The next two-year budget is setting off political fireworks even before it’s written, but that day will come soon. The House Finance Committee is scheduled to complete its budget work next week, with executive sessions on Monday and Tuesday, March 21 and 22.
The three divisions of the Finance Committee have been holding budget hearings on the two main budget bills House Bill 1 (829 pages) and House Bill 2 (93 pages), and the separate capital improvement measure House Bill 25 (17 pages) for the past month.
In the meantime, sparks have flown.
Controversial remarks about budget cuts for developmentally disabled and mentally ill people led to the resignation of freshman Rep. Martin Hardy (R-Barrington) on Tuesday. And last week, more than 500 people showed up for Finance Committee hearings on the Department of Health and Human Services budget. Many members of the public spoke in opposition to further cuts. The committee ended up slashing an additional $209 million from the proposal Gov. John Lynch suggested for the agency.
In a Concord Monitor story earlier this week, Rep. Neal Kurk (R-Weare), chair of the Finance Committee division that oversees the HHS budget, justified the careful process that led to cuts. “We looked at them individually and made some judgments about what would good policy be, what kinds of reductions would cause the least harm to people,” he said.
Last Friday, Lynch said the budget cuts were going too far. “In crafting the next two-year budget I worked with the heads of all state agencies to make tough but thoughtful choices on how to reduce the cost structure of state government, but still preserve essential services,” Lynch said in a statement. “This is a very different approach from what we’re seeing with the House Finance Committee — where budget decisions seem to be made without regard for the consequences to the people.”
In February, Lynch proposed a $4.7 billion biennium budget (general expenses plus education funding) for 2012-2013. He said spending was $160 million below 2008-2009 levels.
But, Republican leaders accused Lynch of overestimating revenues and criticized the proposal for cutting back on aid to towns and cities. They vowed to cut more state government spending to make up the difference.
>> Monday and Tuesday, March 21 and 22, executive sessions of the House Finance Committee, Legislative Office Building, Rooms 210-211, at 9 a.m. Monday and 10 a.m. Tuesday.
This Daily Dispatch was written by Michael McCord.