Governor Hassan to Manchester Chamber of Commerce: We Must "Work Toward a Compromise, Bipartisan Budget that Moves New Hampshire Forward"

Statement

At the New Hampshire Institute of Politics for the Manchester Chamber of Commerce State of the State Breakfast Forum this morning, Governor Maggie Hassan reiterated the need to work across party lines to finalize a fiscally responsible, balanced budget that makes strategic investments that will help expand middle class opportunity, support job-creating businesses, encourage innovation and attract and retain more young people in New Hampshire.

"The Senate votes tomorrow on its own proposed budget, which while an improvement over the House version, still falls short of what we need to move forward as a state," Governor Hassan said. "There are several steps remaining in the budget process before a final bill makes its way to my desk, and I remain willing to roll up my sleeves and work toward a compromise, bipartisan budget that moves New Hampshire forward."

In outlining her priorities -- which include the reauthorization of the state's bipartisan health care expansion program that is providing coverage to more than 40,000 hard-working Granite Staters; adequate funding for higher education, substance misuse, mental health, the Department of Corrections and the Department of Transportation; moving away from budget gimmicks like an unspecified $3.5 million reduction at the Sununu Youth Services Center; and a new contract for state employees -- Governor Hassan drew a stark contrast between her budget proposal and the Senate's proposal.

"The Senate plan won't allow us to lower tuition at the community colleges and it substantially cuts from my proposal for our university system, making it more difficult to attract and retain the young people that are critical to the future of our economy," Governor Hassan said. "It diverts funds from last year's bipartisan transportation funding plan meant for fixing local roads to operations, and it fails to adequately staff our correctional institutions or our juvenile justice system."

"They even say that in the midst of a heroin epidemic, New Hampshire can't afford to adequately fund substance misuse prevention and treatment, cutting three million from my proposal and changing the formula for how the state funds substance misuse programs to make it appear they have done more on this issue than they truly have. And they leave more than 40,000 people on the edge of losing their health insurance by not reauthorizing our bipartisan health care expansion plan, creating uncertainty that is bad for our health insurance market and our economy."

At the same time, the Senate Finance proposal includes cuts to the Business Profits Tax and the Business Enterprise Tax that would cost the state $3.8 million in Fiscal Year 2016, which is unaccounted for in the proposal, and $19.4 million in Fiscal Year 2017, according to a recent analysis by the Department of Revenue Administration (DRA). According to the same analysis, roughly one percent of businesses -- many of which are multi-state corporations -- will receive more than 75 percent of the benefits from this reduction.

"Senate Republican leadership included large tax cuts that will create a hole in this budget and budgets well into the future," Governor Hassan said. "I understand the desire to lower the business profits and business enterprise taxes, but we must address how those tax cuts would be paid for now and in the future, and we must have a full conversation about the tradeoffs we would make as a state, what priorities we would choose not to fund in order to pay for these."

Governor Hassan closed by reinforcing that she remains ready and willing to work with legislators from both parties as the process moves to committee of conference in order to pass a responsible, bipartisan budget that makes progress on the priorities that are critical to the success of New Hampshire's families, businesses and economy.

"The process of finalizing a fiscally responsible, balanced budget that will keep New Hampshire's economy moving in the right direction is ongoing, and there is much room for compromise and common-sense problem-solving," Governor Hassan said. "But what is clear is that any budget that relies exclusively on the votes of one political party will fail to meet the expectations of our citizens, the needs of our businesses and the needs of our economy."

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