By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org
CONCORD – The Department of Corrections will go without a secretary and a request to restore $100,000 in the governor’s budget was rejected as the Senate Finance Committee gets to work this week on recommendations to the full Senate for a new budget in tough economic times
Senate President Sharon Carson criticized the Governor’s office for asking for $100,000 to be placed back into its budget when all state departments are having to take cuts over the next two years, due to lower projected revenue.
Carson, R-Londonderry, who is a member of the Senate Finance Committee, told members Monday afternoon that she thought it was disappointing to see this request in the face of such widespread pain and belt-tightening across state governments.
Gov. Kelly Ayotte, a Republican, is in her first few months in office and has been confronted with a dismal revenue picture compared to her budget, though it has brightened by about $300 million from the House budget version to the Senate, and they do have some wiggle room.
Right after hearing from hundreds last week, the committee voted to restore state Medicaid provider rates, which were to go down by 3 percent, to restore funds to the developmental disability waitlist and the community mental health support program. That accounts for about $120 million.
Starting off the deliberative process for this week on Monday, the committee agreed with Carson and voted 5-1 to deny the request to return the back of budget cuts for the Executive Branch. Voting to support the governor’s request was Sen. David Watters, D-Dover.
“I don’t think I need to reiterate that we know that this is a difficult budget,” said Carson. “We are all sacrificing in this budget. It’s a little disappointing to see that they (the governor’s office) don’t want to give up. We gave a million dollars. They are just being asked to give $100,000 and it is kind of hard to ask these agencies to not have this money – money that they are depending on some of them for some of the things they would like and I think we as a legislature have stepped up and have accepted back-of-the budget cuts to make this budget work. It’s a little disappointing,” Carson said.
Watters said it is important to respect the new governor and her office needs and what she requires to run the top office of the executive branch.
But Sen. Howard Pearl, R-Loudon, said he thought that the Senate should not entertain any requests to drop back-of-the budget cuts, including the governor’s requests.
“If we find extra money to work with, on the other end then maybe we will restore some. I feel at this point that everybody is kind of stuck with this,” he said.
Sen. James Gray, R-Rochester, who is chair of Senate Finance, told them they had three options – to accept, deny or you can do it later.
“I’m going to make a motion to deny it,” Pearl said. And they did.
The governor’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
On Tuesday, the committee decided that the Department of Corrections will have to do without a secretary.
If this budget passes, the committee was told the DOC will now have no secretary.
This comes at a time when the commissioner of the Department of Corrections said the House-passed budget for corrections could pose a safety issue. https://indepthnh.org/2025/03/28/house-pushes-unsafe-department-of-corrections-budget-cuts/
Many of the requests for changes from the House version were met with the same “no” answer as DOC got to get its secretary position back, a savings of about $150,000 over two years. Or the committee passed them if they required no money attached, and they essentially tabled other requests until they will meet again on Friday.
They approved some reallocations as well including one that takes $1.7 million from one DOT operations account into another account for winter employee retention. They also approved other technical changes that added a penalty and prohibition if you cause water to run onto a state railroad, in addition to existing highway law and another to allow DOT to seek reimbursement for removal of vehicles from park and rides.
They did agree to recommend a fix with net zero revenue impact on Senate Bill 153 which would allow for expedited permits for developing driveways. This bill passed the House with bipartisan support and is coming back to the Senate and includes a new $120 fee for the driveway permit but the bill did not state where revenue would go. This amendment directs that money to the highway fund, the committee was told.
Polls show the public supports increased housing opportunities particularly low- to moderate-housing and supporters say this bill will help expedite construction time and costs.
Gray said he wanted to start the discussion on recommended budget cuts and the long list of requests to put spending back in the budget but he said that every time you do that it would mean you would have to find more money elsewhere to pay for it.
Sen. Cindy Rosenwald, D-Nashua, said she is on the Senate Ways and Means Committee and knows there is $300 million more in projected revenue than what was used to build the House budget and she expects some amendments going forward in the next few weeks.
The committee meets again on Friday at 1 p.m. after a Thursday session with the full body trying to get through a number of bills as the budget homework mounts.
But they were able to get rid of some low hanging fruit over the past two days including those that don’t cost anything.
Gray said he was also getting some pushback about plowing through too hard, noting it creates so much work for the staff.