Budget discussions are underway at the State House. These talks are about more than spending money — they look at the financial health of the state and set priorities for the next two years. What is the state’s financial outlook? What are its priorities for the next two years? Here to discuss that and more are Keene Sentinel State House reporter Rick Green and Anna Brown, executive director of Citizens Count and executive director of the Warren B. Rudman Center for Justice, Leadership and Public Service at the University of New Hampshire’s Franklin Pierce School of Law.
By Rosemary Ford and Caitlin Agnew
This article has been edited for length and clarity.
Melanie Plenda:
Rick, as lawmakers head into budget season, what’s the mood like at the State House right now? Are the Republican majorities in the House and Senate and governor getting along? What about the Democrats? Is everyone on the same page about the budget?
Rick Green:
Well, it probably shouldn't be too surprising that Republican majorities in the House and Senate are generally on the same page with their Republican governor on most things, like expanding the school voucher system, not creating or raising new taxes and not changing the state's 24-week standard on the abortion law, for example.
With the Republicans having that strong control in both chambers, they're kind of in a good position to exert their will, and Democrats are kind of in the role of being the vocal minority. They look to highlight differences on things like school funding and education policies and so-called sanctuary cities, and then also look for areas of agreement where they can provide school lunch aid for women after giving birth. So they're in that position of looking for opportunities, but not really being able to exert their will in a huge way.
Melanie Plenda:
Anna, what are the different approaches and how far off are they from each other?
Anna Brown:
When we're looking at the budget, in particular, I think that there's actual agreement between Democrats and Republicans that we are entering a very difficult year in terms of revenue. There is falling business tax revenue, that federal money is gone — which was also earning a lot of interest in the state's bank accounts — and there's some pending lawsuits related to school funding and abuse at the juvenile detention center several decades ago. So all of this is coming with a pretty tough budget season. Even Governor Ayotte said herself that there's going to be a need for steep budget cuts.
That being said, I think that the governor is coming in with pretty rosy revenue projections. I think that the Republicans in the state Legislature are going to want to cut more deeply than she is. They've already said there's some difference there.
For example, let's look at the Education Freedom Account Program, which lets students take the per-pupil share of state schools funding and spend it on private and homeschool expenses. The governor wants to expand that program so that all public school students are eligible, whereas Republicans in the Legislature were interested in expanding that to all students, including students currently enrolled in private schools. So that's a subtle difference.
I think there are going to be other subtle differences like that. They're probably going to focus on the things that they can come together on, and do a lot of headlines about those. For example, banning cellphones in schools. The governor did include, I think it was just $1 million in her budget to help schools do that. In the big scheme of the budget, that's a very small amount, but it's seen as a bipartisan win, a win for the governor and the Legislature.
Melanie Plenda:
Here’s one for both of you — usually the New Hampshire budget goes beyond money matters. Is there any sense of what non-spending issues might crop up in it during this session? First to Rick, then to Anna.
Rick Green:
The Legislature will approve two budget bills. One is heavy on the actual spending numbers, and the other — the so-called budget trailer bill — looks more at policies and what's happened in past sessions.
If a bill can't make it through the Legislature on its own for whatever reason, you'll sometimes see the majority party try to take a second bite at the apple and slip that policy measure into the trailer bill, with the idea that this is a way to get that done and kind of force the governor's hand to either sign the whole budget, including that new policy, or reject it, which is always a hard thing for a governor to do.
This, I think, has been more prevalent in previous years, when the Legislature was more evenly split between the two parties, but with strong Republican control in both chambers, whether they would have to resort to that sort of thing or just pass the policies as presented in the regular sessions, will be something we'll be watching.
Anna Brown:
The governor has already put some policy in that I wouldn’t say are strictly budget items. So for example, she wants to roll back bail reform that was passed in the past couple few years. Those were passed as standalone bills. They had nothing to do with the budget. She specifically said during her address, “Put this bill on my desk,” So that's clearly a priority for her.
She also has included policies related to speeding up the housing permitting process in state government. So that definitely opens the door to some housing-related legislation or policies to end up in that state budget trailer bill. I don't know if that will happen, but I definitely think that that's one of the more controversial, tricky issues in the House and Senate, especially when it comes back to pushing back on local zoning laws.
Melanie Plenda:
Here’s another for you both — in the last few weeks, President Donald Trump has issued several executive orders that could have an impact on New Hampshire and its economy, especially his tariffs. How are those being received at the State House, and are there any concerns?
Anna Brown:
A lot of this was unfolding right around when Governor Ayotte revealed her budget, and you didn't see any concern about this in her budget. Certainly she wasn't anticipating any big cuts to Medicaid funding. And remember, federal funding is roughly one-third of the state budget, and it supplies a huge amount of Medicaid funding, which in turn is a huge part of the state budget. So she seems to think that that's not going to be disrupted, whether it's an executive order or an act from Congress. Also, her rosy projections on business tax revenue suggest that she's not expecting those tariffs to cause any problems, especially with business with Canada, which is a huge trading partner with New Hampshire.
That being said, I think that that conversation is out there. When I've talked to different economists and businesspeople in the state, it's on their mind, so I think it will inevitably become part of the budget discussion. But then again, we also saw protests at the State House over the past couple weeks from people opposing Donald Trump and his policies. There are some Republican legislators who posted about this on X and said they were unbothered, that they view this as all good policy developments. So it's definitely a little chaotic and unprecedented, but we're not really seeing a budget response yet.
Rick Green:
Federal funding in a range of areas potentially could be impacted, including student financial aid, immigration policies also could have an impact, but a lot of these orders have been or will be challenged in court. One lawsuit already filed in Concord challenges an executive order having to do with trans athletes — transgender girls on girls sports teams. So we'll kind of see how all that plays out.
Melanie Plenda:
What else should we all know about what’s happening or coming up at the State House?
Rick Green:
I think housing is a really important issue at the State House right now. Public opinion polls indicate this is one of the biggest things on people’s minds. The median price of a home now in New Hampshire is topping a half-million dollars, and people of average means are having difficulty affording rent.
I think there's some determination to get more housing built in the state, and often it becomes an issue between local control and state mandates requiring that local officials take actions to be more encouraging toward development.
Anna Brown:
I think that Republicans have been clear in the House, particularly that one of their top priorities is passing a parent bill of rights. We've seen various versions of this come up over the past few years — some of them dealing very specifically with gender, some of them more broadly just putting the existing rights into one place of state law. So that would include, for example, rights for parents to seek curriculum ahead of time and pull students out of class if they object. Other bills would go further and would say that teachers have to respond to parent requests within a certain amount of time or face consequences.
What that final bill looks like remains to be seen, but I think it’s going to really dig in to those tough social issues and school curriculum issues that have been so feisty for the past few years in New Hampshire. I’m sort of just waiting for that debate to bubble up and really explode in the House this year.
Melanie Plenda:
Thank you Keene Sentinel State House Reporter Rick Green and Anna Brown, executive director of Citizens Count and the Warren B. Rudman Center for Justice, Leadership and Public Service at the UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law.