State House Dome: Osborne becomes bridge-builder

Apr. 8—AFTER THE MIDTERM election and record recounts left Republicans with the smallest majority in the New Hampshire House of Representatives since 1871, Majority Leader Jason Osborne, R-Auburn, vowed to be a less polarizing, more consensus-building leader.

Last week, he made good on that promise, enabling the House to avoid a certain train wreck and come up with a compromise, near-$16 billion state budget.

The hard work is far from over, however.

Ironically, this development has complicated the jobs of Senate President Jeb Bradley, R-Wolfeboro, and Senate Finance Chairman James Gray, R-Rochester.

House Democratic Leader Matt Wilhelm held most of the cards in these two-party negotiations because Osborne had no chance of getting roughly 60 GOP conservatives to go along with a budget calling for higher spending.

So Osborne had to swallow hard and add $61 million more to the final plan while shedding $20 million in spending on Education Freedom Accounts.

Little wonder Gov. Chris Sununu issued a statement after the House's kumbaya moment about the need to "control spending increases" in the final blueprint.

"We've got to be careful not to spend all of our surplus," Bradley told radio host Jack Heath Friday.

The two-year budget Sununu first proposed two months ago called for ending June 2025 with a near-record $341 million Rainy Day Fund.

The House-passed budget takes that down to about $210 million.

Every two years, the Senate typically gets to play Santa Claus, taking advantage of later, rosier revenue estimates and adding spending into the House-passed plan.

Not this time. The House managed to spend nearly all the seed corn.

Bradley and Gray likely will have to say no more often than they'd like to Senate Democrats coming forward with their own spending wish lists, which reportedly top $300 million.

This House budget deal had no shortage of men and women in the political trenches who made it happen.

A few worth mentioning were House Education Chairman Rick Ladd, R-Haverhill, who with Rep. David Luneau, D-Hopkinton, and Rep. Tracy Emerick, R-Hampton, carefully crafted changes to the education aid formula critical to getting House Democrats to sign on the dotted line.

Then there was Rep. Jerry Stringham, D-Lincoln, who for weeks worked with Rep. Jess Edwards, R-Auburn, and Rep. Mary Jane Wallner, D-Concord, on House Finance to create the matrix for how best to increase Medicaid provider rates.

Once Osborne and Wilhelm agreed to kick in $40 million more for providers than House Finance had, it was easy to plug it into Stringham's algorithm.

New Hampshire Health Care Association CEO Brendan Williams, who represents nursing homes called it his "Christmas miracle." State House lobbyist James Monahan led a broad coalition of providers who made the case for higher rates.

Leadership falls in line

Osborne has always been a pretty good whip counter. He proved it again last week.

The House GOP backed the budget trailer bill (HB 2) deal, 134-63. All 193 House Democrats voted for it.

Rep. J.R. Hoell, R-Dunbarton, led the opposition, and three other House Finance Committee GOP members joined in voting no — Reps. Harry Bean of Gilford, Joel Cambrils of Windham and Maureen Mooney of Merrimack.

The only GOP member in a leadership position to vote with Hoell was Rep. Scott Wallace of Danville, vice chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

Last Friday, the Legislative Budget Assistant's office confirmed the House-passed budget increases state tax and fee spending by 19% and spending from total funds by 18.4%.

In the every vote counts department, Osborne needs to send thank-you cards to the five Democrats who helped ensure the only tax cut in the final package survived.

Reps. Susan Almy, D-Lebanon, and Stringham tried to take out the elimination of the Interest and Dividends Tax in 2025 instead of 2027.

The move failed, 199-190.

Osborne needed a hand because three Republicans abandoned him, Reps. Dan Wolf of Newbury, Andrew Renzullo of Hudson and Aidan Ankarberg of Newmarket.

Enter the House Democratic quintet who backed the tax cut — House Finance Division 1 Chair Peter Leishman of Peterborough, fellow House Finance member Tom Buco of Conway, Janet Wall of Durham, Matthew Coker of Meredith and Zoe Manos of Stratham.

State revenues may have peaked

March is one of the four biggest revenue months of the year and its returns, though healthy, were a cautionary tale.

Taxes and fees came in $55 million, or 9.8% ahead of forecast for the month, but they were just $4 million ahead of the same month last year.

The report looks like taxes were off $96 million, but that's because March was the month the statewide property tax payment by communities by $100 million.

State taxes on business, rooms and meals, liquor, tobacco, real estate and interest and dividends all were just barely at or below March 2022.

This month's returns will be an even better barometer because during April the largest businesses make estimated payments based on what they believe they will owe under the 8.5% Business Profits Tax.

In these uncertain economic times, business owners could lower their own forecasts for profitability.

Speaker getting award

House Speaker Sherman Packard, R-Londonderry, will receive the New Hampshire GOP's most coveted honor on Friday, the Meldrim Thomson Principle Over Politics Award.

"I can't think of anyone who embodies the principles of Governor Thomson more than Speaker Sherm Packard. Sherm has devoted his life to our state and has served her citizens and our party for more than 30 years," said GOP Chairman Chris Ager.

"During one of the most trying times for the State House, Sherm selflessly took the gavel and has led the New Hampshire House with both strength and grace."

The honor likely will fuel talk about whether Packard, 74, decides that his 17th term and second as speaker will be his last.

Throughout his long career, Packard always has put off talk about his own future until the election-year session is near an end.

The honor comes at the Amos Tuck Dinner in Manchester, where Florida Gov. and likely presidential contender Ron DeSantis will be the guest speaker.

A day earlier, another 2024 potential hopeful, U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., will make his first trip to the first-in-the-nation primary state with a meet-and-greet at the Red Arrow Diner in Manchester.

Last week during his speech to the New England Council, Sununu kept up his assault on DeSantis, trying to brand him as "Trump lite."

"I think (Trump) did some very good things, but as a Republican, I got very frustrated. I think a lot of us did," Sununu said. "Now, are we going to replace that with another Republican (DeSantis) on the presidential stage that is just another big-government Republican? I get very nervous," Sununu said.

On the Democratic front, environmentalist and vaccine critic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made it official last Wednesday, filing papers in D.C. to launch his own bid for the White House in 2024.

New ballot machines closer

The Ballot Law Commission approved two more trials of new voting machine technology to be used for town elections in Hanover and Moultonborough this May.

Constitutional Deputy Secretary of State Eric Forcier told the BLC that all four vendors interested in bidding to replace the state's aging AccuVote machines performed well during the 2022 primary and general elections and at town meeting elections last month.

The firms are Dominion, ES&S, Clear Ballot and VotingWorks.

"They are all capable of counting New Hampshire ballots," Forcier said.

Secretary of State David Scanlan said VotingWorks wanted and got a trial in Moultonborough.

The company has open-source software that allows the public to see its source code, which is private and proprietary in most voting systems.

In response to state criticism, Scanlan said VotingWorks made changes to its hardware.

Scanlan plans to create teams of local election officials, BLC members and voters to watch these machines in action and report back to his office.

The goal is to complete this process this fall, Scanlan said, so local election officials can choose to use the new machines during the 2024 elections.

Chairman Brad Cook said he's working on a schedule of BLC meetings to conclude this decision.

Given the small size of the state, Cook said it's likely the commission will approve no more than two vendors.

"It doesn't appear financially viable when I talk to the manufacturers to have more than two," Cook said.

The state Senate already has killed legislation (SB 73) that would have allowed towns to use some of the state's $12 million in federal voting grant surplus to buy new voting machines.

Doucette goes with Vivek

House Deputy Majority Leader Fred Doucette, R-Salem, said those in former President Donald Trump's inner circle aren't serving him well, which played a role in his decision to sign on as a senior strategist and state chairman to GOP rival Vivek Ramaswamy.

Doucette said Trump's team "isn't committed" to New Hampshire, and many of its personnel and strategic moves convinced him that 2024 won't go as well as 2016 did.

"You have to make New Hampshire the tip of the spear, and they aren't," Doucette said.

"It's not Donald Trump, it's the periphery around him."

Doucette said Ramaswamy reminds him of Trump circa 2015.

"I get that same energy, same vibe, same engagement in people that talk and roll with me. He is the right guy; he's a conservative visionary," Doucette said. "I haven't felt this excited and energized and enthused for a while."

Also joining Ramaswamy last week was Josh Whitehouse as his state director.

Whitehouse also had been with Trump since 2015, served in the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security in the Trump administration and helped Ager become GOP state chairman over Sununu's opposition.

Doucette predicted other Trump alumni would go elsewhere.

Landfills, Sununu Center on tap

The Senate starts plowing through some House bills in a Thursday session that's intended to be short on drama.

The exception likely will be the bipartisan House-passed bill (HB 56) that would impose more rigorous standards on the siting process for new landfills.

The Senate is expected to endorse a House-passed bill (HB 49) that provides the budget to build a smaller replacement to the Sununu Youth Services Center in Manchester.

Injured rep has to leave

Colleagues on both sides of the aisle sent out well wishes to House Deputy Democratic Floor Leader Josh Adjutant of Enfield, who resigned his seat April 1.

Adjutant shared with colleagues on social media that he had suffered a serious head injury when he was assaulted by a patient while working at an Upper Valley hospital.

"Josh has become a very good friend from the other side of the chamber these last few months," said House Majority Floor Leader Joe Sweeney, R-Salem.

"I wish him a speedy recovery and look forward to seeing him back on the battlefield when he all is clear."

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