Later today, the Senate Finance committee will hear public testimony for the first time on the overall $10.3 billion biennium budget passed by the House last month.
Expect a long list of speakers to line up in Representatives Hall to support or oppose the myriad proposals for revenue and spending in 2012-2013. Senate budget writers have until June 2 to complete their version of the budget, at which point the House and Senate will have to hammer out any differences.
The committee is scheduled for two (2) two-hour sessions this afternoon and this evening on the main budget bills, House Bill 1 and House Bill 2.
Senate Finance Committee Chair Sen. Chuck Morse (R-Salem) has said that some of the spending cuts proposed in the House budget — especially programs for the developmentally disabled and mentally ill — would be either partially restored or given close examination. But, as he said last week, some $200 million in restored funding to those programs would have to be matched by cuts in other areas.
Senate Finance has already made recommendations to change a few notable proposals:
Last week, the committee decided to eliminate a controversial measure that would turn public employees into at-will employees when their contracts have ended. Morse said such a collective bargaining measure, which was added in the House at the last minute without public hearings by House budget writers, did not belong in the budget bill and should be vetted and debated separately.
The committee also recommended removing a House proposal to abolish the state Department of Cultural Resources moving its divisions into other state agencies and cutting the correlating budget — from the $427,000 proposed in February by Gov. John Lynch to $4,700 recommended by the House.
The House measure would also defund the New Hampshire Arts Council. If passed, that would make New Hampshire the only state in the country without an arts council or commission.
Q&A
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>>Thursday, April 21, 2-4 p.m. and 6-8 p.m., Senate Finance Committee public hearings and public testimony on HB 1 and HB 2 (State House, Representatives Hall). The hearings also will be streamed live online. Go to http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us.
This Daily Dispatch was written by Michael McCord.