Sununu signs two-year, $13.5 billion New Hampshire budget
(The Center Square) – Republican Gov. Chris Sununu has signed a two-year, $13.5 billion New Hampshire budget Friday that includes a buffet of tax cuts as well as measures limiting abortions and diverting more taxpayer dollars to school choice programs.
The spending plan, which was approved by the Republican controlled Legislature a day before, cuts corporate taxes, reduces the meals and rooms tax, as well as the business enterprise tax and increases the filing threshold for the business profits tax. It also includes Sununu’s proposal to create a new paid family leave program.
“Historic tax cuts, property tax relief, and Paid Family Medical Leave delivered all in one sweeping action is a win for every citizen and family in this state,” Sununu said in a statement.
Democrats voted against the spending plan, which they criticized as a conservative wish list that will limit women’s’ reproductive rights and cut funding for schools.
“This budget doesn’t just attack women’s reproductive freedom, it also prevents important conversations about the history of our country and cuts funding for public schools to send money to private and for-profit schools, raising property taxes on hardworking Granite State families,” Ray Buckley, chairman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party said in a statement.
Buckley said by signing the budget, Sununu “has shown his true colors as an anti-choice, anti-public education extremist.”
But Senate President Chuck Morse, R-Salem, described the spending package as a “conservative, fiscally responsible budget” that will benefit everyone in the state.
“We built this budget on Republican principles and reliable revenues, and in the process, we also made certain we took care of the people of New Hampshire,” he said Thursday.
A provision of the budget would prohibit doctors from performing abortions after the 24th week, including in cases of fetal health, rape or incest. The measure provides exceptions if the mother’s life is at risk.
Supporters say the changes will put New Hampshire in line with a majority of other states that restrict the procedure after the third trimester. Critics say the move will jeopardize women’s reproductive health and result in an exodus of physicians who would fear being labeled as criminals.
Other controversial provisions of the budget include a massive expansion of the school voucher program, a prohibition on teaching “divisive concepts” on race and ethnicity in public schools and limits on the governor declaring a state of emergency.
Last year, when Democrats controlled the Legislature, Sununu vetoed a budget because of spending items he disagreed with, forcing the state to operate on an interim budget.
But with the GOP taking over control of the House and Senate in the November elections Sununu hasn’t quibbled over controversial provisions of the budget.
The fiscal year budget begins on July 1.
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