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Boston Globe
6 days ago
- Business
- Boston Globe
Key takeaways from the sprawling $15.9b New Hampshire state budget plan
'I look at this budget as a readjustment from having all that federal money,' Carson said, as she credited fellow members of the Senate Finance Committee with listening to constituents and further refining the draft budget accordingly. 'I think it keeps us on a path to prosperity.' Get N.H. Morning Report A weekday newsletter delivering the N.H. news you need to know right to your inbox. Enter Email Sign Up While it's true that the state isn't as flush with federal cash as it was two years ago, Democrats contend Republicans contributed to the state's current fiscal pinch by Advertisement The initial budget proposal that Republican Governor Kelly A. Ayotte unveiled in February had called for about Advertisement Armed with its own revenue projections and 'It was hard work,' Republican Senator Timothy P. Lang Sr. of Sanbornton said of the committee's detailed review and decision-making. 'But this is an excellent budget for the citizens of New Hampshire.' Democratic Senator Cindy Rosenwald of Nashua said the latest revision is a significant improvement over the House-passed spending plan, but policymakers shouldn't mistake 'better' for 'adequate.' 'This budget before us … does really Here are nine key takeaways from the Senate Finance Committee's version of the budget: 1. Major changes in store for Medicaid. The latest draft budget would seek to require some low- and moderate-income households to help pay for their Medicaid coverage. Unlike the premiums that were included in Ayotte's The budget also now includes language that would direct the state to seek federal permission to impose Medicaid work requirements — a move that critics said would introduce red tape that causes people to disenroll, ultimately resulting in higher spending on emergency care for uninsured people. Advertisement That said, the latest draft budget restores more than $52 million in Medicaid funding that the House-passed version would have cut by imposing a 3 percent reduction on rates paid to service providers, according to the NHFPI analysis. 2. Retirement plan fix would be delayed. While the House adopted a plan to address a shortfall in the state's retirement system for police and firefighters, the Senate Finance Committee adopted an amendment to delay the effective date of those changes by six months. Lang said the change would save about $13 million over this coming biennium and avoid shifting costs onto local communities. 3. Corrections cuts partially restored. Although the House-passed budget would have eliminated about 190 positions from the New Hampshire Department of Corrections, the Senate Finance Committee's plan calls for a more modest cut that results in the elimination of about 60 positions, according to the NHFPI analysis. 4. Big shift in settlement fund oversight. Currently, the administrator who oversees Advertisement Chuck Miles, an abuse survivor and board member for an advocacy group, called on lawmakers to reject the amendment. 'Adopting this measure combined with a dramatic underfunding in the first year of the budget is an abandonment of the settlement fund by the state and a slap in the face for all victims who were promised justice,' Miles said. 5. Child advocate and arts division salvaged. The latest version of the budget would save the The child advocate, an independent watchdog agency that lawmakers established to improve oversight of the state's troubled child welfare system, would receive about $1.6 million in funding for the coming biennium, about $500,000 less than Ayotte's original proposal. (That would result in the office losing four staff positions rather than all nine, according to the NHFPI analysis.) 6. University system funding mostly restored. The University System of New Hampshire — which includes the University of New Hampshire, Keene State College, and Plymouth State University — is receiving $95 million in the current fiscal year, which ends this month. Ayotte had The Senate Finance Committee's recommendation brings the allocation up to Advertisement 7. Broader eligibility for education freedom accounts. Ayotte's original budget proposal called for giving 8. Budget still seeks to ban DEI initiatives. A provision in the House-passed version of the budget that would prohibit all public entities from engaging in 9. More legislative negotiations are likely. Unlike two years ago, the House and Senate will likely form a committee of conference this time around to hammer out the significant differences between their two versions of the budget legislation, according to The deadline for action on the committee of conference report would be June 26, with the new budget taking effect July 1, Heller said. Steven Porter can be reached at
Boston Globe
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
N.H. House Republicans pass universal eligibility for voucher-like education program
Get N.H. Morning Report A weekday newsletter delivering the N.H. news you need to know right to your inbox. Enter Email Sign Up Policymakers have long debated EFAs, which are currently available to families who earn up to 350 percent of the federal poverty level (that's about $112,500 for a family of four). While many Republicans have pushed to expand the program, many Democrats have pushed to restrain, shrink, or even eliminate it. Advertisement Republican Governor Kelly A. Ayotte, who campaigned on universal school choice, included an EFA expansion plan in That limitation written into Ayotte's plan implicitly recognized a basic bookkeeping fact about non-'switchers': If a student who had already opted out of public education begins receiving state education funding through an EFA, then their EFA would come at an additional cost to taxpayers, not a savings. Advertisement Even so, Republicans in the House decided Ayotte's plan didn't go far enough. They amended Then, on Thursday, House Republicans went even further, voting in favor of a separate EFA expansion bill that would establish universal eligibility in fiscal year 2026 (which begins in July 2025). That measure, House Democratic Leader Alexis Simpson of Exeter called SB 295 an 'irresponsible school voucher bill' and said Republicans voted to limit debate on the measure to hide its cost. 'The state budget passed by Republicans last month slashes support for critical programs that serve our most vulnerable citizens,' she said. 'There is simply no money available to expand assistance programs to those in need, let alone those in the highest income brackets.' Republican Representative Rick M. Ladd of Haverhill told colleagues on Thursday that expanding the EFA program is about ensuring children don't get stuck in a one-size-fits-all education system. Republican Representative Joseph Sweeney of Salem said limiting debate on the measure was appropriate, since the House had thoroughly debated this topic in the past. Advertisement This article first appeared in Globe NH | Morning Report, our free newsletter focused on the news you need to know about New Hampshire, including great coverage from the Boston Globe and links to interesting articles from other places. If you'd like to receive it via e-mail Monday through Friday, Steven Porter can be reached at
Boston Globe
08-05-2025
- Health
- Boston Globe
Should N.H. require minors to have parental consent to get contraception?
Advertisement New Hampshire law is currently silent on contraception for minors, which has meant in practice that providers can offer it, according to Planned Parenthood. Meanwhile, federal Title X programs Get N.H. Morning Report A weekday newsletter delivering the N.H. news you need to know right to your inbox. Enter Email Sign Up Passing a parental bill of rights has also been a priority for Republican Governor Kelly A. Ayotte, and on Wednesday she indicated that parental consent for contraception wouldn't be a dealbreaker. 'I do think it's really important to have parents engaged in these decisions,' she said. 'For most parents, we want them to know what's happening with their children so that they can help and guide them, make good decisions and support them in difficult situations,' she added. Advertisement Ayotte said she supports contraception, but she believes parents can help their children get the medical care they need. The teenage pregnancy rate in the US has been going down since the 1990s, reaching a historic low in 2022 of 13.5 births per 1,000 teenagers, according to the The full House will vote on SB 72 before the House and the Senate have an opportunity to reconcile any differences between the versions passed by each body. After that, lawmakers can send it to Ayotte's desk. This article first appeared in Globe NH | Morning Report, our free newsletter focused on the news you need to know about New Hampshire, including great coverage from the Boston Globe and links to interesting articles from other places. If you'd like to receive it via e-mail Monday through Friday, Amanda Gokee can be reached at
Boston Globe
23-04-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
A third sheriff's office in New Hampshire is looking to partner with ICE on federal immigration enforcement
Get N.H. Morning Report A weekday newsletter delivering the N.H. news you need to know right to your inbox. Enter Email Sign Up While critics of these arrangements argue they could stoke fear among immigrant communities and undermine local law enforcement priorities, Republican Governor Kelly A. Ayotte has encouraged police agencies to cooperate with ICE, and she has called for state lawmakers to prohibit municipalities from adopting local policies that seek to impede such cooperation. Advertisement New Hampshire is a regional outlier. It's the only New England state in which any sheriff's office or state police force has applied for the ICE task force model. While six municipal police departments in New Hampshire (Colebrook, Gorham, Ossipee, Pittsburgh, Troy, and Candia) have pursued such agreements, only one elsewhere in New England (Wells, Maine) has done so, and it has Advertisement Major Christopher Bashaw, of the Rockingham County Sheriff's Office, said his team supports Ayotte's position on this topic. If approved, then up to 30 deputies would be able to receive immigration-related training and aid in enforcement, he said. Bashaw said the impact on day-to-day operations is expected to be minimal, as deputies anticipate going about their normal duties and holding people who are found to have active immigration detainers. 'We do not anticipate any changes to our current duties and have no intention of pursuing detainees solely based on immigration status detainers,' he said. The aggressive immigration crackdown being pursued by the Trump administration has recently resulted in high-profile errors. American citizens have been wrongly detained in Bashaw said he doesn't see the sheriff's office as being involved directly in the deportation process itself. 'Our understanding is that the ICE detainers are the mechanism to bring the individuals before the courts to ensure they receive due process related to their matter,' he said. 'If at any time the Rockingham County Sheriff's Office takes issue with the manner with how the program is being implemented, we can discontinue our partnership and participation.' This article first appeared in Globe NH | Morning Report, our free newsletter focused on the news you need to know about New Hampshire, including great coverage from the Boston Globe and links to interesting articles from other places. If you'd like to receive it via e-mail Monday through Friday, Advertisement Steven Porter can be reached at
Boston Globe
15-04-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Hospitals sue New Hampshire over tax that supports Medicaid
Dartmouth Health and Concord Hospital have also joined the lawsuit, which was filed in Merrimack Superior Court on Tuesday. It's not the first time hospitals have fought against the tax. A Superior Court judge Get N.H. Morning Report A weekday newsletter delivering the N.H. news you need to know right to your inbox. Enter Email Sign Up But the 2014 decision 'imperiled the existence of the Medicaid program,' according to the lawsuit, and hospitals reached an agreement with the state to keep raising funds. Some of the money went to meeting federal match requirements to fund the Medicaid program, and hospitals also received a portion of the money back in a reimbursement. Advertisement The state's latest agreement with the hospitals expired last June, and they were unable to reach a new agreement, leading to the lawsuit. Governor Kelly A. Ayotte criticized the lawsuit in a statement, and said the state had put forward a solution that prioritizes patients and protects funding for critical access hospitals, the state's small, rural hospitals that often have tighter margins. Advertisement 'Unfortunately, the plaintiffs are only focused on driving more money to billion-dollar corporations and have resorted to playing political games and misleading the public,' Ayotte said. 'They should return to the table and come to an agreement that benefits all Granite Staters.' But hospitals say the new reimbursement plan proposed by the state is unacceptable as it will cause them to lose $70 million a year, according to the lawsuit. 'This difficult decision was made after months of attempted negotiations with the state to convey the potentially devastating impact this loss of funding will have on our health system's ability to deliver patient care, at a time when the federal government is also threatening to withhold funding,' said Joanne M. Conroy, president of Dartmouth Health. Under the current tax agreement, Dartmouth Health provides 30 percent of the hospitals' total tax payments but would carry 75 percent of the lost revenue, she said. That's because the hospital serves patients from Vermont, who contribute to its revenue but aren't included in its reimbursement. Conroy said in the last three years Dartmouth, a nonprofit health system, has contributed $885 million in community benefits, including free and reduced-priced care and $682 million in uncompensated health care. Steve Ahnen, president of the New Hampshire Hospital Association, said the governor's proposal would impose 'punitive cuts' on hospitals, while delivering an additional $137 million to state coffers. 'It has an immediate impact on access to care,' he said. In recent years, hospitals in aggregate have received a 91 percent reimbursement, but the governor has proposed cutting that to 80 percent, according to Ahnen. Advertisement He said the loss would hurt hospitals, coming at the expense of patient care and benefiting the state. 'We agree that generating more revenue for the Medicaid program is a good thing because it allows us to invest in behavioral health or substance misuse or other services that are needed in the community,' he said. 'But to do so in a way that harms hospitals is absolutely the wrong approach.' According to Ahnen, the hospitals' payments of $348 million help generate $485 million in federal matching funds for the state's Medicaid program. 'We want to protect access to care for patients, and we think there's a way to do that,' Ahnen said. 'We're committed to finding a resolution that works.' Amanda Gokee can be reached at
