Senate President: Details Needed on $80M Budget Lapses

CONCORD, NH – Last week, to much fanfare, leaders at the Statehouse announced the the fiscal year 2015 budget ended with a $62 million-plus surplus.

However, during the Joint Fiscal Committee meeting two days later, Senate President Chuck Morse, R-Salem, more than $80 million in department lapses from FY 15 have been reported and Morse requested a breakdown of the lapses.

“Last week we learned that the CAFR was short $1.5 million of what we had anticipated during the drafting of the FY 16-17 state budget,” he said in a statement. ”We learned that there are more than $80 million in lapsed funds coming out of FY 15. In addition, we have yet to learn how much in savings was realized as a result of the Continuing Resolution that was in place for two months following the Governor’s budget veto.”

Morse said he was requesting more detailed information related to each of these fiscal items. He added that, “unfortunately a number of legislative priorities, including establishing drug courts and greater interdiction measures for opioid and heroin abuse prevention, will be put on hold until our questions are answered and we have a clearer picture of the New Hampshire’s financial outlook.”

The day before, Gov. Maggie Hassan, D-Exeter, signed the bipartisan heroin legislation into law.