The deal that Gov. Kelly Ayotte and Republican State House leaders reached on the final day of the legislative session means New Hampshire will have a state budget in place July 1.
The agreement cleared the state Senate unanimously before eventually squeaking through the New Hampshire House, ending what had become a messy public fight over a budget process that Republicans completely controlled all year.
The final $15.9 billion spending plan includes several conservative priorities, including a prohibition on diversity initiatives in all public schools and state-funded colleges, and an expansion of New Hampshire's voucher-like school choice program.
It also includes several policies that Democrats — who opposed the budget — have criticized, including premiums for New Hampshire residents insured through Medicaid, and cuts to state funding for public universities and colleges. The new budget also requires agency leaders to find millions of dollars in unspecified savings at the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Corrections.
“I know the legislative process — having been a United States senator — always has its ups and downs, but you’ve got to keep fighting and persevere,” Ayotte said Thursday as lawmakers prepared to cast votes on the budget bills. “I think that’s what happened here.”
Read more: What's in the new state budget? An overview
Perseverance was required, particularly in the House, which struggled to adopt the budget through several rounds of voting. Lawmakers there initially rejected the spending part of the budget, but later reversed course to pass it. The vote on the budget’s companion bill, which contains the provisions to implement the spending plan, was also razor-close, with House Speaker Sherman Packard having to cast a tie-breaking vote.
“This wasn’t about partisanship — it was about partnership,” Packard said.
A process marked by Republican feuding
But the “partnership” between Ayotte and her fellow Republican lawmakers was in short supply during much of the budget process, which can define the first year of a governor’s term.
Ayotte presented her own budget back in February. When House lawmakers began amending her proposal, she was quick to chastise them for adopting revenue estimates she said were too low. She also — and repeatedly — pledged to work more closely with the Senate to retool the House’s plan.
The Senate reversed some of the House’s controversial policies — including a more than $50 million funding cut to the state’s Medicaid provider rates, and a 30% reduction to Ayotte’s proposed budget for the state university system.
But Ayotte and Senate leaders soon clashed bitterly over a single issue: how much to spend on pensions for 1,550 police, firefighters and prison guards affected by a 2011 law.
Ayotte, a former state attorney general, campaigned on restoring benefits that were trimmed by that earlier change, and proposed spending more than $300 million over the next decade to benefit these workers.
The budget ultimately adopted by Republican legislative leaders during final negotiations last week, however, proposed spending about half as much. Their budget also proposed capping maximum pensions at $125,000 a year, and set new limits on so-called “spiking,” a practice where workers inflate their pension payouts through the strategic use of overtime pay and sick days in their final years on the job.
The disagreement between Ayotte and Republican lawmakers over the pension issue spurred a week of political sparring, with Ayotte and Senate President Sharon Carson accusing each other of bad faith.
"Her exact words: I will not negotiate and I will not compromise.' Well, that has put us in a very very difficult place," Carson said on WFAE radio Monday.
‘We are the safest state in the nation. We need to back our first responders," Ayotte told Binnie Media, accusing Carson and other lawmakers of cutting a "backroom deal" without her.
Reaching an elusive agreement on pensions
The final deal that Ayotte and lawmakers reached Thursday features a $145,000 cap on pensions for police and firefighters hired since 2011. It also includes policies to limit workers from artificially boosting pension payouts.
Overall, it would spend about $41 million on these workers over the next two years — about $20 million less than what Ayotte first proposed.
Still, Ayotte said Thursday she considers it progress.
“This is a very important improvement for them, and they deserve that,” Ayotte said
The final budget plan includes several non-spending policies as well, including a “bell to bell” ban on cell phones in public schools and the elimination of state auto inspections starting next year.
It also pushes off for one year a change in state education aid that would cut school aid to Manchester by more than $10 million.
The budget also relies on new revenue from a significant expansion in gambling in the state through the legalization of video slot machines.
