House and Senate negotiators are busy. They have until Thursday to reach agreement, or agree to disagree, on more than 50 bills that remain pending. Their topics include business taxes, open enrollment in public schools, and whether insurers should pay for a state-created children’s mental health services program.
“Everything’s going to happen Wednesday or Thursday,” said Rep. Joe Sweeney of Salem, who is involved in multiple negotiating committees.
In the meantime, here’s a rundown of some bills – and negotiations – to watch.
To trim a state business tax or raise its threshold?
One bill prioritized by House GOP leaders would cut the business enterprise tax from 0.55% to 0.50% starting in 2028. The bill is a priority for GOP leaders in the House, but the Senate is proposing a different approach to providing tax relief.
“While we agree with the sentiment of the bill, we think it’s a budget-year discussion,” said Sen. Tim Lang or Sanbornton, who leads the Senate Ways and Means Committee told fellow negotiators during their first meeting on the bill. “Looking at the threshold is the more appropriate way to provide tax relief for the people who truly need it,” Lang added.
The version of the bill he and the Senate favors would preserve the tax’s current 0.55% rate but would lift the threshold for businesses that need to file from $300,000 to $375,000, a move Lang says would exempt some 3,000 businesses that now pay the tax from doing so in the future. Negotiations on the tax rate and filing threshold broke off fast Tuesday, but are slated to resume Wednesday morning.
‘Wraparound’ behavioral health for children
The State Senate, along with Gov. Kelly Ayotte, staunchly back reviving a proposal the House has twice rejected to change how the state funds an intensive behavioral health program for youth with private insurance.
Under current law, children covered by private insurance in New Hampshire are unable to directly enroll in the FAST Forward program, which provides a range of mental health services that can last as long as 18 months. The Senate backs charging private health insurers what the bill calls an “assessment” to help pay for those services, which are now covered by the state’s Medicaid program.
House Republican leaders say they want the state, service providers and insurers to negotiate a resolution over the summer. But the Senate moved unanimously in favor of charging insurers for the program starting next year; and when the House voted down the bill earlier this month, the Senate quickly attached the policy onto an unrelated proposal dealing with child custody issues.
Ayotte has repeatedly accused insurers of acting in bad faith on the issue, which insurers deny.
A statewide open enrollment plan
Top Republicans strongly back the idea of allowing New Hampshire public school students to decide to attend school in any district of their choosing, regardless of where they live.
But how to finance the program and divvy up costs between the state, the district where a student lives, and the district where they attend school, remains a bipartisan concern. The proposal legislative negotiators are working on envisions a 500 student cap for the first year, with the cap increasing by 25% the next year, if the number of participating students reach 90% of the cap.
Local education officials remain concerned about costs expected to be borne by districts, and how open enrollment could complicate school budget planning. Gov. Ayotte generally supports efforts to give families more options in education by has steered clear of weighing in on any specific open enrollment plan.
Requiring local voters to weigh a tax cap on school spending
Another bill that could affect school spending – and taxes – is a proposal that aims to force local voters to consider imposing a cap on school taxes, accounting for inflation and growth in the local tax base.
Under the House’s version of the bill, cities and towns would vote on a tax cap in every state election. The Senate version of the bill calls for local voters to consider a school tax cap once, in November.
The bill is one of several that lawmakers have taken up this year that gets at the question of local versus state governments, and where decisions affecting local taxpayers are made best. Top Republicans in Concord seem increasingly comfortable imposing policies on local governments. And that includes Gov. Kelly Ayotte, who threw her conceptual support behind the Senate version of the bill last week, telling reporters that a one-time vote was fine by her.
“Having people weigh in is a positive," Ayotte said.
Before that happens, this, and every other still pending bill, will need to clear negotiations this week and the full House and Senate next week.
