Latest news with #House-adopted
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Support for UNH also helps support New Hampshire businesses
"It is clear that a strong university system allows continued industry collaboration and expertise, and helps to grow our state's economy." (Photo by Dennis Tangney Jr./Getty Images) As the New Hampshire Senate considers the House-adopted budget for fiscal year 2026-27 — which includes a potential cut in support for the University System of New Hampshire — I want to express the importance of a strong university system for the state's businesses. My own experience as a business owner in Portsmouth shows me that a strong, capable, and well-funded university can lead to thriving businesses and economies as well. In 2003, I moved from Canada to Portsmouth to establish the company headquarters for a business called Interactive Visualization Systems, or IVS3D, which focused on seafloor mapping technologies. We quickly partnered with UNH's Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping (CCOM), a world-renowned research and education center for ocean mapping and hydrographic sciences, which operates as a formal cooperative partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). CCOM was established 25 years ago to expand the scope of ocean mapping interaction and collaboration with the private sector, government agencies, and other universities. What our company quickly discovered is the operational model and structure implemented at UNH has made the rapid transfer of research and development, or R&D, from research to industry not just possible, but incredibly successful. Without collaborative R&D through a public university, it is significantly more difficult — and sometimes not economically feasible — for private companies and industry to make that leap. Our firm's partnership with UNH resulted in the successful transfer of significant seafloor mapping and hydrographic technologies, which allowed our company to extend products with new capabilities and modules that broadened and strengthened our international market position. These technologies have led to significant economic activity, directly supported new jobs in New Hampshire, and directly or indirectly supported various areas of the blue economy — the economic activities related to the oceans and coasts. IVS3D was awarded the Exporter of the Year in 2006 by the Software Association of New Hampshire and the New Hampshire International Trade Association. There is no doubt that our partnership with UNH's Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping was a significant factor in our firm's success and in receiving this accolade. It is clear that a strong university system allows continued industry collaboration and expertise, and helps to grow our state's economy; it means new ideas and innovation right here in New Hampshire. Investing in our university system means investing in the many businesses and industries in our state. It's vital to the future of our economy that New Hampshire lawmakers recognize the importance of adequately funded higher education.
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Alaska Senate committee's draft budget cuts $206 million from House plan but still has deficit
The chairs of the Senate Finance Committee huddle for a discussion after introducing their draft operating budget, Thursday, April 24, 2025. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon) A powerful Alaska Senate committee is considering a draft of Alaska's state operating budget that would cut more than $200 million from a version adopted earlier this month by the state House. The Senate Finance Committee unveiled the first draft of its operating budget proposal during a Thursday morning meeting in the Capitol at Juneau. The biggest item on the committee's chopping block was a significant public school funding increase. The House voted for an $81 million bump in K-12 public school funding above what lawmakers and Gov. Mike Dunleavy approved last year. That increase is gone in the Senate's budget, as is almost every other budget addition proposed by the House. Dunleavy proposed budget increases as well — for state troopers, health care and additional staff in various state departments — and almost all of those were eliminated, too. 'Those were eliminated from the budget, along with the request that the governor had for all other increments, because of our financial condition,' said Sen. Lyman Hoffman, D-Bethel and the member of the finance committee in charge of writing its draft budget for state services and programs. Even with the Senate's cuts, preliminary figures show that the operating budget — when combined with other budget bills — still contains a deficit of between $70 million and $140 million. That figure will almost certainly change, because some costs — particularly labor contracts — have not yet been determined. 'We are still in deficit mode. There is still work that needs to be done on this budget to have it balance,' Hoffman said. The bipartisan majority in charge of the state Senate has vowed to write a balanced budget that does not require spending from savings. The document revealed Thursday keeps to that pledge. Unlike the House version of the budget, there's no section unlocking the Constitutional Budget Reserve, the $2.8 billion fund that is the state's largest savings account. The committee's proposal keeps a roughly $1,400 Permanent Fund dividend approved by the House; at $950 million, that is the third-largest item in the budget, behind education and health spending, respectively. Among the committee's few additions are additions to the state's wildfire-response and disaster-response funds. These additions would bring the funds up to the amount needed to pay for average annual expenses over the past five years. The committee's proposed elimination of House-adopted increases are much more significant. Among them: Permanently closing part of Spring Creek prison to save $7.5 million per year, eliminating double-overtime pay for some prison guards to save $6 million per year, cutting teacher recruitment programs to save $1 million per year, reversing a funding increase for Parents as Teachers and the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, eliminating grants to child advocacy centers to save $5.5 million, and eliminating more than $13 million intended to improve access to child care. Funding increases proposed by the House for senior services were eliminated, as was money for athletics programs and research facilities at the University of Alaska Anchorage and University of Alaska Fairbanks. Hoffman noted that no action taken by the finance committee is final. The budget bill is subject to amendments in committee, debate on the Senate floor, and then any differences between the House and Senate may be negotiated in a conference committee whose task will be to find a compromise between the two drafts. 'There's a large difference between the House and Senate at this time. There's a lot of work left to do at the conference table,' he said. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Politico
04-03-2025
- Business
- Politico
Senate GOP won't take up House budget resolution until at least late March
Senate Republicans' work to resolve differences with the House on a budget blueprint will slip until late March at least, with the chamber not expected to bring up the resolution before lawmakers leave for a recess at the end of next week. Senate Majority Leader John Thune made clear in a brief interview on Monday night that he did not intend to put the House budget resolution on the floor before the Senate's expected mid-March break that will start after March 14 — the same day as the deadline to avoid a government shutdown. He also declined to commit to scheduling a vote on the House-adopted resolution when senators return a week later, as the clock ticks down on congressional Republicans' ability to adhere to an ambitious timeline to enact President Donald Trump's vast domestic policy agenda. 'We're having those conversations with our members,' Thune said. 'How we go about processing the House budget resolution is still an open question. But we know that in the end we've got to come up with something that can pass — get 51 in the Senate and 218 in the House.' The House adopted its budget resolution last week that would allow Republicans to write 'one big beautiful bill' through the party-line budget reconciliation process, tying together border, energy and defense policy with an overhaul of the tax code. Senate Republicans adopted a budget reflecting their desired, two-bill strategy, which would have put the tax changes in a separate bill later this year. They are now switching to the one-bill track, but not before they address necessary changes to the House product to pass muster with their members. The Senate Finance Committee, Thune noted, has quietly been socializing ideas with Senate Republicans on the tax piece and Senate Republicans are expected to talk about the House budget during their own closed-door lunches this week. It will mark the first chance leadership will have to take the temperature of the whole group at once. Senate GOP leadership staff also briefed senior Senate Republican staffers during a meeting on Monday, indicating that they were still in the very early stages of ironing out a deal on the House budget resolution. Senate Republicans hold multiple staff meetings, which are run by leadership offices, at the start of every week. While Senate Republicans grapple privately with the House budget resolution, Senate Republicans are expected to focus floor activity next week on a much closer deadline: funding the government.
