CONCORD – A special House committee is recommending sweeping changes to administration at the state Liquor Commission in response to personnel and operational controversies there.
Chief among them is replacing the three-person commission with a single person in charge with the help of a deputy commissioner.
The committee also urges the Legislature to bring the commission back under legislative budget control two years after the Legislature gave the commission near-total autonomy over its finances.
Committee Chairman Lynne Ober, R-Hudson, said she was optimistic the group’s 13 findings made while Republicans controlled the House of Representatives will be carried forward by the new Democratic majority in 2013.
“None of these were partisan issues; I tried to make sure everyone on the committee had a voice and offered their input into what were the best reforms we could come up with,” Ober said.
But Rep. Kenneth Gidge, D-Nashua, said he respectfully objects to several of these changes and believes the commission has done a good job managing a monopoly.
“My first advice is do no harm, let them make some money which they have been doing very well,” Gidge said. “There’s no good reason for the Legislature to be any more involved in this industry than it has been.”
In the campaign for governor, Democratic winner Maggie Hassan and Republican Ovide Lamontagne endorsed the concept of having the governor and Executive Council appoint a single administrator.
Outgoing Gov. John Lynch endorsed this idea three years ago but could not get the Democratic-controlled Legislature at the time to agree with the change.
Ober said the panel’s work found that the three commissioners have “separate fiefdoms” of responsibility and their decisions are rarely questioned by their two peers.
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