By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org
CONCORD – The doors to the New Hampshire State Library will remain open at least for now after a proposal to eliminate it was defeated from budget cutting deliberations on Tuesday.
Instead, the House Finance Committee Division 1 voted to recommend the elimination of $600,000 over two years to the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources budget, leaving Commissioner Sarah Stewart to find where to save that money in a “back-of-the-budget” move favored by the committee.
It voted to recommend against eliminating positions at the library.
The committee, however, did vote on Monday to recommend eliminating the entire $1.7 million budget for NH State Council on the Arts which was established in 1965.
It provides grants and aid to theaters and cultural centers across the state and comes at a time when federal funding elimination is also being considered in Washington.
Those proposed cuts were opposed by all Democrats on the committee but supported by Republicans in the majority.
State Rep. Rosemarie Rung, D-Merrimack, said Tuesday she would “vehemently” oppose the elimination of the state librarian position, noting she had received over 100 emails once it became public that state Rep. Joe Sweeney, R-Salem, had brought in a proposal Monday to defund the arts council and close the library.
The committee decided to divide the question into two and waited on the library matter for Tuesday.
Republican Rep. Gerald Griffin, R-Mont Vernon, said Monday he could support the elimination of arts funding for a few years, “I know we’re in a crisis” but said he would not support eliminating the state library and its statewide functions to support local libraries.
Sweeney said the library and arts funding is a “want” in a particularly difficult budget year and the legislature could keep the library building for state Executive or Legislative use.
In all, the amendment said about $6 million would be saved, with about $1.7 million coming from the Arts Council budget.
He erroneously told the committee that when Raymond Buckley, who is now head of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, was in leadership 25 years ago he talked about getting rid of the state library.
Buckley said Tuesday he wanted to study building a new, state of the art state library next to the state archives building and move the Governor, council and Secretary of State’s office into the current library next to the State House.
The committee was able to find a $500,000 cut to the budget that could be made when Administrative Services Commissioner Charlie Arlinghaus spoke to them about closing the Sununu Youth Services Center, formerly known as YDC, buildings in Manchester.
The facility will be closing and a new one for troubled young people is being built in Hampstead.
About $500,000 was in the budget for that but Arlinghaus said it will take time to build the new facility in Hampstead and he could go to the fiscal committee at the end of 2027 and the need for funds could be dramatically smaller.
There is a requirement in the law, and it is vague and doesn’t mean what people think it does, Arlinghaus said, but essentially it says the state will work with the City of Manchester to repurpose the property for its highest and best use, which he said, “sounds like real estate to me.”
The facility is in a very attractive neighborhood, he said.
The committee voted unanimously to remove the $500,000 from the budget bill.
The committee also agreed to accept the budget from the Office of the Consumer Advocate, the Business and Economic Affairs, Employment Security and voted to trim the Department of Environmental Services, also leaving Commissioner of DES Bob Scott to make his own decisions on where to cut the funds.