Investing in renewal and clean energy. Josh lets get a quick biography from mark connolly. Mark connolly is a native of bedford and has an mba from northwestern. He was elected to the New Hampshire house, serving bedford. He worked in the Business World and served as assistant secretary of of the bureau securities regulation. He lives in newcastle and is engaged to be married. Mark honored to be here i have fought for New Hampshire families. It is the kind of leadership i will bring. For the concord monitor. First question is going to go to steve march and but it will be directed to all of you at one point. Roughly three quarters of the electorate dont know enough about the candidates on stage tonight to form an opinion. With that in mind, tell us about personal sacrifice that has helped you become who you are. Generation american. A bankruptcy from a Health Care Crisis when i was in high school, it helps inform Public Policy. If it wasnt for great Public Education at cost for clark elementary school, i wouldnt you here today. If we had Medicaid Expansion back then, we wouldnt have the crisis. Realize you cant do it all by conduct my campaign. We include folks that may be dont start at the top on day one. Josh can you name a personal challenge . Steve marchand id Colin Van Ostern i dont view it as a sacrifice but i was mainly raised by a single mom. We moved around a lot. When i moved to New Hampshire for a job, it it was the 18th home i ever ve im so passionate about how this can be for me. The best place in the country to live and work and raise a family and grow business. When talk about restoring planned parenthood funding or the vote that i cast the deciding vote in extending Medicaid HealthCare Coverage to 50,000 fellow citizens. I think about what its like to views. Mind in the private sector working his counselor and as a democrat. Mark connolly i can tell you im a New Hampshire native and my parents divorced when i was five years old. My brother and myself, we moved every year. And i was told i was a remedial learner. And a great schoolteacher picked up the fac that so many kids, i went from the remedial last to the advanced class. Whole life has been about understanding what it like not to have much. I remember one time we were living when i was nine years old inside of New Hampshire. We had to hide the car in the woods because the mother could not make her car payment. These of the kind of things going on in the country today where people dont have a lot. I want to give back to the people that have done so much for me. Government can help people. They can really make a difference in peoples lives. Josh lets go to the panel. John the first question is on the opioid crisis. A question for each of you. The state alcohol fund which is supposed to provide money for treatment and recovery programs has been rated almost constantly since the inception. This left critical ic ability to deal with the ongoing abuse epidemic. What you commit to ensuring the mandated 5 of all state alcohol sales go toward fighting addiction and if so, how will you do that . Colin van ostern i will. I have. It was part of the opioid plan i put forward in this campaign and one of the key five points from a nonprofit and Nonpartisan Group that is put together a plan for how to stem funding. One is the alcohol fund and another is making it permanent. I talked about access to health Care Coverage. Part of that, 50,000 of our fellow citizens. Part of that coverage includes Substance Abuse disorder. An area where we have had a low treatment capacity in the tide by bringing access to treatment. En brought 608 million of our own taxes back in New Hampshire. I have met individuals and recovery counseling others about what life without heroin is like. We can commit to overcoming this crisis. John the police chief stepped in to state politics last year, calling out the states drugs wozniacki resign until he eventually stepped down seven months later. Should they have mostly on more closely monitor that work . Mark connolly this issue is a big issue. I can tell you my plan, basically, get the drugs are and Emergency Management head and come up with shortterm meetings for a longterm plan. We try to it and thats not working. It means rehabilitation. I would increase the tobacco tax by . 10. And the drug and rehabilitation Substance Abuse fund. This is not a six Million Dollar problem. As a 25 million problem. We have to stop politicizing this. State officials have been criticized for failing to implemented much sooner. In response to this question we all have to admit that we were a little slow a few years ago to realize the magnitude of the challenge and some of the options that might be available. The second thing i would say and this is predating any t at the seacoast and developing operating budgets. It really good job of recovery with a dose of prevention as well. I came up with an 8 million plan. It is remarkably little additional money but it has to be hyper targeted locally. One thing i would note whether it is the alcohol fund or want things that matter and what you will hear outside of a . 10 tobacco increase is not mu about the need for increased revenue. But we needed to deal with them of these issues. I have a difference of opinion on that. I have come up specific ideas of bringing revenue to the state. Ive talked about the tobacco cat tax, gasoline tax, ive talked about reasonable compensation. Transfer pricing, county mechanisms. I believe it is 20 million to 30 million. I did say that the rates should be kept where they are. But to bring them back up is not good for business. That is the wrong characterization. Do with throats and bridges. I would bring it back to the rate it had been prior to last year. We call it a big Corporate Tax giveaway. I disagree with 2016 on the issue. It was a bad idea last year. The third one, i would legalize and tax marijuana. The only one serious about revenue. I try to lowball that to be conservative in my estimate. Mark connolly its important to focus on how we move the state forward. Its because of the scale of how much it hurts the state. The rest of us. Its a great way to keep taxes low. Weve got to move forward. Dave it has been three years since the state settled a major lawsuit over the treatment of granite state. Granite state. Agreeing to spend an additional july issued a scathing report seeing the state has failed to keep its promises leaving patients without treatment. M appropriately institutionalized. How will you approach this problem . Starting with mr. Marcia . Seriously the fact that independent parties have looked at this and come to the conclusion that while there has been progress made, its not the kind that has been aspired to. I can look at a number of issues but something i said a moment ago, its hard to look at the evaluation of the independent party. Part of the problem in the report. Quantity of service. Some of the best practices being employed. I am a guy its hard to come to a conclusion. Terms of making a much better effort. I will tell you that we have brought in 150 million to the federal government over the next five years. This money should create an integrated system. Housing has to be integrated. We have to look at the individual in terms of all of those areas. For the first time in 20 years, they have the money to do it. We have to get the putting the resource where they are most needed. Unfortunately, its like life. Its quicker to tear down a bar and then build a new one. And through a couple bad budgets in the recession and folks in the legislature, we ended up in a pretty bad place which is where we had been digging out of today. There are specific things we can do. The 30 million for each of the next five years to bring Behavioral Health into the primary care. There are things we can do as community leaders. You know, i sat with folks from both parties pledging to talk about how we can Bring Mental Health out of the shadows. We make this work as a state. We have great Mental Health centers funded on keeping people well. Josh you can be as wonky as you need to be. Polls show Hillary Clinton not trustworthy. All of you have signaled support for the democratic nominee. Without using a donald trump the country . Mark connolly i think Hillary Clinton is qualified. I think she has gone through a hail storm of criticism and certainly she couldve done her emails differently. I dont see any reason for us not to trust her abilities to be the next president of the United States. I will give you two reasons. She has admitted she has made mistakes. She is humali if you look at her career, i am inspired by her early work around the childrens defense fund. Standing up for kids that needed something. Thinking about what we can do in New Hampshire. She did that way before she was involved in politics he cut as she knew the kids of the nation needed a stronger voice. I think that she has shown over a long career and ability to perform at a high level. As the only one of your voted for birdie in the primary, 60 of primary voters chose bernie. It wasnt just a statement about hillary. It was a statement about the aspirations of where voters are. They want a level of authenticity. Because i skate to where the puck is going, not to wear the pocket has been. And what bernie was talking about as a candidate was talking about where we need to go in a number of Public Policy areas. I try to model is much that i quality in my campaign this year. Josh issues in this race include climate change. As governor, was steps would you to wait in till then. Ive already been working hard on the executive council to invest more in cleantech and clean energy. There are solar and Renewable Energy projects. Plymdurhouth, the largest in the state. Raising the roof on the Airport Parking lot that i fought hard for. Most of which got passed by a threeto vote and most a bipartisan te exception and start being the rule. You tend to bring down energy costs, create local jobs, and protect the environment. There is an area where the governor can lead a lot. I voted to improve the snow guns. It stands millions of dollars a year on electricity. They can actually have better thats one of the great things about the clean energy economy. We can win and move the economy forward. Publicpolicy conservation is the best move in New Hampshire. Its the small part of a big region for consumption. The only way we will make a big impact ending programs aggressively than encourage businesses and individuals to save money a as the only candidate 100 against the Northern Pass project. One of the reasons for that is in addition to the problems they bring to the table, it would squash a lot of really exciting projects i believe are on the cusp of occurring that includes solar, biomass, and offshore wind. Things that we can do to modernize the grid. Its not a day one thing. More quickly into the economic bloodstream. Our stated Public Policy goals is 25 of renewables. We should be able to get there. Weve had some of the legislatures try to roll it back. We show a commitment of 50 i20 35. Its doable and the way we get there is a renewable area and we have the Greenhouse Gas initiative which has been started to be rolled back in terms of bringing down the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. We should recommit that in 2020. Energy conservation is a big part of it. We have to really commit ourselves to Renewable Energy. Ive been working on this since the 1970s. Society. This is a real issue and we can do it if we have the right leadership. Lets go back to another very important question surrounding gun violence. For those who support an assault weapons ban, x hours employs hundreds of residents here and also makes assault weapons. How you balance that ban against the businesses in the state . Style assault weapons, congress will not act on it and several states have done it. We should look at it in terms of new gun sales and it will be a New Hampshire question. Whether it is certain features in terms of the magazine capacity or flash suppressors, grenade launchers. When you go back to last 10 years and you look at gun violence. Clear and present danger. The best thing the governor can do is stand up and protect the state. I believe congress cannot act and we should do it. A put the consideration aside of how it businesses and look at how it affects citizens. My first responsibility is looking at this as a dad. I was a dad when sandy hook happened and i dont think any parent should have kiss their kids to sleep like words like San Bernardino over their head. They can thrive and go grow great businesses. The policies that make sense here, i am an occasional word hunter bird hunter myself. The rights that i exercise are completely consistent with things like universal background checks. Country sorry, every other state in new england. We need to get weapons of war. Josh occasional bird hunter . Once or twice a year and not very good. Steve marchand i dont think of it in the context of what employers happen to be or not be a New Hampshire. Already heard tonight involving expanding background checks seem like a commonsense measure. Most agree with that including Mental Health and including us in that database. A very logical step to take including Domestic Violence as a background and an element for gun access. Also gun safety for folks practicing their completely legal Second Amendment rights gun safety laws and what they can do to store them more properly and can help minimize accidental deaths. Some folks tell me i have an ar15 and they like to use it to hunt deer. If you need 30 rounds that you can shoot in 10 seconds to shoot a deer, you might want to consider violence, refugees have become an issue. After the terrorist attacks in paris, this would be to mr. Marchand first. Our governor called for a complete freeze of Syrian Refugees entering the United States until the federal government can guarantee that the vetting process ensures the safety of the american people. If so, what action should you take. I disagree on that issue. I said that at the time as well. I take this aittle more broadly in terms of immigration. Folks came down from quebec and i was born and raised a couple miles from here. When i look at the future of New Hampshire and americas economy and hear the republicans talking about this tonight, the key to our Economic Growth and to getting younger as a key to entrepreneurship is to increase the amount of immigration irrespective of their country of origin. I have confidence at the National Level that the screening is done at a point i am comfortable irrespective of their country of origin. That they can come here, roll up their sleeves, and be part of the past, present, and the future of New Hampshires economy which is legal be 65 and older. We have the lowest birthrate in america. When i look at immigration, we need to welcome immigrants to our state and our country. I welcome the Syrian Refugees in our state and i welcome any political person who wants to start a better life right thing to do. Colin van ostern the first job for Everything Else is to make sure the people of New Hampshire are safe and secure. I know the best way to do that is with deep, individualized security screenings, not using nationality or religion as a litmus test. Doing it is kind of a security blanket. To recruit people to hate us and attack our country. It gives them a reason to do that. I saw a picture of week or two ago of a young boy, a syrian and aleppo, i think it was. Covered with grime and blood and in a state of shock. He is not a National Security threat. He is a fiveyearold orphan. Acknowledge that it is not his nationality thatul deep and long individuals screening process. I think its the best way to keep our country safe. Lets go back to john for a related topic. All three of you comfortable with the current vetting process . There are always opportunities to strengthen it. Nationality or religion gets it in a stronger and i think it weakens the system we have now. The vetting process at the federal level, it is a twoyear process. We are not going to be at the state level monitoring and putting processes in place to figure out who is coming at the federal level. Sanctuary cities is a term used to describe the nyssa palavis the assistance to federal immigration authorities looking to apprehend or remove people in the country illegally. What is your stance on sanctuary cities in New Hampshire . Would you allow them . This question is directed first to Councilmember Van ostrander. Colin van ostern we need to second language, Vocational Training to translate the skills they have learned. Sometime, college trained translators that can put those skills into practice. It is somet