Latest news with #CassandraSanchez
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
As Senate takes up budget, state rep intensifies attacks on New Hampshire's child advocate
Child Advocate Cassandra Sanchez speaks on March 22, 2023. Behind her are, from left, Sen. Sharon Carson, Rep. Jess Edwards, and Joe Ribsman, the former head of DCYF. (File photo by Annmarie Timmins/New Hampshire Bulletin) What was originally pitched as purely a cost-cutting measure has morphed into attacks on the New Hampshire Office of the Child Advocate. When state Rep. Dan McGuire originally proposed eliminating the Office of the Child Advocate — which serves as the state's watchdog for its child welfare, juvenile justice, and youth care systems, and advocates for the best interests of New Hampshire children — he said it had to be done because the state needed to save money amid a challenging fiscal environment. However, the Epsom Republican has since altered his argument, saying the office is interfering with the Legislature's work. McGuire, as chair of one of the three legislative subcommittees tasked with cutting hundreds of millions of dollars from the state budget, first publicly pitched eliminating the office — as well as the Commission on Aging and the Housing Appeals Board — during a March 17 work session. 'There's a number of these smaller things that are sort of nice-to-haves, but they're not necessary,' McGuire said that day. 'And so, we need the money. I don't know how to put it any blunter.' The work session came in the midst of the lengthy state budgeting process that began in February when Gov. Kelly Ayotte released her budget proposal. Soon after, the Republican-led House Ways and Means Committee deemed her revenue projections — which predicted a quick economic turnaround after years of lagging business tax revenues — too optimistic by hundreds of millions of dollars. Republicans on the Finance Committee, including McGuire, soon got to work cutting. McGuire was tasked with finding $200 million of savings, he said. Cutting the child advocate saves the state about $2.2 million. However, when the budget came to the full House for a final vote, McGuire said it wasn't just the need for cost-savings that warranted this elimination. 'The Office of Child Advocate has interfered with rather than assisted needed legislation to reform child abuse and child welfare laws,' he said on the House floor this month. McGuire assessed the office's two main functions as advocating for and against legislation and serving in an ombudsman or conflict resolution-type role. 'There are no end to people interested in legislation who have child welfare in mind,' he said. 'We don't need to hire people to do that.' McGuire added that the latter function was 'duplicative' of that of the Division for Children, Youth, and Families, 'and if DCYF is poorly run, the solution is not to create yet another agency, but its to fix and change the leadership of DCYF.' McGuire did not respond to the Bulletin's requests for an interview. Cassandra Sanchez, the state's child advocate and head of that office, said neither McGuire nor his colleagues spoke to her about the elimination or raised any of their concerns before they moved to eliminate her office. She also said McGuire's floor speech was the first she heard that he was displeased with her work. 'They did mention that there needed to be further cost-saving measures, but had not floated any idea of the potential of repealing our statute,' she previously told the Bulletin. 'And given our office budget is so miniscule, I had not even thought of that as a potential option.' Soon after McGuire's statements on the House floor, the New Hampshire House of Representatives approved a roughly $15.36 billion budget — one that eliminated funding for the Office of the Child Advocate. That budget spends $643 million less than Ayotte's proposal. Now, it will be considered by the Senate. Ayotte, who included the office in her budget proposal, said she hopes to work with the Senate to restore the Office of the Child Advocate — as well as several other agencies, funds, and positions that House Republicans removed. 'There are many things that I'm going to be working with the Senate to prioritize and make sure that I get back in the priorities that were in my budget,' Ayotte, who is also a Republican, said earlier this month around the vote. She added that she is 'confident that the revenue numbers that I laid out in my budget are actually more accurate revenue numbers than the lower proposals made by the House.' The Senate will now have the opportunity to either restore funding for the Office of the Child Advocate or keep it out of the budget. State Sen. James Gray, the Senate's finance chair, said he won't say for certain what the Senate hopes to do until the Senate Ways and Means Committee has completed its revenue projections, but he noted that the Senate Finance Committee is being pulled in many different directions. 'The Finance Committee has a lot of requests from a lot of different people to restore things from the House budget,' he said. 'Before we can make any informed decision, we need to know what revenues are.' Gray said programs to keep children safe — like the Office of the Child Advocate — are a priority. Funding Medicaid for people with disabilities is also a priority. 'I could go on and on,' he said. 'It's just too many priorities and the funding is limited.' Gray said he and his legislative colleagues are always communicating with the governor's office, but wouldn't say whether they'd discussed the budget yet.
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Child advocate, Housing Appeals Board seek relief from House budget
Child Advocate Cassandra Sanchez and leaders of the Housing Appeals Board made separate pleas Monday for their survival after a House-approved state budget proposal had recommended elimination of both. Leadership on the House Finance Committee said it considered the child advocate to be duplicative of the work that in-house inquiries made of the state Division of Children, Youth and Families by an ombudsman in the Department of Health and Human Services.. State Sen. Tim Lang, R-Sanbornton and a member of the Senate Finance Committee, asked Sanchez to identify a 'unique' case that her staff does that HHS reviewers do not do. She pointed to Bledsoe Academy, a juvenile treatment facility in Gallatin, Tennessee. Two years ago, Sanchez and an associate discovered two New Hampshire boys living there that she said had operated 'on a culture of fear and intimidation.' A seven-page update in the summer of 2023 revealed that children had been forced to watch movies described as pornographic. Both New Hampshire boys said a female staffer in her 20s had a relationship with one of their peers and told colleagues, 'She is mine.' After the two New Hampshire boys met with state inspectors, a Bledsoe staff member threatened to beat up one of the boys and told associates, 'A snitch is coming.' Two days before leaving Bledsoe, the boy said someone turned off the light when he was in the bathroom and entered the stall he was in, out of sight of cameras, and beat him. 'Because of our advocacy, we got those kids returned to New Hampshire safely to a facility that is run well,' Sanchez said. Less expensive option? House budget writers concluded the Housing Appeals Board was run well but was costing taxpayers more than $10,000 a case when these matters cost just over $1,000 apiece in the court system. Elizabeth Menard, the board's clerk and only employee, said, 'A cost for case analysis does not demonstrate the value of the Housing Appeals Board.' Board Chairman David J. Rogers said he worked in the court system for years as a lawyer and it takes much longer for appellants to get justice there than it does before the three-person Housing Appeals Board. 'It's longer by a factor of three to four months,' Rogers said. The courts can delay civil cases in favor of the criminal docket that is time sensitive while the appeals board gets every case done within five months, he added. Senate Deputy Democratic Leader Cindy Rosenwald of Nashua maintained this is the worst time to get rid of the appeals board the Legislature created five years ago to give property owners and developers a more affordable, quicker option than filing a lawsuit. Since then, Menard said its decisions have affected nearly 2,750 housing units. 'We are in the middle of a housing crisis,' Rosenwald said. What's Next: The Senate Finance Committee has until mid-May to recommend its own version of the state budget Prospects: Every odd-numbered year a two-year spending plan is the only bill that has to pass, but it will require a lot of compromise between what Gov. Kelly Ayotte, the House and eventually the Senate will propose in competing plans. klandrigan@
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Republicans target New Hampshire's child advocate and other small state agencies in budget cuts
New Hampshire Child Advocate Cassandra Sanchez speaks during an event in Concord on April 2, 2024. (Photo by Ethan DeWitt/New Hampshire Bulletin) As New Hampshire lawmakers look for ways to cut the state budget, Republicans in the State House want to eliminate the state's Office of the Child Advocate, the Commission on Aging, and the Housing Appeals Board. 'Are you sure about the Child Advocate,' Rep. Rosemarie Rung, a Democrat from Merrimack, asked during a work session Monday to discuss this and several other budget-related proposals. 'Have you discussed — I mean, they're the overseer of YDC.' The Youth Detention Center — a juvenile corrections facility in Manchester that's been renamed the Sununu Youth Services Center — has been embroiled in one of the largest child abuse scandals in U.S. history. Over 1,100 former residents of the facility have filed lawsuits alleging physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, and several state workers have been arrested. 'Yeah, they're there,' Rep. Dan McGuire, the Republican from Epsom who chairs the subcommittee holding the work session, responded. House Finance Division I, which is one of three legislative subcommittees working on various aspects of the massive state budget — which was proposed by Gov. Kelly Ayotte in February and is currently being debated by the Legislature — approved a series of amendments to that budget on Monday that would eliminate these state agencies. 'There's a number of these smaller things that are sort of nice-to-haves, but they're not necessary,' McGuire said. 'And so, we need the money. I don't know how to put it any blunter.' The committee voted, 5-4, along party lines in favor of recommending the amendment eliminating the Office of the Child Advocate, firing its staff, and repealing the statutes that created it. The full House will also have to approve the amendment before it's officially added to the proposed budget. Then the entire budget will have to be passed with this amendment included for it to become law. All four Democrats on the committee voted no. 'We just had a discussion an hour ago about a $150 million appropriation needed to fund the YDC settlement fund,' Rung said, referring to the money the state is being forced in court to pay to the facility's victims. 'And this office, you know, it's $1 million a year. To me, if we can prevent future liabilities that we've seen with the YDC … I think this is one of those positions, one of those offices, that actually is a cost saving to us in the long run. I think it's penny-wise and pound-foolish to get rid of this.' Cassandra Sanchez, New Hampshire's child advocate, said she was at a conference in Boston when she heard from one of her legislative partners about the vote. She said the news came as 'quite a shock and surprise.' As child advocate, Sanchez serves as a watchdog overseeing the state's child welfare and juvenile justice systems and advocating for the best interests of children in the state. Her position and the office she leads were created by the Legislature in 2018. It is independent of any other state agency or official. Sanchez is under contract until January 2026; the budget would become effective July 1, 2025. Sanchez said she and her team hadn't been told this was even being considered ahead of Monday's vote, including on Feb. 26 when she gave a presentation to the subcommittee. 'They did mention that there needed to be further cost-saving measures, but had not floated any idea of the potential of repealing our statute,' she said. 'And given our office budget is so miniscule, I had not even thought of that as a potential option.' Eliminating the Office of the Child Advocate would save the state approximately $2 million over two years, McGuire said. He noted that most of the cost savings come from firing the eight staff the office employs besides Sanchez. Amid a tight fiscal environment, the House is currently trying to trim Ayotte's two-year budget proposal by around $800 million after the Ways and Means Committee predicted state revenues would be much lower than the governor's estimates. As subcommittee chair, McGuire said he's been tasked with finding $200 million of that savings. Sanchez argued her office actually saves the state money in the long run. She said her team works to identify situations where children are being harmed and address them before they grow into a situation that spurs a costly lawsuit. As an example, she pointed to a 2023 incident where her office discovered that two New Hampshire boys who had been sent out of state to a residential treatment facility in Tennessee were being abused there. Her office had them removed from the facility, and she argued it could've led to a lawsuit against the state if she hadn't acted. She also noted that her office works to ensure children can receive the services they need in the community while remaining with their family or another family as opposed to being sent to a residential care facility. Those facilities, she said, are 'extremely costly' to the state. Even more, Sanchez said, her office's services are essential to ensuring the best outcomes for children. She said her office works toward 'prevention as opposed to reacting and waiting for something terrible to happen to children.' 'We are the one entity that's giving a voice to children,' she said. 'And that wouldn't exist anymore. And children are so vulnerable. They need to be heard. Their needs need to be met. And I don't know who would be filling that if we're not here.' Sanchez said if she'd known this was being considered she would've offered to sit down with members of the committee beforehand and discuss what her office does, how it helps children, and how it saves the state money long-term. She's still willing to do this with legislators wanting to understand more. She said she'd already proactively reached out to some. Sanchez said she watched the hearing online after the fact. 'It appeared that the Democrats had a pretty good understanding,' she said, singling out Rung and Rep. Karen Ebel as two who spoke well on the issue. 'From my perspective, I don't feel that all of the members on that committee truly understand what we do, understand our mandate, and didn't ask any questions to figure that out during our presentation.' The subcommittee also voted to recommend an amendment eliminating the Commission on Aging, 5-4, on party lines Monday. That amendment will also need the full House's approval. McGuire called the Commission on Aging 'an easy one.' Democrats on the committee disagreed. 'I understand the constraints we're under, but this commission is up and running,' Ebel, a New London Democrat, said. 'It's been very active. It's been useful. So I'll be voting against the amendment.' In a 6-2 vote, the committee also recommended an amendment to eliminate the Housing Appeals Board, which allows New Hampshire residents to contest decisions made by their local planning and zoning boards and officials. The amendment would forbid the board from taking on new cases beginning in July and give it 60 days to complete the cases it's already accepted. Because two of the board's employees are under contract for terms well beyond the end of this year's budget — one is contracted through June 2027 and the other through June 2028 — the amendment offers those two jobs in the state judiciary if the judiciary wants them. This amendment also needs the full House's approval to be added to the budget. 'The whole point of doing this is to save money,' McGuire said. 'It's not because they're doing a bad job.'
