Policy Differences Emerge in Budget Negotiations

The day began with state Stimulus Director Bud Fitch addressing lawmakers questions on charter schools.

As part of its budget, the state Senate has included a provision that limits student enrollment.

The plan would save the general fund nearly six million dollars over the next two years.

The House budget did not include a cap.

Fitch warned conferees the move to save several million dollars could cost the state more than 25 times that amount.

TAPE: it’s our advice that there not be a cap. It poses a significant risk.

Thanks to the federal stimulus New Hampshire is set to receive $164 million from to cover education adequacy costs over the biennium.

House members appeared to heed Fitch’s recommendation.

But at least two of the five Senate conferees- including its top budget writer- aren’t convinced Fitch is right.

At this point it looks like the two sides are far apart on the charter school cap issue.

Where there might be some agreement is in Health and Human Services’ budget.

The Department confirmed that caseloads have exploded due to the Recession.

Medicaid is up 8%, Welfare is up 24%, Food Stamps is up 26%.

The Senate had the benefit of getting the budget when HHS released some of this information.

Representative Sharon Nordgren says now that the House is up to speed, she can imagine supporting some Senate positions.

TAPE: I can’t say we are going to pass on everything. But I think we are probably closer than we would have thought. The issue is revenues. If we had revenues, than the House and the Senate would know exactly what we wanted to put back in and where we would be.

Revenue is, of course, the elephant in the room.

Lawmakers don’t know how much money they have to spend on various state services until they reach agreement on funding sources.

But right now, the conference committee is being briefed by state agencies heads.

Senator Kathy Sgambati says she’s ready to wrestle with difficult decisions.

TAPE: I think most of us know where the areas of disagreement are before we even started the process. So it’s a question of moving those things out of the way where there is no disagreement and then really getting down to the hard work...there’s a lot of work left to do.

Sgambati says she believes the House and Senate are going to start really discussing budget priorities and whether there’s any money to fund them Thursday.

For NHPR News, I’m DG.