State House Dome: House budget plan is on life support, more deals likely

Apr. 1—THE TWO-YEAR, nearly $16 billion state budget that cleared the House Finance Committee is on life support.

With proper nutrition and significant surgery, the patient could recover by the time the House faces its showdown vote on the spending plan Tuesday.

The letters and countercharges that House Majority Leader Jason Osborne, R-Auburn, and House Democratic Leader Matt Wilhelm of Manchester exchanged on Thursday revealed that without more tweaks, this budget likely would fail its first test vote.

As reported last week, Rep. J.R. Hoell, R-Dunbarton, told Osborne before the House Finance vote that he could not support it.

Osborne replaced Hoell with House Deputy Majority Leader Fred Doucette, R-Salem, who ensured the budget bill had a comfortable margin of victory in committee.

Rep. Peter Leishman, D-Peterborough, who chaired the general government part of the budget, went along with the final package.

"When the spending increase amounts to nearly $1 billion or more than $100 for every Granite Stater, that doesn't equate to a Republican budget in my book," Hoell said.

According to Legislative Budget Assistant Michael Kane, the current 2024-25 House Finance budget of $15.89 billion for all spending is 18% higher than the current $13.5 billion budget. Sununu's proposed budget of $15.7 billion is 16% higher than the current budget.

Hoell, an officer in the House Freedom Caucus and the House Republican Alliance, believes other members of those groups feel as he does.

Little wonder that the day after the committee vote, Osborne was huddling with Wilhelm to see what it would take for Democrats to climb aboard the budget train.

Osborne said he offered to sweeten the pot with these additions:

—Medicaid provider rates: $40 million more to current proposed $92 million;

—Housing: $10 million for the Affordable Housing Fund;

—Education Freedom Accounts (EFAs): Reduce annual spending by $10 million, to $30 million, keep the income cap the same and put the program under the Department of Education administration and,

—More state education aid for property-poor communities.

"It appears as if you never had any intention to work towards compromise and would rather play political games with the future of our state and its people," Osborne said after those private talks.

Wilhelm replied that his additional demands include restricting new EFAs to students who attended public school the previous year, delaying the elimination of the Interest and Dividends tax until 2026 and taking Medicaid expansion off the table.

"I remain open and willing to engage in direct dialogue to reach bipartisan consensus and pass a budget that works for all Granite Staters," Wilhelm said.

Many GOP strategists believe House Democrat leaders want this budget to fail out of the gate. This would give the minority more leverage to secure even higher spending in the final product.

Hoell said he's poring through the 1,500-page spending bill to find ways to reduce the bottom line. He declined to identify a number for spending reductions that House GOP fiscal conservatives would accept.

If you consider the real inflation rate plus population growth in New Hampshire, you arrive at just over 14%.

Getting to a 14% increase in this budget would mean cutting the House Finance plan over the next two years by roughly $200 million.

A 15% increase in state spending would translate to about $170 million less.

New election law chair

House Speaker Sherman Packard, R-Londonderry, promoted Rep. Ross Berry, R-Manchester, to be the new chairman of the House Election Laws Committee.

He replaces Deputy Speaker Steven Smith, R-Charlestown, who spent the past three months presiding over the panel as it dispensed with dozens of election bills, many of which the panel decided to retain until next year.

Rep. Ralph Boehm, R-Litchfield, will replace Berry as vice chair.

"Ross will do a great job," Smith said.

Some partisan Democrats will beg to differ.

In 2022, Berry authored the congressional redistricting map Gov. Chris Sununu threatened to veto, which would have put U.S. Reps. Chris Pappas and Annie Kuster, both D-N.H., into the same district.

Online gaming a tough bet

Sen. Tim Lang, R-Sanbornton, had to work some magic to rescue his bill to legalize online gaming and get it through the Senate late last week.

Now he really has to pull a rabbit out of his hat.

The House of Representatives traditionally has resisted gambling expansion bills.

Lang worked a few years as a member of the House before his sports betting bill made it home in 2018.

Now this legislation heads to the House Ways and Means Committee under new leadership.

Chairman Laurie Sanborn, R-Bedford, has more than a passing interest in the topic since her husband, former Sen. Andy Sanborn, has his plan for a large, new charity casino complex before Concord city boards. They own The Draft Restaurant downtown, which has historic racing machines.

Opposition to online gaming from charity casino operators nearly sunk this bill before Lang could rescue it, 12-11, out of the Senate.

Senate kumbaya elusive

Senate President Jeb Bradley, R-Wolfeboro, has managed to keep the drama and emotions to a minimum in the 24-person collegial body, which is always easier to manage than the raucous 400-person House.

But when a bill to ban sanctuary cities emerged last Thursday, the good feeling dissipated in a hurry.

Senate Republicans were angry after Senate Democrats accused them of being beholden to conservative groups with white supremacist ties by passing SB 132, which blocks cities and towns from adopting ordinances to prevent local cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

"The alarming actions of Senate Republicans today poses a very real and dangerous threat to our immigrant communities, especially during a time when hate speech and hate crimes are on the rise across our state," Senate Democrats said after the vote.

Senate Democratic leaders believe this was why the Senate hours later rammed through a bill (SB 271) to try to block the Democratic National Committee from refusing to seat New Hampshire delegates if the state insists on holding the first primary in 2024.

It sure sounded like that struck a nerve.

"In spite of what happened today, I am still rising in support of the Democratic Party in New Hampshire," said Sen. Daryl Abbas, R-Salem, an Arab-American who Senate Democrats had accused of letting hate groups influence his actions.

After the session, Senate Majority Whip Regina Birdsell, R-Hampstead, called for a ceasefire.

"The Senate has voted five times since 2016 on this issue and never had incendiary language attached to it," Birdsell said.

Sen. Rebecca Perkins Kwoka, D-Portsmouth, was flooded with raw emotion over the impetus for this bill — a wave of hate speech vandalism that targeted her home city last month.

Abortion bills back on tap

The Senate won't meet again until April 13, but Bradley has urged committee chairs to start plowing through House-passed bills.

While the House has its budget battle Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee will get less attention when it holds hearings at the same time on House bills to enshrine abortion right protections in state law (HB 88) and to eliminate criminal and civil penalties for doctors who perform abortions (HB 224).

Both bills face an uncertain fate in the upper chamber, though Sununu has said he would sign the one to erase criminal penalties for doctors if it came to his desk.

Sen. Gannon on the mend

Sen. Bill Gannon, R-Sandown, was a noticeable no-show at last Thursday's session after being sidelined by illness.

"He is doing a lot better, very thankful for the well wishes he has received...he expects to be back here the first full week of April," Bradley said.

Gannon tweeted that he was "looking forward to getting back to work in the N.H. Senate soon" while relying on Tricia Melillo, his aide, to keep him up to speed.

Shaheen headed south

U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., is in Latin America for a bipartisan congressional delegation trip that starts with a stop in Panama.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, is chairing the trip to multiple countries with meetings aimed at limiting Chinese influence in this region as well as working to reduce the importation of illegal drugs into the U.S.

Prentiss gets national award

Sen. Suzanne Prentiss, D-Lebanon, was one of three honored with EMS Advocates of the Year Awards from the umbrella national group.

Prentiss, a former Lebanon mayor, was the first female chief of EMS at the Department of Safety. She went on to be a project director at the Dartmouth Medical School and head of the American Trauma Society in 2018.

DLCC ready to 'invest'

The Washington-based, Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee announced that flipping the Granite State's House and Senate are two of the legislative chambers they are targeting first for 2024.

The others are the Arizona House and Senate, Pennsylvania Senate and Virginia House of Delegates.

This group dumped in more than $30,000 after the midterms, helping the New Hampshire Democratic Victory Campaign Committee raise a record amount and help Democratic Rep. Chuck Grassie win his special election runoff against former Republican Mayor David Walker in Rochester.

Last week in a tiny turnout, David Narkunas edged GOP rival Joost Baumeister, 13-9, to win a primary in the Nashua Ward 4 special election.

Narkunas will face former Alderman Marc Plamondon, who got 40 votes despite having no opposition on May 16.

State GOP Chairman Chris Ager wasted no time responding to this with a fundraising appeal of his own.

"They desperately want to turn NH into another failed liberal state like California or Oregon. We can't let them win," the N.H. GOP wrote in its alert.

"Unfortunately, Republicans don't have the same pipeline of money from New York and California billionaires. We count on real Granite Staters like you to help us protect the Republican Majority!"

Bradley backs local broadband

On the heels of 14 of the towns he represents voting in support of it, Bradley convinced the Senate to pass legislation (SB 222) that would allow any new communications services district to float their own revenue bonds to expand broadband service.

Bradley said he wrote it so any group of communities across the state could use this financing instrument to help bring better high-speed internet to unserved or underserved parts of the state.

Trump picks ground gamer

Former President Donald Trump has turned to a veteran operative who worked for rivals in 2015-16 to run his New Hampshire ground game.

As the New Hampshire Journal first reported, Trevor Naglieri worked for Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz in 2016.

Some, but not all, of the old Trump band has gotten back together, with ex-GOP Chairman Steve Stepanek at the top of the pyramid, along with Bruce Breton of Windham.

Two other past Trump New Hampshire principals, ex-campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and Rep. Doucette, have not made a choice and could decide to go elsewhere.

Kevin Landrigan is State House Bureau Chief for the New Hampshire Union Leader and Sunday News. Contact him at klandrigan@unionleader.com.