(The Center Square) — New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte rolled out a two-year $16.5 billion budget proposal on Thursday that calls for slashing spending while boosting funding for education and law-enforcement efforts.
The spending plan, Ayotte’s first as New Hampshire’s new governor, calls for cutting $150 million in state spending over the next two years and diverting the savings to law enforcement and education, among other priorities.
The governor said while the state’s economy remains strong, the government needs to tighten its belt with billions in federal aid during the pandemic coming to an end and state revenues leveling off after years of record growth.
“With federal transfers dropping and revenues lower overall, a recalibration of our approach is in order – both for the total amount of spending, and also the way in which we steward every single taxpayer dollar,” Ayotte said in remarks to lawmakers on Thursday.
Ayotte said the decision to cut spending was “undertaken smartly and thoughtfully, with a scalpel, not a shovel” and will make the state government leaner “without across the board cuts and prioritizing those who are depending on services provided by the state.”
“We focused on making our government more efficient and ensuring tax dollars do more with less,” she said. “We cut bloated contracts with out-of-state vendors, took a hard look at how our agencies operate and worked with commissioners to dial in spending.”
Ayotte said she plans to make Education Freedom Accounts “universal” and devote $98.8 million for special education programs, a nearly 50% increase from the current budget. She also proposed continuing a freeze of community college tuition and funding services for people with developmental disabilities with $1 billion over two years.
“We understand the skyrocketing costs facing towns in providing special education and we want to lessen the financial burdens and ensure students are receiving the resources that they need,” Ayotte said.
The governor also said she is proposing $1 million in grants to public school districts to help them with the goal of keeping cell phones out of classrooms, a key campaign platform for the former prosecutor.
Other highlights of Ayotte’s budget include a one-year moratorium on new landfills and additional funding to secure the Northern Border and support North Country law enforcement and anti-drug trafficking programs.
“And as our nation struggles with the impacts of illegal immigration, here in New Hampshire, we created the Northern Border Alliance which is now a deterrent along our northern border,” Ayotte said. “That’s why we will continue to fund it to allow them to do their work.”