Senate Finance Committee approves $15.6B state budget plan

The next state budget is on its way to the floor of the New Hampshire Senate for a vote later this week.

If the proposal is passed, there will be significant disagreements on spending to resolve between the Republican majorities in the Legislature.

The two-year, $15.6 billion state budget cleared the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday. While affirming the top priorities of Gov. Kelly Ayotte, senators say they had to deal with the first post-pandemic budget that’s not padded by federal cash.

“Now, we have to go back to the New Hampshire way of living within our means,” said Senate President Sharon Carson.

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Democrats said the Senate budget is an improvement on what came over from the House, but they want more funding for housing.

“What I want to emphasize is we can’t confuse a budget being better with a budget being adequate,” said Minority Leader Rebecca Perkins Kwoka. “This isn’t a budget that reflects Granite Staters’ priorities.”

The Senate is undoing cuts to Medicaid rates and funding assistance for the developmentally disabled community, scaling back layoffs in corrections and bringing back the Office of the Child Advocate and the Arts Council.

But Republicans have sticking points, too.

“I am personally disappointed in our funding of higher education, both the university system and community college system,” said state Sen. Dan Innis, R-Bradford. “These places have amazing staff, wonderful students, and they add so much value to our communities and to our state, and we need to start viewing both of these entities as investments in New Hampshire’s future, not as expenses.”

The difference between the Senate budget with updated revenue projections and the House budget from April is about $240 million. That is a significant gap that the two legislative bodies will try to deal with over the next few weeks.

“We’re going to work this out,” Carson said. “There are a couple of things that we disagree about, but I think at the end of the day, as Republicans, we’re going to come together and do the best thing for the state of New Hampshire.”

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