InDepthNH.org (https://indepthnh.org/author/paula-tracy-indepthnh-org/page/37/)
A controversial plan in the House budget to reduce Medicaid provider rates by 3 percent is essentially dead after budget writers in a conference committee agreed to the Senate’s budget position to restore that coverage Monday.
Lottery Director Charlie McIntyre revised his revenue estimates upwards by about $13 million over the next two years, giving budget writers more wiggle room and to help state agencies and programs now facing cuts from both House and Senate versions of the budget.
The financial news was good for fourteen members of the House and Senate who sat down together for the first time Thursday as the budget committee of conference.
The House agreed to changes made in over 30 bills by the Senate, sometimes with a bit of grumbling and others with a little begrudging praise, and those are now headed to the governor for her signature.
The Mount Washington summit and its future, considering impacts from humans and climate change, are being considered as part of an extensive master plan right now with the contactor expected to hold a stakeholder workshop or two this summer.
New Hampshire’s $3.9 billion outdoor industry, which supports over 30,000 jobs and 1,000 small businesses from the Seacoast shoreline to the Great North Woods, was celebrated by Gov. Kelly Ayotte and Manchester City Mayor Jay Ruais and others on Tuesday.
Surrounded by children and Republicans who made it happen, Gov. Kelly Ayotte signed into law the so-called “Parents Bill of Rights” and a bill that expands Education Freedom Accounts to all families regardless of income Tuesday.
New Hampshire ski areas this past winter saw 2,424,587 visits, a 3 percent increase over the previous winter which was much warmer and wetter.
A measure to impose a moratorium on creating any new carbon sequestration forest farms in the state and the formation of a study committee on the impacts to the municipal timber tax revenue is more likely to pass into law after Littleton Republican Sen. David Rochefort got his colleagues to include it in a non-related parental rights bill.