​Legislative Updates by Rep. Maureen Mooney for April, 2025

Greetings!

After an incredible amount of legislative work, the NH House of Representatives passed its version of the state budget – HBs 1-A and 2 on April 10, 2025. Now, those bills go to the NH Senate as the budget is not finalized yet.

The state budget is an enormous task for state agencies, the Governor, the legislature, and the public that takes the time to follow the process and weigh in on the issues. The spreadsheets, documents, amendments, floor amendments, letters, and notes fill bankers’ boxes with hundreds of pages.

There is so much to discuss when it comes to the state budget, but the following are essential at this point in the process:

• Difficult Budget Season: This budget season is challenging particularly because: there is no more federal ARPA money, the tragic YDC lawsuits against the state are totaling hundreds of millions of dollars, and the House Ways and Means Committee predicted state revenue at approximately $700 million below the Governor’s proposed budget.
• Balanced Budget: The NH House by law has to produce a balanced budget – the state can ONLY spend what it takes in as revenue. See RSA 9:8-b.
• House Finance Committee Version v. House Version: The House Finance Committee introduced its version of HBs 1-A and 2 to the full House on April 10, 2025. The following amendments were among those adopted to amend the House Finance Committee version:
  • Division of Travel and Tourism funded at $7mil General Funds in FY 26 and $7mil General Funds in FY 27.
  • Rest Areas and Welcome Centers funded at approx. $2.3mil General Funds for FY ending June 30, 2027.
  • Removal of the tax cap on school districts.
• Next Steps: The state budget now proceeds to the State Senate for the process to start all over again. The Senate Finance Committee deadline should be in May. A final state budget is adopted in June, 2025.
• Text of House adopted HB 1-A: https://gc.nh.gov/bill_status/...
• Text of House adopted HB 2: Not finalized on the online docket as of this writing.
• Public Input: Throughout each stage of the state budget process, the public is welcome to give input. I want to thank the numerous people who emailed, mailed, and called me to lend their opinions on the state budget. Respectful discourse is very valuable.

Around Town

A special “thank you” to the poll workers, moderators, candidates, and voters who participated in the April 8, 2025 town and school elections. Here are the election results:

• Results April 8, 2025 TOWN election: https://www.merrimacknh.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif3456/f/news/2025_april_town_election_results_3.pdf
• Results April 8, 2025 SCHOOL election: https://www.sau26.org/cms/lib/...

See you around town!

Rep. Maureen Mooney is in her sixth term as a NH State Representative serving Merrimack. Her website is: www.votemooney.com and Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/maureenmooneynh.