As New Hampshire lawmakers prepare to vote on the next state budget this week, tensions between top State House Republicans and Gov. Kelly Ayotte continue to escalate.
Ayotte now plans to ask for a special session of the Legislature to address the likely ramifications of the state failing to meet a June 30 deadline to pass a new budget. The move comes after Ayotte, a Republican overseeing her first budget cycle since becoming governor earlier this year, announced she would veto the plan backed by GOP lawmakers.
New Hampshire’s Executive Council would have to approve any request for a special legislative session in order for that to proceed. Ayotte is slated to make her request to the Council Wednesday. The Legislature will vote on the budget Thursday.
Main dispute: Pension benefits for police, firefighters
Pension benefits for 1,500 police and firefighters who had their benefits trimmed back by a 2011 law remain the main issue dividing Ayotte and legislative leaders. Ayotte has pushed to spend more than $27 million a year to restore benefits to those public safety workers. The proposal agreed to by legislative negotiators last week, however, would spend about half that amount.
Ayotte, a former state attorney general, campaigned last year on a promise to restore those pension benefits to first responders. And throughout the early months of her term, she’s made a point of emphasizing her allegiance to law enforcement.
Now, with the budget work entering its final stage, she says she’ll veto a budget that calls for anything short of a full restoration of benefits. And she says failing to deliver on those benefits will prompt some first responders to quit.
"This is not right, Number 1,” Ayotte said on Binnie Media Monday. “Number 2: We are the safest state in the nation. We need to back our first responders."
Top State House Republicans, meanwhile, say Ayotte is too focused on serving police and firefighters at the expense of other interest groups. Senate President Sharon Carson told WFAE Radio Monday that Ayotte should recognize the state also has other needs.
"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.
What happens if a new budget doesn’t come together?
If the next state budget plan fails to materialize by the June 30 deadline — either because of a down vote in either the House or Senate, or an Ayotte veto — lawmakers will most likely approve a stopgap spending plan. Ayotte insists that any temporary deal to keep state government running without a new spending plan should last no more than 90 days.
Carson says she and other Republican leaders are already at work on a plan to ensure services are maintained.
“We have had conversation with the Attorney General as well as the head of the Department of Administrative Services, and she is threatening to veto a continuing resolution” Carson told Binnie Media Radio host Jack Heath Tuesday. “She is threatening 1.4 million people in the state of New Hampshire for the benefit of 1,500 people. Do the math.”
Ayotte, meanwhile, hosted a luncheon for some with some Republican lawmakers Tuesday at the Bridges House in Concord. Carson said she wasn’t invited.
“You tell me what’s going on,” Carson said. “This is what we are dealing with.“
