmful to the economy. We'll have a full report and David McLaughlin will join us in just a few minutes. |
| Alciere Return to index of stories... |
Nashua Republican Ton AL-Sear says he'll resign - but only if special conditions are met. Alciere has earned national notoriety for posting messages on the Internet supporting those who kill police officers. Al-sear says he'll step down if other legislators make sure the bills he's sponsored get to the House floor. The representative also adds that he would run in a special election to fill his seat. Governor Jeanne Shaheen's reaction to Al-Sear's offer? She says he misled the voters and should resign without conditions. |
| Community College Costs Return to index of stories... |
New Hampshire community colleges are the least affordable in the nation. That's the conclusion of research from the U-S Education Department. It says students paid an average of thirty-seven-hundred dollars to attend two-year colleges in New Hampshire during last school year. California was the most affordable, with average tuition of 317 dollars a year. Education officials there say such surveys don't take into account financial aid that makes their schools affordable. |
| OHRV Accidents Return to index of stories... |
There has be an increase in accidents involving off-highway recreational vehicles. Fish and Game officials say more snow this winter may have led to the increase. But one spokesman says the biggest problem is kids who are allowed to drive the vehicles without adult supervision. Children 12 to 17 are required to have a licensed permit or complete a safety class offered by Fish and Game if they want to drive the vehicles off their own property without a licensed adult. There have been 30 accidents and two fatalities in the six months since July first. |
| Smith/Vatican Return to index of stories... |
Senator Bob Smith was among a Congressional delegation that met with Pope John Paul this morning at the Vatican. The delegation presented the pontiff with the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor Congress can award. Smith had a brief private meeting with the pope which he described as "quite emotional." |
| Intro Weather Return to index of stories... |
It looks like snow is once again in our forecast. Meteorologist Sarah Curtis from the Mount Washington Observatory has details. Good evening Sarah: |
| Intro Ed report Return to index of stories... |
The Blue Ribbon Commission appointed by Governor Shaheen to examine education funding released its report today. It is 170 pages of carefully written research that looks into the pros and cons of various ways to pay for our schools. As producer Richard Ager learned, the report contains no easy answers. OUT: |
| EDUCATION REPORT Return to index of stories... |
Soundup: 2;03:00 Photo Op Track: It began with a Photo opportunity - to recognize the commission members who volunteered their time over the last 8 months to outline the choices ahead. And then the Governor, who appointed the Commission, outlined her hopes for the report. Bite: Tape 1 02:06:50 I will use the commission's work as I develop a proposal for a permanent school funding solution. I hope all of the lawmakers and citizens of NH will put aside any preconceived notions and any partisan ideology and look at this issue, look at the objective analysis, look at the facts that the commission looked at, and keep an open mind as we get to a solution. Track: The commission's task was to examine all possible funding sources for education, and their potential impact on the economy. Their task was also defined by what they weren't supposed to do. Bite: Tape 1 2:11:40 The commission was given a starting figure to fund adequate public education of $825 million. It wasn't ours to challenge if that was the right number - it was the number that was part of the executive order. We were not charged with determining what adequate education is. That was determined by the legislature when they sent the $825 million number. The commission was not charged with determining the equity of distribution - the donor towns and receiver towns. We heard a good bit about that when we were in the community forums - but that wasn't the responsibility of the commission. We were not charged with coming forward with recommendations. We were simply asked to do analysis on the numbers and how it would impact this state. Graphic #1: The Commission looked at five major sources for potential tax revenue. Personal income tax, sales tax, property tax, value-added tax, and a legalized video lottery. Graphic #2: Each of these revenue sources was then evaluated using six criteria: Fairness, Adequacy and Stability, Competitiveness, Exportability - or making non-residents pay, Neutrality, Simplicity Track: Although the commission issued no recommendations, it did draw at least major conclusion: Bite: Tape 1 02;14:00 It's very difficult for any one tax to carry the full burden of public education funding without having some serious negative impact on certain parts of the economy or on the taxpayer. We did feel though, that in moderation, that any of the taxes we looked at would not do significant harm to the state - and that led us to look at the combination taxes. Track: If the report's conclusions are adopted, then we may all see a variety of different taxes in the future. |
| Intro discussion Return to index of stories... |
Joining me to talk more about the NH commision on Education Funding report is the Chairman of that commission David McLaughlin. |
| Discussion Return to index of stories... |
CG:David McLaughlin, Chair NH Commission on Education Funding MAJOR TAX AND REVENUE OPTIONS Personal Income Tax Sales Tax Property Tax Value Added Tax Legalization of Video Lottery Terminals TAX POLICY CRITERIA Fairness Adequacy and Stability Competitiveness Exportability Neutrality Simplicity Progressive vs. Regressive Taxes PROGRESSIVE TAX SYSTEM Low income people pay a lower percentage of their income than people with higher income. REGRESSIVE TAX SYSTEM High income people pay a lower percentage of their income in taxes than do low-income people Overview .this Commission found no single tax to be superior - or inferior - - on all counts. Some tax options have great revenue potential, but could stunt economic growth or in the eyes of many, distribute tax burdens unfairly. Other taxes may have a relatively small effect on the economy, but complicate tax compliance and enforcement. - Report of the New Hampshire Commission on Education Funding |
| bites Return to index of stories... |
Over the next few days we'll be hearing a lot about the pros and cons of each of the tax scenarios laid out in the report. We were able to get reaction immediately following the news confernece from some of the people there. Let's hear what they had to say. cg= Sen. Mark Fernald Sharon cg= Dr. Mark Joyce, Exec. Dir. NH School Admin. Assoc. |
| Thank guests Return to index of stories... |
Thank you David McLaughlin, Chairman of the NH Commission on Education Funding for joining me tonight. You can hear Mr. McLaughlin tomorrow morning on New hampshire Public Radio at 9am on the Exchange. |
| Education bump Return to index of stories... |
Education report and Analyses available on-line tomorrow morning http:/www.edufundingcommission.com. |
| Intro Ken Burns Return to index of stories... |
Tonight here on New Hampshire Public Television, Ken Burn's longest awaited film, "Jazz" premieres. In Episode One, we meet the pioneers of this revolutionary art form. Through words AND music. I recently spoke with the filmmaker at his home studios in Walpole, New Hampshire about our country, our history and of course, about jazz. |
| KEN BURNS Return to index of stories... |
Ken Burns - Filmmaker Ally: Why Jazz? Ken: Jazz is the only art form Americans have invented and I claim to be interested in what makes my country tick and seek out those subjects that are a way to explore who we are, like the Civil War, like Baseball. And so, Jazz is a way to continue the story, in fact I see it as the completion of a trilogy that began with the Civil War and continued with Baseball and now comes to fruition in Jazz. Jazz is a window that lets us see the soul of the country, Jazz is a mirror that reflects back to us as accurately as any subject that I have ever chosen where we've been over the last hundred years, and in some ways its a prism that refracts all the tendencies of who we are, good and bad. And even points a way to what we might become. So Jazz is a kind of metaphor, it objectifies America, Wynton Marsalis says in the opening of this film and I think that's a good way to understand it. If you're curious about how. what makes your country, then you've got to know about the battle of Gettysburg but you also have to know about Jazz music, even if you're not a fan of Jazz music, and that's exactly who I made it for, the people who are. just the broad, curious Americans out there who want to know how the country works. Ally: If someone were to say to you, Ken Burns, "I don't listen to Jazz, It's never appealed to me. This is going to be on. Why should I turn it on? Ken: It didn't appeal to me either and now it does, because, its not only great music, and I can prove that its great music, not all jazz is great, and so of the 498 tunes, we had to listen to tens of thousands of pieces of music. Just as we chose the best photographs and archival film footage and interview bytes to put in, the stories to tell, so too, we chose the best music. But more than that it tells us who we areas Americans, it is as Marsalis says, an objectifying view. It's a kind of model of not only where we've been, but what we might become. And that's important. And if you're curious about your country, and you have to remember that history is not about the past, people, that's nostalgia and sentimentality and that's the enemy of good history. History is the question the present asks of the past. So that means that this is information that helps us now. History is kind of medicine to get us through our days now and to point us to where we're going. We can't change what happened on the second day at the Battle of Gettysburg, but by asking questions of the past, that's history, we find out what we're interested in, who we are. I submit that understanding jazz can be as satisfying as knowing what happened during the Civil War. That the arts and the culture of a country are as important as the, a great military event that the Civil War was, the great tragedy that that was. And that that revealed to us ourselves in myriad ways; how we wrote, how we loved, how we lived, how we died, how we distinguished bravery and patriotism, how we understood how others could see it differently, how we dealt with the central hypocrisy of race, that we could be a country founded on the principal that all men are created equal, and the man that wrote that owned other human beings. And so set in motion the events that would cause the Civil War, that would require Jackie Robinson to wait 'till 1947, but would also create the set of ingredients that would make the only art form that we've done. An art form that's recognized around the world. That's loved as a symbol of America and of freedom of expression around the world. We have to know about that. Ally: Can you tell me some of the good and bad that we learn from Jazz? Ken: Jazz is a curiously objective and unusual witness to the twentieth century. It carries in it's wakes all of our tendencies and so. This is a story not only about the music and the great musicians who made it, but about two world wars and a devastating depression and the soundtrack that got Americans through those difficult times. It's about sex, the way men and women talk to one another through music is something elegant and sophisticated. A kind of ritual of courtship that's gone out of our contemporary pop music, which is so execrable most of the time. It's about drug abuse and the terrible cost of addiction and how it goes out to the rest of the country. And it's about race. You know, its about slavery, its about civil war, its about emancipation, its about reconstruction and Jim Crowe and lynchings and progress forward and progress backwards in civil rights. So its hugely about who we are and where we've been and then at the heart of it, its about this sublime, creative gesture that Americans have made, the only art form that we've contributed, now, but that implies that everyone else has created art forms, they haven't. There's no other country can say, well we invented painting or we invented sculpture. But we know where Jazz began, and we know how it began, and it has this wonderful, poetic, irony justice to it, that it was founded, largely, by a community that has had the historical memory of being unfree in a free land. You know we put African-American history in February, which is our coldest and shortest month, as if it's some addenda to US history. But I found in the Civil War, which wouldn't have happened without the existence of slavery. I found in Baseball, which wouldn't have been worthy of such a long treatment had not there been the story of the Negro leagues and Jackie Robinson's arrival and Kurt Flood and Henry Aaron and other great heroes, uh and its in Jazz, this amazing art form, uh.that tells us that our genius in America is improvisation. |
| burns bump Return to index of stories... |
You can see Episode one tonight at 9 o'clock right here on New Hampshire Public Television. Jazz A Film By Ken Burns Episode One - "Gumbo " Tonight 9pm Here on NHPTV |
| website Return to index of stories... |
For information on tonight's program, and links to our guests and interviews, visit our web site at nhptv.o-r-g. You can see and hear streaming video of our broadcasts and participate in our daily poll. If you've got a story idea or comment about our program, you can call us at 800-639-2721 |
| Tomorrow Return to index of stories... |
Tomorrow on New Hampshire Outlook - We continue to take an in depth look at the education funding issue by focusing on the pros and cons of an income tax. Plus. more of our conversation with Walpole filmmaker Ken Burns. |
| Goodnight Return to index of stories... |
That's it for this edition of New Hampshire Outlook. For all of us here at New Hampshire Public Television, thanks for joining us. Stay tuned for Granite State Challenge. We'll be back tomorrow at 7:30. Good night. |
| founders Return to index of stories... |
Thanks to our founding sponsors who have provided major funding for the production of New Hampshire Outlook: New Hampshire Charitable Foundadtion Public Service of New Hampshire Alice J. Reen Charitable Trust Putnam Foundation Stratford Foundation |
| Business Outlook Return to index of stories... |
Here's a look at some of the stories making headlines in New Hampshire business. |
| stocks Return to index of stories... |
It was another rollercoaster ride on wall street today. Both the dow and nasdaq were down in early trading, but investors seeking bargains helped end the day well off session lows. The dow was down 40 and the nasdaq was down 11. Here's a look at some of the stocks of interest to New Hampshire. Bottomline Tech was down 2 and a 1/2. Teradyne was up more than 3 points and Timberland was up more than 2. And Tyco was down 1 and 3/8. |
| NH Bankruptcies Down Return to index of stories... |
A year after New Hampshire saw a greater decrease in bankruptcy filings than any other state, the trend shows no signs of stopping. In 2000, there were 3,561 filings, down nearly 12 percent from the previous year. Researchers at the New Hampshire Employment Security office see two main reasons for the numbers: The economy is strong overall, and people have been managing their credit more competently. |
| Littleton Hospital Return to index of stories... |
Today in Littleton ceremonies were held for the opening of new hospital facilities and a veterans community-based outpatient clinic at Littleton Regional Hospital. U-S Senator Judd Gregg was on hand for the dedication. He also toured the site of a safety agencies training center for which the federal government appropriated 500-thousand dollars. The center will make mandatory annual training for police and fire officers more convenient for northern New Hampshire communities. |
| Port Authority Return to index of stories... |
Governor Shaheen will nominate Craig Wheeler, the planning director for Concord, as executive director of the New Hampshire Port Authority. The port has been struggling in recent years with no permanent director, no terminal operator and no business. Shaheen says Wheeler will help the operation chart a new course. |
| Forest Fire Prevention Return to index of stories... |
hmrnas -- New Hampshire was nearly free of forest fires last year, and the federal government wants to keep it that way. Regular rainfall limited the state's wildfire damage to a few acres, but officials say there are three dozen towns near federal woodlands that are at high risk. Those towns, along with more than a thousand nationwide, are eligible for 240 million in federal funds aimed at reducing the threat of forest fires to homes and businesses. The money will be used in a variety of ways, including removing underbrush and small trees that can lead to forest fires. Congress approved the funds in response to last year's fire season, when more than six million acres of public and private lands burned. --- New Hampshire's eligible towns: Amherst, Bartlett, Bedford, Campton, Charlestown, Chatham, Conway, Cornish, Dunbarton, Durham, Francestown, Goshen, Grantham, Greenland, Hopkinton, Jefferson, Lincoln, Lyndeborough, Madison, Milford, New Boston, Newington, Newmarket, Ossipee, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Randolph, Rumney, Salisbury, Sandwich, Tamworth, Thornton, Unity, Weare, Webster and Woodstock. |
| discussion sot Return to index of stories... |
We were able to get reaction immediately following the news confernece from some of the people there. Let's hear what they had to say. cg= Dr. Mark Joyce, Exec. Dir. NH School Admin. Assoc. |
| Episode 2: The Gift Return to index of stories... |
Tomorrow Night at 9pm Ken Burn's "JAZZ" Episode 2: "The Gift" 1917 - 1924 Two extraordinary artists lives and music span almost three-quarters of a century - Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington. |
| PROMO Return to index of stories... |
Tonight on New Hampshire Outlook. We continue the discussion of education funding focusing on an income tax. And more of my conversation with Filmmaker Ken Burns. Join us tonight at 7:30 only on New Hampshire Outlook. |