November

It’s late October as I write this, and the most prominent issue in the news seems to be the mid-term elections. Candidates are running for Congress, for Governor (not much of a race, I guess), for State House and Senate seats, and for Executive Council. You’re probably wondering what this has to do with Architecture. Consider these issues:

• The licensing of professionals has seen change this past year. The Legislature passed legislation that included Landscape Architects as licensed professionals. Another group, the Interior Designers, has also been pursuing professional licensing, and may be sponsoring legislation this coming year. The AIA NH Board of Directors last year indicated qualified support for this goal of licensing Interior Designers provided that it meets certain criteria, including not limiting our role as Architects in interior design. It is our legislature that will be making these decisions and passing appropriate laws regarding who should be licensed. Does your local House or Senate candidate understand what Architects and Interior Designers do in their profession?

• Speaking of licensing, we are licensed through our State Board of Licensure for Architects. This group regulates who may be licensed and takes action against violators of the rules. Legislation was proposed last year to establish a screening panel separate from the Licensure Board to review complaints against Professionals. This panel would have duplicated our present Licensure Board and would have consisted of public members appointed by the Legislature and Governor. The panel would not be members of the profession and would likely not have understood the occupation, profession or codes of conduct. Fortunately, this legislation was defeated, but the fact that it was proposed by a legislator who was not happy with the way a doctor was being treated by their licensure board is cause for concern. Does your local House or Senate candidate understand what Architects do in their profession?

• Legislators reacting to the heat of the moment can often be very petty. Consider the statements we hear when Courts hand down judgments that a legislator doesn’t agree with. There is often a verbal attack on “activist judges” or a demand to change the Constitution. We have heard this with flag burning, with gay marriage, and with our State’s educational funding system. In the case of our State issue, the NH Supreme Court has been issuing rulings for over 10 years now that the State must define and adequately fund education as required by our State Constitution. Our legislators have not yet been able to step up to the plate and resolve this issue, so the Courts have now given the Legislature a deadline. In essence, the Court has told the Legislature to do its job or else the Court will. Providing an adequate education, if not a superb education, is certainly of import to educating our students so that they have the tools and knowledge to hopefully become future Architects. Does your local House or Senate candidate want to change the State Constitution to prevent the Courts from enforcing their judgments because the Legislature won’t do its job?

• At our national level, we have seen extremely high deficits caused by large tax cuts and runaway spending. The national deficit has mushroomed over the past five years into a debt of over 8 Trillion dollars, which is almost $27,000 per person in the country. And this debt does not include future obligations of Social Security and Medicare. The deficit is funded through the sale of treasury bills, savings bonds and other bonds sold by the U.S. government. The funds “invested” in these bonds and the incredible amounts of interest paid are unavailable for investing in our infrastructure, our schools, and our future. This has a direct effect on the economy, on capital available for building projects, and on the amount of work available for Architects. “The budget should be balanced; the treasury should be refilled; public debt should be reduced; and the arrogance of public officials should be controlled.”, Cicero, 106-43 BC. For those of you rusty on history, Cicero was a Roman politician and philosopher during the waning years of the Roman Empire. Will your Congressional candidate show fiscal restraint or go along with running up the credit card, and then increasing the limit available on the credit card?

Your vote does have a significant impact on the health of our profession. First, I hope you use it, but more importantly, I hope you use it wisely.