Above, the line outside Representatives Hall where many people were waiting to testify before the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday. Paula Tracy photo
By GARRY RAYNO, InDepthNH.org
CONCORD — Hundreds of people turned out to speak against the House-passed budget saying it harms the state’s most vulnerable including the developmentally disabled, the elderly, the mentally ill and the poor seeking health care.
The one area praised in the budget at the Senate Finance Committee public hearing Tuesday was additionally money for Group 2 members of the New Hampshire Retirement System who lost benefits when the formula was changed more than a decade ago to reduce payouts.
Members of the state’s art council, the Commission on Aging, The NH Prescription Drug Affordability Board and the Alcohol and Tobacco Prevention and Cessation programs spoke of the need for what they bring to the state from lower drug prices to planning for an aging state and the cultural and emotional need met by the arts.
State workers turned out to bemoan cuts to the Department of Corrections, the Department of Health and Human Services, and area agencies and to tell Senators what will befall them and the state if money is not found to restore some of what the House cut from the budget.
Others asked the Senate to retain $15 million in bonus money for the Child Care Scholarship program the House had in its budget as parents struggle to find affordable child care that is often the difference between returning to the workforce or staying home to take care of a young child.
Others criticized the 34 separate bills the House included in House Bill 2, the bill containing the changes in law needed to align with the numbers in the budget, particularly bills related to the culture wars such as prohibiting diversity, equity, and inclusion trainings, initiatives, and policies; sunsetting the requirements for children to receive certain vaccines and modifying the authority of the state to require vaccinations; using biological sex to determine restroom and locker room use and sports team members, and eliminating the solar component of the State’s Renewable Portfolio Standard.
And the Senate received a petition with nearly 2,000 names urging the state to fix the current education funding system so it is more equitable to both students and taxpayers while others criticized spending millions of dollars on the Education Freedom Account program that draws its money from the same well as state aid for public education.
Will Walker of Hollis has a 26-year-old son who has autism.
“The proposed House budget puts my son’s future at risk,” he said. “When all is said and done you reduced the (developmentally disabled budget) base by $91 million. At same time the House Budget includes $91 million for (Education Freedom Accounts).”
Walker said the difference is the people in the EFA program have alternative choices for a free public education while the developmentally disabled have no other choice but homelessness, an extended hospital stay, and the worst is death.
“If you can come up with some funds, please fund the people who have no choice,” Walker said, “verses the people who have a choice.”
One woman was more direct as she lectured lawmakers for funding a program that gives a family of four making $200,000 grants totaling $20,000 while they are cutting funding to the poor, elderly and developmentally disabled and the state’s higher education system.
The House’s $15.5 billion budget for the next biennium is about $514 million less than Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s proposed budget, cutting hundreds of millions of dollars from health and social services, as well as $50 million from the University System of New Hampshire and $4 million from the Community College System of New Hampshire, and $53 million from recently increased Medicaid reimbursements rates to providers.
While the Republican majority ruled any tax increases off the table, the House budget increases about 90 fees to bring in an additional $60 million, and various changes to gambling activities are expected to increase state revenues by about $200 million.
Both the Education Freedom Account program and charter schools receive hefty increases in the House budget, while local public schools which educate nearly 90 percent of all eligible students, receive a $28 million increase in funding for the biennium, about $20 million of which would boost money for special education services.
The budget eliminates the Office of the Child Advocate, the Human Rights Commission, the Housing Appeals Board and the Commission on Aging, while significantly reducing the Division on the Arts, the Family Planning program, the Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Program and the Prescription Drug Affordability Board.
And the House budget would withdraw $150 million from the state’s Rainy Day Fund, but would return $83 million at the end of the 2026-2027 biennium from a budget surplus.
The House budget is about $88 million more than the current biennium’s budget.
The Senate faces a troubled landscape as it begins work to navigate its version of the budget as April revenues, the single biggest month for state revenues, were below estimates with the ever important business taxes well below estimates for the fiscal year which ends June 30.
Business taxes are $156.3 million below estimates for the fiscal year to date and $134.5 million less than last year at this time.
And Tuesday, budget writers learned they may be facing an even larger problem if Republicans lawmakers in Washington, D.C. decide to target the state’s Medicaid Enhancement Tax funds which are expected to be $348 million this year.
According to a New York Times story, GOP lawmakers are eyeing ending the loophole that allows the state to tax care at hospitals, use the money to match federal Medicaid money and then return about 90 percent of the money to the hospitals. Forty-seven other states have similar procedures to draw down additional Medicaid money from the federal government.
The federal government has already clawed back about $80 million in federal COVID relief and recovery money the state had yet to spend.
At Tuesday’s public hearing, Doug McNutt, a former Department of Health and Human Services administrator, said he has had a long career dealing with aging and noted he once was paid for what he is doing now for free on the state Commission on Aging.
He said they all recognize they could do a better job of funding and coordinating services for the elderly in New Hampshire.
“The work we do is valuable,” McNutt said. “We will save you money in the long run.”
Lilly Wellington, the executive director of the commission, said they have been working on two projects, one looking at the public transportation system to determine gaps in the system and developing a 10-year blueprint for a state with an older population.
“Aging is the great unifier, living is aging,” she said. “We all endeavor to live long and fruitful lives. The work done today will ensure a better tomorrow for us all.”
Mary McLaughlin, a member of the state arts council from Bedford, asked the Senate to restore funding to the council noting the council was established to preserve and protect the rich cultural heritage of the state.
She noted the council gives grants to both artists and institutions to purchase art or pay for performances, noting the arts generate significant revenues on a five to one ratio.
McLaughlin said the council works with veterans services, at-risk youth and in rural and underserved communities who would be impacted the most with the budget cuts.
She noted with the budget cuts the federal matching funds will also go away.
“If you eliminate the State Council for the Arts,” she said, “we will be the only state in the nation without a state art agency. Do we want to be known for that?”
Rep. Chris Muns, D-Hampton, said before he was a legislator he worked for one of the 11 area agencies who serve the developmentally disabled and those with brain injuries, about 12,000 people.
The proposed 3 percent reduction in Medicaid reimbursement rates will be devastating after they waited so long for the 2 and 3 percent increases in the last budget, Muns said.
The cut will make it more challenging to find staff and to retain staff who face a 3 percent pay cut July 1, he noted.
Muns said that will be devastating to the 278 families on the waitlist from the school system after they turn 21 years old.
“For the first time in a long time we will not fully fund the wait list,” he said. “That is a step backward.”
None of this is necessary, Muns said, noting it is a self-inflicted crisis due to business tax rates cuts and eliminating the interest and dividends tax.
He said the House did not have to give casino operators 70 percent of the money from slot machines and instead could have gone with the governor’s proposal of 50 percent or expand the EFA program or give $83 million back to the rainy day fund at the end of the biennium.
“The state deserves a better budget,” Muns told the committee. “You can show leadership and make that happen.”
Katie Brissette, Deputy Director of Early Learning NH, asked the Senate to retain the $15 million in the budget for early learning centers.
She said talking to others in her organization the number one crisis above all others is staffing.
“We are the workforce behind the workforce,” she said. “We work so everyone else can do their job every day.”
Tiffany Gladu, Director of Long Term Supports for Granite State Independent Living, said the proposed 3 percent rate cuts for Medicaid reimbursements will have a devastating effect for long-term support grants.
Most of their clients do not need just a little help, it’s not optional support, she said, it is critical life-sustaining services.
What those services provide helps keep them alive in their homes, Gladu said, noting they cannot get dressed or bathe or prepare meals for themselves.
Without these supports lives are at risk, she said, noting when they cannot find staff, their clients go without care and face a medical emergency.
“A rate cut may appear to be an administrative adjustment, but it compromises their ability to get the care they need in their homes,” Gladu said. “If you cut funding, you are not making a small adjustment, we are cutting into services that keep people alive.”
The Senate Ways and Means Committee meets Wednesday to determine its estimates for revenues for the next two fiscal years, and the Senate Finance Committee meets Friday to begin work on its proposed budget.
Garry Rayno may be reached at garry.rayno@yahoo.com.