State Agencies Submit Optimistic Budget Requests

State agencies requested nearly $700 million in new spending at the state’s agency budget hearings, a 26 percent increase over the last state budget.

“It is important for us to understand that we will not be able to reverse course all at once,” Governor-Elect Maggie Hassan warned, after reiterating her promise to reverse the last legislature’s budget cuts. “We must be prepared to continue to make tough, fiscally responsible decisions to ensure that we can invest in our priorities, including protecting the health and safety of our citizens and building an innovative economy that will ensure long-term growth,” Hassan said at the opening session of hearings.

After the first hearing, Senate Finance Chairman Chuck Morse asserted his disappointment in the budget requests, saying “few agencies referenced their reduced spending alternative budgets or proposed areas for efficiencies.” Morse commended Hassan for “noting many of these requests are too high.”