If you ask Matt Wilhelm, affordable housing, public education and access to health care are core issues that drive voters to elect New Hampshire’s 400-member legislative body. These three factors were also the backbone of a bipartisan amendment crafted by Wilhelm, the House Democratic Leader, and Republican House Majority Leader Jason Osborne in a last-minute attempt to unify the House to pass a proposed $15.8 billion state budget.

Representatives passed both pieces of the budget, House Bill 1 and 2, Thursday on a voice vote – displaying a clear willingness to work together, despite lawmakers anticipating a long day of disagreement heading into the session.

“When we come together in good faith, and we listen to one another, we disagree without being disagreeable, find a common ground and compromise where we can,” said Wilhelm on the House floor. “Republicans win, Democrats win. But most importantly, Granite Staters win, because we are able to deliver results on education, housing, and health care.”

The budget will now head to the Senate Finance Committee and then the full Senate – where it will likely be amended further – before it comes back to the House in June.

House approved budget

The House Finance Committee recommended a $15.76 billion two-year budget – which was about $180 million higher than Gov. Chris Sununu’s initial budget of $14.9 billion. But after months of editing Sununu’s proposal in the House Finance Committee’s proposal, the rest of the House of Representatives added their own insight – filing 30 amendments to the budget trailer bill, House Bill 2.

“I hope they don’t look too kindly or unkindly on those of us who are now going to jump in at the end of the fourth quarter and try to run a few plays before the clock runs out,” said Osborne on the House floor.

With these amendments, House lawmakers passed a budget that modified suggestions from both the governor’s proposal and the House Finance Committee bill.

Legislators voted to strip a $1.4 million proposal that would have created a “Northern Border Alliance Program” to increase police patrols along the 58 miles that border Canada.

Despite the governor calling for funds to increase patrolling as a result of illegal border crossings, records obtained by the ACLU of New Hampshire show neither Sununu’s office nor the Department of Safety could support these claims.

These cuts were approved on a 241-143 vote, alongside another amendment that would require state and local police to give 24 hours of public notice if they are helping carry out an immigration checkpoint.

Legislators also rejected a proposal from Kevin Verville, a Deerfield Republican, to include legalizing marijuana for people over the age of 21 in the state budget

“If we are going to spend all of this greenback today, shouldn’t we send some green back to our constituents,” he joked on the House floor.

Despite it being taken out of the budget, the House passed House Bill 639, which would legalize marijuana in the state, later in the day. Any efforts to loosen the state’s prohibition of marijuana typically pass in the House but are rejected in the Senate.

A proposal to keep in place the state’s Interest and Dividends Tax also failed. The current budget proposes eliminating the tax by 2025, instead of the 2027 date under state law.

Affordable housing

With an estimated 20,000 units needed to meet the housing shortage in the state by 2030, efforts to spur affordable housing development were a key priority for Sununu in his initial budget.

The governor wanted more than $50 million to incentivize developers to build units through the state’s new InvestNH program, add money to the Affordable Housing Fund and create a historic homes tax credit.

“It’s the number one barrier we have. I can’t bring more workforce in for your business if I have no place for them to live,” Sununu said at his annual State of the State address last month in Concord.

With a shortage of units, the state is also facing a rental crisis – with high prices and limited availability. In the last five years, rents have increased by over 30 percent, while the vacancy rate sits at 0.5 percent, well below a healthy rate of 5 percent.

It’s a commonly cited problem in New Hampshire – housing is expensive for those who can find it, and options are few and far between for those looking for a new place to live.

“It’s no secret that New Hampshire is in an affordable housing crisis. New Hampshire’s unhoused population is spiking and rent is continuing to rise,” said Wilhelm. “We need more funding for affordable housing, not less.”

But when House Finance Committee members looked at the governor’s proposed budget – they voted to cut housing funds by $25 million. This included removing $15 million from InvestNH, and limiting the funding to only support municipal grants as opposed to proposed projects from developers, and $10 million from the Affordable Housing Fund.

The committee also eliminated the historic home tax credit.

Lawmakers justified the cuts by pointing out that the housing proposals outlined in Sununu’s budget were also in a current legislative proposal, Senate Bill 231 – which has since been killed.

In Wilhelm and Osborne’s amendment, the legislators restored money to the Affordable Housing Fund, adding an additional $15 million, to bring the total to $30 million. This fund, which has been a long-standing tool to support development since 1988, provides low-interest loans and grants to developers.

The House-approved budget now includes $30 million for the affordable housing fund and $15 million for grants to municipalities through InvestNH.

Public education funding

Improving the state education funding formula was a big-ticket item in Sununu’s initial budget, which called for raising the base rate for adequacy funding for all New Hampshire students.

“Right now the education funding formula is overly complicated and fundamentally imbalanced, creating an unspent surplus each year,” Sununu said in his budget address on the House floor in February. “This proposal simplifies things.”

But both Democrat and Republican lawmakers agreed – funding only should target schools with low-income students.

“We’re taking the money and distributing it to towns, the property poor towns, that need that support,” said Representative Rick Ladd, a Haverhill Republican who chairs the House Education Committee.

The amendment from Wilhelm and Osborne also cut a proposal to expand Education Freedom Accounts. The eligibility guidelines for the program, which provides state funding for low-income students to attend private school, would have increased from 300 percent of the federal poverty level to 350 percent, which would have made a family of four earning $105,000 annually eligible for state funding. With the current income eligibility at 300 percent, a family of four’s annual income would have to be at or below $90,000.

Health care

The budget also includes increased Medicaid reimbursement rates and support for community care.

The House Finance Committee’s budget included Medicaid reimbursement rates at $24 million for general state rate increases and $70 million for targeted rate increases.

Medicaid works like private insurance, where health care providers are reimbursed for services for individuals who are enrolled. But these rates aren’t adjusted for inflation or rising costs, and have fallen behind in the state, according to research from the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute.

In Wilhelm and Osborne’s bipartisan amendment, the lawmakers proposed adding $40 million more for these reimbursements.

“Right now, hospitals and community health centers are struggling to care for Granite Staters because of staffing and funding issues,” said Wilhelm.

Throughout the state family resource centers provide services for parents and children – like parenting classes, counseling and guidance applying for state and federal assistance programs. The amendment also included increased funds, $1 million per year, for these programs.

Lastly, the House budget with the amendments includes $5 million for residential treatment provider rates.

“Community mental health leaders have made it clear if the Medicaid reimbursement rate does not increase, over the next few years psychiatric patients will continue to suffer long wait times and low care availability,” said Wilhelm.

The budget now goes to the Senate Finance Committee. Senators have until June 8 to pass their version of the budget, before it goes back to the House.

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