By GARRY RAYNO, Distant Dome
Elections have consequences and they are apparent when comparing the 2023 vote on the state operating budget to what happened last week.
Republicans were the majority party both years, however, the nearly evenly divided House voted overwhelmingly for a budget with bipartisan support two years ago.
Thursday was a different story.
At first, 22 Republicans voting “No” were enough to kill the budget by one vote before the arm twisting and deal making began to switch four of those 22 votes and then the GOP almost lost the trailer bill of the budget package with House Speaker Sherman Packard casting the deciding vote to haul the barely alive bill into the governor’s office and into law before Tuesday when the new fiscal year and biennium begins.
Two years ago, the Republicans did not have enough votes among themselves to pass a budget and with the partisan divide nearly equal turned to Democrats for more than enough votes to send it to the Governor.
Last week, the Republicans’ only option was to brow beat and cajole enough of their own to change their votes to save themselves from the embarrassment of controlling both the House and Senate and with a Republican governor and being unable to deliver a budget for the next two years.
The 22 Republicans voting against the budget the first time all believed the budget spent too much money, although it is barely more than the one about to end despite stubbornly high inflation.
All 22 Republicans had their reasons. Rep. Mike Belcher, R-Wakefield, contended democracy — versus a republic — encourages special interests who want to rob the minority while descending into demagoguery and tyranny.
And he complained, while the state was funding higher education, it was really funding revolution.
Rep. Travis Corcoran, R-Weare, posted on X showing his “No” vote saying it killed the budget, noting he had been fighting for five months to have the state defund the Department of Health and Human Services Refugee Resettlement Program.
“No more using tax dollars to import third worlders to NH, then giving them money and free housing,” he wrote.
Corcoran was the prime sponsor of House Bill 635, which would tax non-profit entities who settle illegal immigrants as for-profit entities and have the Revenue Administration award bounties to anyone who reported non-profits settling illegal immigrants.
The refugee resettlement program is run in conjunction with International Institute of New England and Ascentria Care Alliance, both non-profits.
Later on X he wrote he would be switching his vote because “I have been told that there will be MASSIVE leadership support to defund NH Office of Refugee Resettlement if I change my vote. I trust leadership.”
After the vote, Corcoran posted “we’ve got leadership saying they’re all going to cosponsor a bill to defund NH DHHS Refugee Resettlement in November.”
He said he also voted for the trailer bill, which passed by one vote because that was “part of the deal.”
Three other Republicans switched their votes from “no” to “yes.” They are Reps. Brian Taylor, R-Effingham, Susan Vandecasteele, R-Salem, and David Walker, R-Rochester.
Corcoran may say he trusts leadership, but he should not be too naive about what they will do. They may well have no intentions of trying to end the refugee resettlement program but agreed to do that to switch Corcoran’s vote.
But they also may move forward, in which case you will know why the refugee resettlement program is targeted.
But long before the shenanigans on the House floor Thursday, the budget was crafted for maximum appeal to the far, far right in the already far right Republican caucus.
One of the biggest issues for some was doing away with annual auto inspections and emissions testing, which the state had to impose under the Clean Air Act because of the state’s ozone levels.
The auto inspection repeal has been almost as high a priority for the Free Staters as doing away with zoning regulations so they can attract more of their fellow travelers to New Hampshire with lower cost housing.
Another budget incentive for conservatives is the 37 percent cut in state aid for the University System of New Hampshire.
When the House made an even larger cut in its budget than the one in the compromise budget, Free Stater and House Finance Committee vice chair Rep. Dan McGuire, R-Epsom, said that was his favorite cut in the budget.
That cut is guaranteed to increase tuition across the board to state students who attend or want to attend any of the three institutions: the University of New Hampshire, Plymouth State University and Keene State College, all of which currently have some of the highest tuition rates for public colleges and universities in the country, while the state’s lowest in the nation support for higher education goes even lower.
Higher tuition rates will make matters worse for New Hampshire students who currently carry the highest debt load in the country.
Since its inception as part of the 2022-2023 budget package approved in 2021, proponents of the Education Freedom Account program have pushed for “universal” vouchers which means anyone with school-age children in the state can receive a voucher today worth on average about $5,200 per student no matter how much money his or her parents make or have.
Most of the money with universal vouchers will go to students who are currently attending religious and private schools or homeschooled and if other states are an indication, the money appropriated in the state budget for the program for the next two years will be woefully inadequate to cover the cost, which will first drain the Education Trust Fund which pays for adequacy grants to public schools and charter schools, and will then train its sights on the state’s general fund.
The EFA program has been referred to as a Free State marketing tool, as many want to avoid “government schools” because they do not like what is taught about race and other such “controversial” topics.
The budget also includes a provision prohibiting state contracts with companies or organizations or for public entities to have diversity, equality and inclusion programs.
This provision was a last minute amendment to the House budget proposal touted by McGuire.
While the state can pay subsidies to the wealthy to send their kids to private schools, lawmakers did not see fit to meaningfully increase state public education aid to school districts although there are two superior court decisions telling them to do that.
The compromised budget does increase special education aid in the second year of the biennium, but cut about $10 million that would go to the Manchester School District under a distribution formula approved in the last budget.
That was a sticking point for Ayotte who said she would veto the budget over that and not fully funding additional retirement benefits for Group II members of the retirement system, which are law enforcement, fire fighters, corrections officers, and other first responders due to changes made in the 2011 budget package.
The House budget included a change that would have new state workers have a defined contribution retirement plan instead of the current defined benefit plan, but that was voted down in the House before that version of the budget passed several months ago.
In the budget, parents of children in the Children Health Insurance Program (CHIP) under the state’s Medicaid program will have to pay a premium of up to 5 percent of their earnings, as would those on the Granite Advantage Program or Medicaid Expansion for the state’s working poor.
And co-pays for prescriptions will also increase under this budget which also cuts the Department of Health and Human Services by $51 million, while the Departments of Corrections, environmental services and justice or attorney general will also see significant across the board reductions.
The Office of Child Advocate has been reduced in size, while the Arts Council and the Council on Aging are barely alive.
All of these reductions are not aimed at helping children, those with disabilities, the elderly or the poor, instead it is downshifting more and more costs onto the most vulnerable.
And the more than 1,000 victims of sexual and physical abuse at the state’s Sununu Youth Services Center will be waiting for the $75 million a year they were promised in a settlement fund.
When deals are cut, you want to be at the table. But with this budget, only Republicans were in the back rooms seeking to find enough votes in some pretty dark corners.
Garry Rayno may be reached at garry.rayno@yahoo.com.
Distant Dome by veteran journalist Garry Rayno explores a broader perspective on the State House and state happenings for InDepthNH.org. Over his three-decade career, Rayno covered the NH State House for the New Hampshire Union Leader and Foster’s Daily Democrat. During his career, his coverage spanned the news spectrum, from local planning, school and select boards, to national issues such as electric industry deregulation and Presidential primaries. Rayno lives with his wife Carolyn in New London.