CONCORD, N.H. — Governor Chris Sununu signed a $15 billion bipartisan budget into law Tuesday, standing before a packed room of Democratic and Republican lawmakers and advocates.
A podium threatened to topple to the ground as Sununu balanced a hand on it, preparing to address the crowd. That didn’t deflate the celebratory tone of the event. “Do we have money in the budget for a new podium?” he joked.
“This is a miracle budget on a variety of levels,” he said after the podium had been secured, highlighting contributions toward state employee raises, increased Medicaid reimbursement rates, and restructuring education funding.
Advertisement
All state employees will receive a 10 percent raise under the budget Sununu signed, which will put an additional $169 million toward education funding targeted to the most needy students, and $134 million to increase Medicaid reimbursement rates.
Sununu praised advocates and lawmakers for getting the budget across the finish line in a bipartisan way.
“In these times where things get so politically divisive and everyone wants to stand their ground and hold on to everything and my side or not — not New Hampshire,” he said.
The signing was met with applause and support from both Democratic and Republican leadership.
The outcome wasn’t a given, especially after the elections revealed an extremely close partisan divide in the House.
“When we started the session, and we realized we had like a two vote difference, we were sitting there and saying how the heck are we going to get a budget through?” House speaker Sherman Packard said.
“They told us the last time the House was this close was 1871, so we had absolutely nobody to call up or talk to about how did you do it 130 years ago?” he said.
Packard said he met with Democratic House leader Matt Wilhelm on a weekly basis to make sure the process was on track and that there was plenty of opportunity for compromise before the bill reached the finish line.
Advertisement
“People both outside and inside the building predicted this budget process was doomed to fail from the very beginning,” Wilhelm said.
He said Democrats remained focused on the state’s critical needs, like housing, childcare, public education, and health care. He praised the budget for its “balanced approach” but said it’s far from perfect, criticizing the failure to restore retirement benefits for some police officers and firefighters and the expansion of a controversial voucher-like education program “without any guardrails for taxpayer accountability.”
Amanda Gokee can be reached at amanda.gokee@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @amanda_gokee.