Legislative Update Report

04/18/2025: NEA-NH Legislative Update

Re-Cap of the Week  Senate budget writers dug into their work this week. First, members of the House Finance Committee presented their changes to the Governor’s budget proposal. Next, they’ll hear from state agencies about what those changes will mean.   On May 6, members of the public will have another opportunity to weigh in on the state budget. The Senate has scheduled their public hearing to begin at 1pm; there will be a break for an hour between 5 and 6 pm and the hearing will continue into the evening. Please mark March 6 on your calendar; if you can […]

4/11/25: NEA-NH Legislative Update

This Week: NH House Passes Their Budget but Rejects Mandatory School Budget Caps  The Good Stuff  The House state budget proposal passed this week on largely a party line vote, but not before some major changes occurred on the House floor. Thanks in large part to educator-led advocacy, the House cast a strong, bipartisan vote (206 – 165) to remove the devastating language of HB 675 from the budget bill. That language would have imposed a draconian, mandatory budget cap on all school districts that would have essentially frozen school budgets without a 2/3 supermajority override vote. This would have […]

4/5/25: NEA-NH Legislative Update

This Week: Draconian House Budget Leaves Finance Committee; Goes to Full Floor Vote  The House Finance Committee finished its work this week on their changes to the state budget. On a 14 – 11 party line vote, the Committee is recommending a draconian state budget that slashes programs and positions while at the same time expanding the unaccountable state voucher program to give your hard-earned tax dollars to wealthy people who already send their kids to elite private schools.  This budget shifts major expenses onto working families, including downshifting costs onto families to pay for adult and for children’s Medicaid […]

3/28/25: NEA-NH Legislative Update

This Week’s Re-Cap  This week was another tough week; the House and Senate cast floor votes, largely on party line, to approve the following bills:   Each of these bills will now “crossover” to the other body and start the process again. This begins with a new round of public hearings, most likely sometime in April. You can look up the bill language on each of these bills and their status using theNEA-NH bill tracker.  HB 2 – State Budget: Voucher Expansion and Mandatory School Budget Caps  This week, the House wrapped up much of its work on the state budget […]

3/22/25: NEA-NH Legislative Update

This Week: “Parental Rights” and Forced School Spending Caps  This past week the House approved its own version of a so-called “parental rights” bill (HB 10) that will now go over to the Senate. On a largely party line vote, each Chamber has now approved its own version of the bill. After Crossover, the process will start again.   In addition, the House Finance Committee Division II, a subcommittee of the full Finance Committee, elected to put the forced school spending cap bill (HB 675) and their universal voucher bill (HB 115) into HB 2, which is the trailer bill to […]

3/14/25: NEA-NH Legislative Update

This Week: Universal Vouchers and Mandatory School Spending Caps Move Forward  HB 115 & SB 295 – Universal Vouchers  This week, the House and Senate passed their respective universal voucher expansion bills.   HB 115 passed the House, 198 – 180, with every House Democrat and 10 Republicans dissenting.  SB 295 passed the Senate,16-8, with all 16 Republicans supporting the universal voucher bill and all 8 Democrats voting in opposition.   We are grateful for the lawmakers who recognized any expansion of this program will gobble up public tax dollars to subsidize private school tuition for wealthy families. Make no mistake, if […]