After hearing requests from the public and dozens of state agencies, state senators opened their next phase of budget deliberations with a strong statement: “We have listened.”

Here’s what you need to know.

This past week

■The Senate Finance Committee voted Friday to reverse the House’s 3% cut to Medicaid provider rates and restore funding levels for developmental disability and community mental health programs – three issues that took precedence with Granite Staters at a nine-hour public hearing last week. Senators said they want people to know they’re listening as they begin the final push to send a recommended budget to Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s desk.

■An effort to enable town budget caps just needs Ayotte’s signature to become law after House Republicans passed Senate Bill 105 last week. The proposal lays out strict guidelines and a state-set formula for local budget caps, which any resident of a town could propose. These limits would need three-fifths approval from voters to be adopted, and they wouldn’t be subject to amendment at town meeting.

■The Senate approved House Bill 631, requiring municipalities to allow residential and multifamily use in commercially zoned districts. It overcame some Republican opposition from Bedford Sen. Denise Ricciardi and Nashua Sen. Kevin Avard, who said it’d interfere and impose on local zoning decisions. Supporters argued it’ll lift red tape on housing developments and pave the way for thriving Main Streets across the state.

The week ahead

■On Tuesday, May 13 at 10 a.m., the House Environment and Agriculture Committee will hear comments from the public about a proposed amendment to a bill that’d require new certifications for landfills and suspend any new landfill permits for a year.

■On Thursday, May 15 at 10 a.m. the Senate will meet for a voting session on dozens of bills, including one banning “obscene or harmful” sexual material in schools and one establishing a group to exercise oversight on charitable gaming in New Hampshire.

■At 1 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday and Friday, the Senate Finance Committee will deliberate on the budget, starting with many of the smaller agencies and boards that are funded by the state.

For more information on the budget process and other inner workings of the State House, check out our 2025 Legislative Guide.

For a detailed unpacking of weekly news from the State House, subscribe to my newsletter, Capital Beat. Please contact me if you have questions of tips about anything going on in the Legislature.

Charlotte Matherly is the statehouse reporter for the Concord Monitor and Monadnock Ledger-Transcript in partnership with Report for America. Follow her on X at @charmatherly, subscribe to her Capital Beat newsletter and send her an email at cmatherly@cmonitor.com.