Kelly Ayotte took the stage at Saint Anselm College’s New Hampshire Institute of Politics on Wednesday, April 16, for the first time since her gubernatorial debate last fall, now as governor and following the NH House’s revisions to her proposal for the state’s next two-year budget.
Focusing on the finances, Gov. Ayotte’s first State of the State address included comments on partnerships between high schools and higher education, mental health and the fentanyl epidemic.
: Gov. Kelly Ayotte gave her first State of the State on Wednesday, April 16, at Saint Anselm College’s New Hampshire Institute of Politics. The talk was moderated by Scott Spradling.
The Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce organized Wednesday’s event, bringing in former WMUR reporter Scott Spradling to moderate a segment of prepared questions for Ayotte following her standalone remarks.
“Coming into office, the $2 billion of ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds that come to New Hampshire obviously expired,” Ayotte told a standing-room audience. “In addition to that in terms of some of the uncertainty, this is a different economic environment. So, when you see what’s happening in Concord on the budget, I put forth a budget that really reflected my priorities.”
Spradling pointed out that Ayotte’s original budget and the figures that came out of the House were “hundreds of millions apart,” in many ways due to revenue estimates.
Ayotte stressed that the House was more conservative in its budget allocation than in her initial proposal. Though she doesn’t want a final plan with “rosy revenue estimates,” she said she does aim for funding for colleges and universities that would “allow them to sustain what they need to do.”
The newly incumbent governor shared that in the first four months of her term, she’s had the opportunity to tour Manchester’s Spark Academy with Mayor Jay Ruais, where high schoolers can enter pathways to earn associate’s degrees in advanced manufacturing at Manchester Community College. The visit follows her appearance at the Bring Back the Trades summit in November, where she advocated for career-tech education programs.
“I cut $125 million in general funds in my budget, and I sat down with the university system to work through the numbers that were proposed in my budget,” she said in response to Spradling, who noted that the House reduced state education aid almost 50%.
Due to its revisions, the House has drawn ire from constituents and organizations due to cuts representatives made that would virtually eliminate the Office of the Child Advocate and the State Council on the Arts, moves Ayotte said deviated from her plan. The House would have also defunded the New Hampshire State Library, but rescinded this following public criticism, USA Today’s New England bureau reported.
“Let me just say I support the arts council; that was in my budget,” she said. “(With) the Child Advocate (office), we still have a lot more work to do on our child protection system and having someone who is looking at how and what we’re doing from an outside perspective. Again, I supported that in my budget because I want that outside feedback as to how we can be better.”
New Hampshire’s Commission for Human Rights underwent an audit in February, with the Office of the Legislative Budget Assistant finding that the state agency was 43% understaffed and 259 unresolved cases remained pending at the end of the 2023 fiscal year, according to InDepthNH.org. Ayotte touted the audit as one example of the accountability she’s after, but promised state government would push to clear the backlog after she appointed a new commissioner.
“That doesn’t mean we don’t need it,” she added. “These are important complaints that need to be addressed, so this was in my budget because I really want to fix it.”
Additionally, the House proposal took swipes at state Medicaid and the Department of Health and Human Services, with $42 million and $46 million reductions, Spradling said, questioning Ayotte.
She responded that she feels a 3% funding cut to Medicaid providers made in the previous legislative session should be restored, remarking later that it could also challenge the state’s nonprofit community.
Linked to that, Ayotte said another priority on her list is mental health, taking issue with the House’s proposed $36 million cut affecting New Hampshire’s community mental health centers.
She said these centers serve a vital role in addressing the ongoing opioid epidemic, naming the state’s Doorways program that connects people with substance or opioid use disorders to nine partner locations with treatment resources.
“Many people have co-occurring disorders; they struggle with a substance use disorder and with mental health – I would dare say everyone’s family in this room in some capacity,” Ayotte said of her support. “I would tell you we need even more providers.”
What wasn’t outright said in Ayotte’s State of the State address was much about the second-term Trump administration’s sweeping fiscal policy changes toward international trade and how those actions might directly impact New Hampshire.
Surging tariffs imposed by the executive branch on China, others on Canada and Mexico, and “reciprocal tariffs” on more than 80 other countries. The tariffs are poised to hike rates from international importers to American companies, leading to higher prices passed down on consumer goods, state economic and trade experts said in a recent University of New Hampshire webinar.
The Trump administration later announced a 90-day pause on all tariffs except those on China on April 9, then said on April 11 that electronics would be exempt from any duties, according to various reports. But the word “tariff” was not mentioned once in Ayotte’s address to the largely business-oriented audience.
Rather, on prompting from Spradling, she highlighted another concern: cuts in federal funding affecting nonprofits. Ayotte referenced the federal government’s clawing back of $11.4 billion of unspent COVID-19 relief, $80 million of which was coming from New Hampshire.
She previously told media outlets in March that the state was blindsided by the decision, with state officials originally informed it would be available until the end of 2026, the New Hampshire Bulletin reported.
“The $80 million that was focused on public health that was proposed by the Trump administration’s reduction, that flows down to the nonprofit community, so (their) feedback is obviously (that) the uncertainty is very difficult for them to deal with,” Ayotte said during the address event.
“This can be their bottom line in terms of being able to sustain themselves. We’re talking to the Trump administration about this. We’ve also filed administrative appeal on that case, and I’m pretty confident the litigation applies to us, too.”
Ayotte has so far met one-on-one with U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins, both during the National Governors Association’s Winter Meeting in February.
“We are communicating, and I’m going to push as much as I can to build relationships there, because my job is to fight for New Hampshire,” Ayotte said of relations in D.C. “The more I have and am able to interface, the more I can fight.”
