Today/yesterday, the New Hampshire Senate Finance Committee held public hearings on the House version of the state budget. The 6.2 billion dollar biennial budget was passed over the objections of the Governor and many state workers and public educators. They appeared before the Senate panel to try to convince the committee to restore funds that had been part of the budget first proposed by Governor Jeanne Shaheen. NHPR?s David Darman reports.
Just a few members of the Senate Finance Committee had assembled when Governor Shaheen stepped in to testify. The Governor told the committee that the House had made drastic cuts in spending, and the biggest cuts were actually a rollback of wage increases for underpaid direct care workers in Health and Human services.
42 they?re the people on the front lines, keeping senior citizens in their homes,providing for families who need child care, helping the developmentally disabled, working with chronically ill kids. they?re the people, who right now, are making less money than the average person working in the fast food industry. 102
The governor and other speakers also asked the Senate Committee to restore funding for education. They said reductions in state money for buildings and special education could cause districts to have to pay more of these costs from local funds.
Representatives of higher education also asked the Senate to restore funding for ?Granite State Scholarships?, an endowed scholarship fund meant to help New Hampshire students more easily afford the state?s public colleges. University of New Hampshire junior Hannah Marston said her own experience convinced her to share her story to show the need for the money.
10 I?m paying for my own education and as you know, unh is very expensive, not only for out of state students, but also instate students as well. Its been difficult at times but I?ve managed to make the money and stay in school. 24
The Senate committee also heard arguments to restore funding to the Land and Community Heritage Program, or L-CHIP, which, the governor had recommended be funded at twelve million dollars in her budget. Governor Shaheen said this program and others were underfunded in the House budget because Republican House leaders insisted on balancing the budget by making cuts, instead of finding a way to fully fund the schools.
129 and I think that as long as we are trying to do that by cutting the budget, we will be faced with pitting funding for l chip against funding for immunizations and chronically ill children and services for our senior citizens. That?s a choice that we shouldn?t have to make. 157
The Senate Finance Committee will gather information for the next few weeks to work out its version of the state budget. Once the committee has finished its work, it will make its recommendation to the full Senate, probably in early June.
For N H P R news, I?m DD
Delicious
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
Google
Yahoo