CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT: House Speaker William O'Brien and his new leadership team have hard work ahead as they try to secure 237 votes to pass the newly unveiled constitutional amendment on public education and its funding.

O'Brien admitted as much at a press conference announcing the agreement reached between House and Senate leaders and Gov. John Lynch.

“We must now work to find 237 House members who will support this important amendment that will help our state move forward. It's time for our members to work together for the good of the state and to give the voters an opportunity to weigh in on this important issue for the future of New Hampshire,” O'Brien said.

Over a year ago, the House approved a constitutional amendment to give lawmakers more control over education, while diminishing the court's role. It passed by about a dozen votes.

That amendment was much different than the one House members will vote on this Wednesday, For one thing, the earlier version did not contain the word “responsibility” which would have the state continue to provide an adequate education to its children. And as O'Brien said, it sought to return education funding to the days before the Claremont and Londonderry decisions that has the state currently paying more than $500 million a year in real money, not statewide property taxes which stay in the city or town.

After the House vote, Lynch and a majority of senators made clear they wanted an amendment to clearly affirm the state's obligation to educate its children. Anything short of that would be unacceptable, they said.

Strict constitutionalists — and there are a pretty fair number of them in the House — hate the word “responsibility” because they view it as enshrining what they believe is the Supreme Court's power grab through the Claremont decisions, stripping the Legislature of its rightful authority.

Whether O'Brien and his team can convince enough of the constitutionalists to support the current plan remains to be seen.

They may decide some reduction of the court's oversight is welcome and vote for the amendment knowing the issue could be addressed again in the future.

What is certain is that the 103 Democrats in the House will unanimously, or nearly unanimously, oppose the amendment.

With a solid 100 votes against, only about 50 or so Republicans will be needed to sink the amendment in the House.

The Senate vote on a similar amendment earlier this session was 17-7, a several-vote cushion, so the action is in the House if the amendment is to be sent to voters in November.

O'Brien's chief of staff, Greg Moore, said Friday the big push on the amendment is for attendance Wednesday. “Not being in attendance is the same as a “No” vote,” he said.

He said O'Brien is reaching out to a number of people across the political spectrum to ask for help, as well as the attorneys involved with drafting the current amendment and those in the past: Eugene Van Loan, Ovide Lamontagne, Chuck Douglas and Marty Gross.

One of the problems — according to several House members — is that information about the affect an amendment could have on their communities has not been forthcoming.

“We can agree on the concept, but (not) how much damage is going to be done,” one lawmaker said. “I don't know which way I am going on this yet.”

While CACR 12 may be the top priority Wednesday, House members will vote on three other constitutional amendments: CACR 6, which would require a three-fifths majority to pass any new or increased taxes or fees; CACR 13, which prohibits an income tax; and CACR 26, which repeals the Supreme Court's Chief Justice's authority to develop and adopt court rules.

And the official House photograph will be taken Wednesday, so that should help turn out a few more representatives.

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THE FALLOUT: Of the nearly 70 conference committees that met over the last week to hammer out agreements, 14 ended in disagreement and those bills died.

Among the casualties were bills that would have allowed the state to sell the Lakes Region correctional facility to the city of Laconia, established a defined contribution retirement plan for new state workers and one that changed contribution limits for state political campaigns.

Even before the committee of conferences began its work, another key bill was killed, Senate Bill 212, which would have established regulations for public-employee health-insurance trusts, such as those run by the Local Government Center, Primex and SchoolCare.

The Senate, on an 11-9 vote, wanted to negotiate with the House on the bill, but O'Brien refused and the bill died.

Moore said the issue of risk-pool management is included in House Bill 655 and that would be used to address the matter, but Senate President Peter Bragdon ruled the contents of SB 212 were not germane to HB 655 and that was it.

The House's version of the bill defined reserves and surpluses, set thresholds for returning surpluses to communities and also allowed the pools to retain some surplus for rate stabilization in line with agreements reached between the Secretary of State's Office, which oversees the trusts, and Primex and SchoolCare.

Secretary of State Bill Gardner recently concluded an administrative hearing on the Local Government Center's handling of reserves for its healthcare trust.

The office claims the center owes cities and towns millions of dollars in surpluses that the organization currently has in reserves.

The agreement reached on HB 655 simply continues the secretary of state's oversight of the risk pools.

Also falling by the wayside was a provision pushed by O'Brien to exempt employers who object on religious or moral grounds from a state mandate to provide birth-control services as part of their health plan for employees.

Many of the House-favored social issues, such as a 24-hour waiting period before a woman could have an abortion and a moratorium on refugee resettlement, were killed by the Senate before negotiations began.

What did survive the conference committees was photo identification for voters, although it will not be required this year; a prohibition on taxing Internet access; research and development credits; and other business tax credits and changes.

Other surviving bills include reforming the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and the state's renewable portfolio standards for electricity, education business tax credits for a scholarship program, a new school building-aid program, malpractice tort reforms, the certificate of need board elimination in three years, medical marijuana, and prohibiting the state from setting up health insurance exchanges under the Affordable Care Act.

The House and Senate will have to vote on the agreements Wednesday.

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WATCH OUT BELOW: Another bill that survived, although it did not appear that it would, is a plan to redraw the five Executive Council districts.

When all was said and done, the plan looks somewhat like the House plan with its serpentine and heavily Democratic District 2 stretching from the Connecticut River to the Salmon Falls River.

The committee went through several proposals, including one that would have divided Concord so current District 2 Councilor Dan St. Hilaire, who lives in the city, would have been in District 4, which is being vacated by Raymond Wieczorek, R-Manchester, who is stepping down.

When the deals were done Wednesday afternoon, Portsmouth and Newington were moved back into District 3, where they have been for decades, and towns in the Monadnock Region were moved back into District 2, making it just as Democratic.

District 1 was restored to encompassing more than the top half of the state, which has to please current councilor Raymond Burton, R-Bath.

Districts 3, 4 and 5 were tweaked some but do remain largely a wash while leaning strongly Republican.

The plan will be voted on by the House and Senate Wednesday the beginning of the filing period for state office.

If legislative staff moves quickly, the bill might be on the governor's desk by Friday and with his five days to decide whether or not to veto, the district may be in place by the end of the filing period June 15.

If the bill is vetoed, things could be very interesting, but as the filing period opens, the current council districts are still in statute and not out of line with population guidelines.

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EIGHTH TERM: Long-time Sen. Lou D'Allesandro, D-Manchester, holds a press conference Monday at 9 a.m. to announce he will seek his eighth term in the New Hampshire Senate.

The announcement will be made at the Manchester Diner, 119 Hanover St.

D'Allesandro has also served in the House and on the Executive Council.

On the other side, Reps. Phil Greazzo of Manchester and John Hikel of Goffstown are facing off in the Republican primary.

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ELECTORS: Two co-chairmen of President Barack Obama's 2008 Presidential campaign in New Hampshire were chosen at the New Hampshire Democratic Party Convention Saturday as two of the four state Electors, who cast the state's electoral votes in the Electoral College after the general election.

Jim Demers of Concord and Mary Rauh of New Castle were the two chosen.

They will be joined by Democratic National Committeewoman Joanne Dowdell and long-time Manchester activist C.R. Soucy as the party's electors.

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VETO DAY: To date, Lynch has vetoed only one bill lawmakers haven't already tried to override, but there will be more before the session is done.

The House has scheduled June 27 as veto day and the Senate is expected to do the same. The House is scheduled to meet at 10 a.m.

So far, there is none of the dramatics associated with the override vote on the right-to-work-bill that dominated the end of last session.

Garry Rayno writes State House Dome each week for the New Hampshire Sunday News. Email him at grayno@unionleader.com.