The Real Story? A BiPartisan Approach Can Work!

Last month, the state’s revenue numbers for June came in, giving us the budget picture for the whole fiscal year. And the news was good: we are on track to finish the year on budget, with even a little room to spare.

Since balanced budgets seem so far out of reach in Washington these days, the fact that our state manages to pull it off is a nice story in itself. But that’s not the headline here.  The real story is how we did it this year in particular: with real bipartisanship and with strong funding for important priorities like education, innovation, and mental health.

As a State Senator, I have drawn three lessons from my experience with the budget process over the last year and a half.  First, with the right leadership, both parties can actually work together and get things done. Second, it is possible to deliver a balanced budget that still focuses on the right priorities.  And third, when we balance our budget with the right priorities in mind, people and businesses in this state are much better off.

On the first point, it is clear that there has been a new tone in Concord. Good leadership needs resolve but it also requires flexibility, and Governor Maggie Hassan made it clear from day one that she was strongly committed to a clear set of budget priorities, but that she was also open minded to ideas from both parties about how to get there.  That got both sides talking, something that doesn’t happen in Washington, DC much at all.

 Credit should also go to Senator Chuck Morse, who at the time was the Republican budget leader. It takes two to negotiate, and Senator Morse was willing to work together.  That’s how you get a budget that passes the State Senate 24-0.

Second, budgets are about priorities, and unlike the previous legislature, we focused our priorities on ways to grow the economy and help the middle class, not on ideological crusades.  One of the biggest steps forward was to restore the funding that had been slashed two years earlier for our state’s colleges and universities, while increasing aid for scholarships.

 We also doubled and made permanent the state’s R&D tax credit so our companies can do the research that drives new innovations here in New Hampshire. And we significantly increased investment in community-based mental health services to ensure that we can provide appropriate care for people who need it while alleviating some of the strain we have been seeing in emergency rooms.

All of that leads to the third point: budget choices have real consequences, and we are already beginning to see the benefits of a balanced budget built on the right priorities. Restoring college funding led to a freeze on in-state tuition at the university system and an actual cut in tuition at our community colleges. Combined with expanded scholarships, this means that thousands of New Hampshire families are better able to afford college and that our schools are able to attract and keep more qualified students.

The additional resources that we put into public safety initiatives meant that we put more state troopers on the road, maintained drug task force teams, and added additional funds for alcohol and drug prevention programs.  We were also able to meet one of the priorities that I personally championed, rebuilding and restoring funding for the Children in Need of Service program, which is critical to helping our at-risk young people and keeping our communities safe.

There were many more critical pieces that went into our budget success.  We passed a bipartisan deal with the hospitals to end a divisive lawsuit and keep our budget stable and our bond ratings up. We crafted a bipartisan agreement that I helped to negotiate to expand affordable private health insurance to 50,000 New Hampshire citizens using federal funds, so that it doesn’t cost our state a dime.

The budget wasn’t perfect, and there is a lot more work to be done. But the bottom line is that with the right leadership, we can have balanced budgets, the right priorities, and a real impact on people’s lives in this state. And that is something for New Hampshire to be proud of. Washington, take note!