State budget rolls through Republican-led Senate

Yahoo

a day ago

It took four hours of debate over 20 amendments, but a $15.4 billion two-year state budget proposal easily cleared the state Senate Thursday.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman James Gray, R-Rochester, said his committee's proudest achievement is the reversal of more than $160 million in unpopular cuts made by the House of Representatives to Medicaid providers and those relying on community mental health and developmental disability services.
'We made some tough choices with limited resources,' Gray said.
Relying on rosier estimates for future state revenues, the Senate proposal spends nearly $250 million more than the House's.
Senate Democratic Leader Rebecca Perkins Kwoka of Portsmouth praised the Senate Republicans for making those changes, but she said working families are hurt in other parts of the budget, which imposes new health care premiums for some families on Medicaid, raids an eight-figure surplus in the state's renewable energy fund and fails to include any new spending for housing.
Perkins Kwoka said the state's fiscal problems are the result of Republican governors and legislators voting for repeated cuts in business and unearned income taxes that robbed the state treasury of money it could now use to pay for programs.
'Let's be clear: This is not magically a tight budget year,' Perkins Kwoka said.
The Senate passed the spending bill (HB 1) on a 15-9 vote with only Sen. Keith Murphy, R-Manchester, breaking ranks to oppose the measure along with the eight Senate Democrats.
Fellow Manchester Republican Sen. Victoria Sullivan joined Murphy and all the Democrats opposing the trailer bill to the state budget (HB 2) that makes the necessary changes in state law to implement the budget; it passed the Senate, 14-10.
Senate President Sharon Carson, R-Londonderry, said Senate Democrats had proposed $168 million in higher spending with no corresponding cuts in other parts of the budget.
'This isn't a perfect budget; we have never had a perfect budget, but this is a budget that works for the people of New Hampshire,' Carson said.
Democrats targeted EFAs
Nearly half of the amendments Senate Democrats tried to make Thursday would have eliminated the expansion of Education Freedom Accounts. If signed into law, the measure would remove income restrictions on eligibility for these taxpayer-paid grants for private, religious, alternative public or home school programs.
Sullivan said her family has used EFAs since the Legislature created the program in 2021 and she expressed doubt that the very wealthy would bother seeking what critics call school vouchers.
'There is the middle-class families that are usually not mentioned … the ones who pay all the bills for the state and municipalities and get nothing back,' Sullivan said. 'They do all the paying and this allows them to use their taxpayer money for their own children's education.'
Senate Deputy Democratic Leader Cindy Rosenwald said other states that made these vouchers universal ended up with large budget deficits.
YDC settlements
The Senate rejected an attempt to increase by $50 million spending on settlements for victims of alleged sexual or physical abuse at its youth detention centers.
The House set aside $20 million more to the $165 million that lawmakers have already directed to the settlement fund.
The Senate budget adds $20 million as well but also would earmark for the fund the proceeds from the sale of the Sununu Youth Services Center in Manchester. State officials estimate that could raise $80 million.
Senate Deputy Democratic Leader Cindy Rosenwald said the state can't sell the Sununu Center until construction is complete on a new, treatment-oriented replacement on the grounds of the former Hampstead Hospital.
Chuck Miles, a Youth Development Center abuse survivor who works with Justice for YDC Victims, an advocacy group, said the Senate budget falls short.
'The budget passed by the Senate would be devastating for the YDC Settlement Fund and would break the promises made to the victims of horrendous abuse while in the care of the state,' Miles said.
'Survivors came forward with courage, opting for a settlement process over the courtroom to seek closure, accountability and justice, but by falling woefully short on funding and removing the fund's independence, the state is essentially telling victims 'see you in court,'' he said.
Landfill regulation
The Senate voted 14-9 against an amendment from Sen. David Rochefort, R-Littleton, that tried to remove from the trailer bill changes to the landfill law that will allow a site evaluation committee to declare a 'public benefit' for a new or expanded commercial landfill in the state.
'The potential with this language is to undo local control,' Rochefort said.
Sen. Denise Ricciardi, R-Bedford, joined Rochefort in voting for the amendment while Sen. David Watters, D-Dover, joined the rest of the Republicans voting against it.
What's Next: The House and Senate next week will name members to a conference committee to be charged with working out differences between their competing budget bills.
Prospects: This issue is far from resolved as it's unclear if the GOP-led House will be willing to accept a final compromise that spends much more money than it budgeted.
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