The current state budget required New Hampshire’s Department of Health and Human Services make $51 million in cuts over two fiscal years, marking the largest reduction in its budget in the past 30 years.
Those reductions were made “back of the budget,” which is where the state lawmakers require departments to make cuts but instead of proposing line items as part of the state budget, departments make adjustments as they see necessary.
A new report by the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute has found that for 2026, three-quarters of the state health department’s reductions were through one time reductions, leaving the department to find further reductions during the 2027 fiscal year.
More than $10 million has been reduced from services that directly impact Granite Staters, like behavioral and public health services, including food assistance.
In a letter to the Joint Legislative Fiscal Committee explaining reductions made in the budget for fiscal year 2026, the state health department said the cuts would not impact current programs.
Jessica Williams, senior policy analyst at the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute, said the cuts could limit how many new families the department could serve in the future.
“The reductions won't necessarily eliminate services that are provided today, but they may limit [a] program's ability to expand or respond to increased demand across the state,” Williams said.
For example, according to the report, cuts to contracts for state-level shelter programs affected the Cold Weather Program, which led to greater reliance on the emergency shelter system across the state.
As NHPR reported this winter, early and frequent cold weather also increased the use of emergency shelters, some of which ran out of funding to house people overnight, and instead relied on providing them with outdoor cold weather gear.
Williams said that there have also been cuts to the state’s farmer’s market program that provides food voucher participants the ability to purchase fresh produce at farmer’s markets.
“That saw a pretty significant reduction compared to the amount that was originally budgeted for state fiscal year 2026,” Williams said. “So while current WIC participants currently receiving services may not see an impact to their vouchers, that could limit the program's ability to reach more families and provide more vouchers to families down the road.”
Williams said looking ahead the state health department may have tough choices on what to cut in fiscal year 2027 as it looks to meet the $25.5 million reduction.
