To our founders, you are the foundation.  To our members, you are the stability. 
To our children, you are our future

2001: A good year and the Teamster connection:

Due largely to the Joe Neal petition and again being embraced by organized labor the 2001 legislative session proved to be a very successful for the NHPA and state employees. All NHP sworn personnel received an additional five percent pay raise over and above the normal three percent given to other state employees and an additional step was granted to give state employees an additional five percent when they topped out which gave an immediate ten percent raise to all topped out NHP sworn personnel.

Also the NHPA sponsored a bill increasing the payment of unused sick leave passed giving several thousands of dollars to retired employees over and above the established formula. In one case, instead of receiving the maximum of 9,000 one NHP individual received nearly 50,000. Another milestone that passed due largely to our efforts was 25 years and out at any age for law-enforcement and firefighters and the increase of the return rate from 2.5 percent per year of service to 2.67.
The Department of Public Safety was created as a separate department with it’s own Director and Deputy Director Last but not least the NHPA bill that allows injured police officers and firefighters that can no longer perform the functions of their respective profession was passed and now have the option of medical retirement or can chose to work in a civilian job without losing the benefits of the Police/fire retirement fund.

2001: Special Session

The 2001 special session began on July 29 and adjourned on August 31st at 4:26 am. The main issue was doctors malpractice insurance, however knowing that state employees were facing a dramatic out of pocket expense for their state health plan, organized labor took advantage of the special session and asked the Governor to issue a proclamation that would cover the increase cost, so state employees would not have to suffer further losses in their pay checks. The cost per employee was estimated as high as 100 dollars. The NHPA was their to the end doing it’s part to insure passage and to protect the interest of it’s members.