Concord, NH – On Feb 13th, Governor Kelly Ayotte delivered her 2025 Budget Address. The full speech, as prepared, can be found below:

Mr. Speaker, Madame President, honorable members of the House and Senate, Councilors, Commissioners, my fellow citizens...

Our state is on a remarkable upward trajectory, and on Feb 13th, I am here to present my recommended budget for Fiscal Years 2026 and 2027, which will keep us on the path to greater prosperity for all of New Hampshire.

We begin this year with our economy in a very strong position. Our rate of job growth exceeds the national average and is the best in New England. New business start-ups exceed the national average. Unemployment is low, wages continue to rise, and we are outperforming our neighbors on a host of different measures.

Our New Hampshire Advantage is on display for all to see. Our prudent, financially responsible approach to taxes and regulations, and our commitment to protecting our unique quality of life, has made us a prime destination in the region in the competition for talent.

As individuals assess their opportunities and families look at their costs & quality of life, New Hampshire is seen as a destination where they can each realize their full potential. What we’ve created over these last number of years is special and all of New Hampshire is enefitting from it.

This success does not come without new challenges, like increasing our housing supply or keeping a best-in-class education system, or keeping up with demand for our services, but I believe that together we can meet these challenges head on.

When I stood here one month ago, I shared with you the necessity for us to recalibrate. I told all of you that we must operate within our means and meet our commitments to those that are depending on us.

For the past number of years, our budgets have been bolstered by billions of dollars from the federal government because of the COVID pandemic. We have also seen high revenues that made it easy to engage in surplus spending in new areas.

Our last budget saw a 21% spending increase over a two-year period, not to say anything of the off-budget spending that occurred as well. The simple fact is that our revenue landscape looks different from that of the past number of years.

With federal transfers dropping and revenues lower overall, a recalibration of our approach is in order – both for the total amount of spending, and also the way in which we steward every single taxpayer dollar.

But let's be clear about something…something that our friends across the aisle don’t seem to understand… The State of New Hampshire is strongest when individuals, families, and small businesses have more money in their pockets to make critical decisions. That’s where the strength of our state lies – in the individual – in those that create jobs and opportunities for others.

That isn’t the role of government. Furthermore, the answer to our challenges is not to take more from our citizens in the form of taxes, but rather it is to look carefully and thoughtfully at what we are doing as a State, asking if we need to be doing it, and asking if we can afford to be doing it.

Much of what we accomplish best in our state is done at the local level, and that’s why we are pushing funds to the local level more than ever before in our history.

And it’s why I challenge our local officials to take the same stance we do as a state, and take a hard look at what they are spending taxpayer dollars on, especially when we are supporting them more than ever before, so that they accordingly pass along relief to taxpayers through their property taxes, where possible.

In building this budget, our guiding principle has been to deliver a budget worthy of our people that represents a recalibration of the way we do business, but continues our New Hampshire way of not raising taxes, but instead taking a hard look at spending.

We have a constitutional responsibility to deliver a balanced budget for the citizens of New Hampshire. We rolled up our sleeves to find savings to meet this mandate and our commissioners worked diligently alongside us.

In comparison to our last budget, we are spending $150 million dollars less in General Funds. This adjustment in General Funds was undertaken smartly and thoughtfully, with a scalpel, not a shovel. It does so without across the board cuts and prioritizing those who are depending on services provided by the State.

We focused on making our government more efficient and ensuring tax dollars do more with less. We cut bloated contracts with out-of-state vendors, took a hard look at how our agencies operate and worked with commissioners to dial in spending.

And we also found areas to make responsible adjustments that bring us in line with the times and what other states are doing as well… We brought our adult Medicaid eligibility back in line with pre-pandemic levels and joined our neighbors in requiring nominal copays for those receiving these benefits.

I’d like to thank our commissioners for their diligence in working through this process and their openness to considering new ideas and approaches to our work.

Those who depend on the services our State provides can rest assured that this budget will deliver for them. Rising costs are a problem for everyone and we heard loud and clear the need to help our local communities meet the needs of tomorrow.

I am proud to announce that this budget…

 Sends more money to the local level, and spends more on education, than ever before.
 Begins the overhaul of the Group 2 retirement system to make good on our promise to those who keep our state safe.
 Delivers record levels of spending for special education, nearly 50% higher than the last biennium.
 Expands education freedom to ALL public-school students.
 Will help get cell phones out of the classroom.
 Continues the tuition freeze at our community colleges.
 Ensures no waitlist for persons with disabilities.
 Streamlines the permitting process for housing.… and a whole lot more.

This budget not only honors our unbreakable commitment to those in need of our help, but it will help prepare our next generation to meet the needs of tomorrow as well. What we have done for our students in this budget is tremendous.

We are spending more on education than ever before and putting our students and teachers first.

This budget continues the increases from the last biennium and ensures that our education system has the resources it needs. We are making a $98.8 million dollar investment in special education, nearly a 50% increase from the previous biennium.

We understand the skyrocketing costs facing towns in providing special education and we want to help lessen that financial burden and ensure students are receiving the resources they need.

We are making education freedom available to ALL public-school students so that parents can decide what learning environment is best for their children and every child has the opportunity to succeed.

And we are making good on my promise to stop cell phones from disrupting our learning environments, doing it the New Hampshire way, making $1 million dollars available in grants to school districts to develop individual approaches to pursue this goal.

We’re looking to our districts that have already taken steps to do this for examples as we craft a policy that works for schools across our state.

At Stevens High School in Claremont, they’ve given every student a secure pouch to lock their cell phone in at the beginning of the day, and at the end of the day they are unlocked.

This policy is helping reduce distractions in the classroom and instances of cyberbullying, all without asking teachers to become cell phone police.

We are making investments in our community college system to keep career-ready education accessible to our students, ensure our businesses have a dependable pipeline of talent in the trades and other high-demand jobs and build the workforce of tomorrow here in New Hampshire.

We are investing $4.4 million to ensure tuition stays flat at our community colleges to make this opportunity as accessible as possible for everyone.

We are putting $6 million towards dual and concurrent enrollment at our community colleges, giving students the opportunity to jumpstart their careers in high school, whether by making it faster and cheaper for them to receive necessary training for the career they want, or giving them the exposure and the experience earlier to discover their passion and build their confidence to go for it.

10,000 students across our state are taking advantage of these programs and collectively represent millions of dollars in savings for themselves and their families.

We’re also funding expansions for career and technical education and our workforce credentialing programs, which make it easier for individuals to get the training they need to fill in-demand jobs in our state – from trades like welding, HVAC, or electrical work; to important health care workforce needs like licensed nursing assistants.

Just last week I heard the story of Lindsay Taylor, a mom of two, who wanted to change careers and find a way to serve in her community. She entered the short term, credentialed LNA program at NHTI and after passing the licensing exam went to work in dementia care at the Merrimack County Nursing Home.

Lindsay is an incredible example of an individual who was able to answer her calling because of the pathway created by credentialing programs.

We want everyone who feels a similar pull to have the opportunity to do so. Investing in these opportunities for students to learn a trade or get credentialed in a high-demand field like health care will pay dividends in the long run for our state, by opening new pathways to public-private partnerships, addressing critical gaps in our workforce and putting more Granite Staters on the path to a good-paying career.

Last month, I spoke to you about service, and how important it is that we foster a spirit of service across our state, that we teach it and model it for our kids so that they grow up and want to serve themselves. Those that serve others are truly the backbone of our state: our law enforcement, firefighters, EMTs, corrections officers, first responders, nurses, teachers, state employees, National Guard members… to our public officials and citizen legislature – service can take on so many different forms.

They protect us, take care of us, teach us, defend us, help lead us…their contributions to our communities cannot be properly valued. And that’s why it is so important to me that when it comes to public safety employees, that they have a retirement system that is best-in-class, to ensure we can recruit and retain those that are willing to serve.

Which is why I am proud to announce on Feb 13th, that we are starting the process of overhauling our Group 2 retirement system, by making a $33 million dollar investment to restore the benefits that were promised to our public safety employees. It’s the right thing to do for those that do so much to keep us safe. This is only the beginning, but it is a big step forward in ensuring they receive the retirement they have earned.

Our ranking as the safest state in the nation is the result of the work of our dedicated law enforcement personnel, From our State Troopers, To our corrections officers and local police, deputy sheriffs, firefighters, probation and parole officers, we depend on them and they depend on us to make sure they have the tools they need to do their jobs. And that begins with you sending me legislation, to fix this disastrous bail law that is putting our police unnecessarily in harm’s way, and is a danger to the public at large.

What happened in Manchester last Friday night is completely unbelievable, when an individual accused of repeatedly stabbing a complete stranger, and who has a prior conviction for domestic violence, is allowed to walk free by a magistrate. I cannot emphasize this enough. Send me legislation to fix this once and for all.

This budget ensures our law enforcement have the tools and resources necessary to keep our state safe.

 It fully funds the Granite Shield initiative which is combatting fentanyl, methamphetamine, and xylazine statewide and fund the creation of a new Northern Shield effort to bring even more resources to Coos, Grafton, Carroll and Sullivan counties to combat drug trafficking, and a new focus on collaboration with the City of Lawrence to stop the flow of drugs coming up 93.
 It adds an additional full-time investigator to the Attorney General's Cold Case Unit to bolster their resources in cracking these cases and providing closure for victims’ families.
 Provides $10.5 million dollars to fulfill our Victims of Crimes Act obligations, $2.3 million for Court Appointed Special Advocates, $3 million dollars for Child Advocacy Centers, and nearly $1 million dollars for the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force

And as our nation struggles with the impacts of illegal immigration, here in New Hampshire, we created the Northern Border Alliance which is now a deterrent along our northern border.

I’ve heard directly from law enforcement in the North Country, our federal partners, members of our Coos County delegation, and residents, and the response is resounding:

This program works.

That’s why we will continue to fund it to allow them to do their work. One of my critical responsibilities as Governor is to provide for those who depend on the State of New Hampshire for their daily needs.

Our first step in shaping this budget was to protect the programs that those who are most in need depend on. Which is why we secured over $1 billion for the biennium to fund services for citizens with developmental disabilities. From transportation to medical appointments, to physical therapy programs, to other vital services, we are ensuring those with disabilities in our state have the support system they need. I am also proud to say today that this budget will ensure there continues to be no waitlist for disability care in the State of New Hampshire.

I said in my inaugural address that seeking treatment for mental health challenges is just as important as going to the doctor when you’re sick. My budget will support the continued efforts to strengthen our mental health care system.

We’ve added $10 million dollars to fund the work of our Community Mental Health Centers as they help Granite Staters struggling with mental health challenges to get the care they Need.

New Hampshire will also continue to lead the way in giving a hand up to our citizens who are seeking treatment for and recovering from substance use disorders. This budget fully funds the Recovery Friendly Workplace program so we can continue to ensure that working through recovery is not a barrier to economic opportunity for Granite Staters.

There is no greater pressure weighing on the economic success of our state today, than our housing market.

Supply is tight, demand is high, and inventory is expensive. Our economic success hinges on our ability to attract talent here, and given the great story we have to tell, we are succeeding. People are coming. But they have to have affordable places to live. We also need to combat this affordability crisis so that our kids stay, so that our retirees stay, and so our communities keep old faces, and welcome new ones.

Our job growth leads the region, but today home listings are half their pre-pandemic levels and rentals are extremely tight. Not to mention, higher home prices and rents, mortgage rates, all of which make this task even harder. I believe that the first step we can take as a state to help loosen our housing market is to be good models of the change we’d like to see.

This starts with streamlining our processes to get builders answers faster, so that their projects are not unnecessarily bogged down in bureaucracy. Which is why I am announcing a plan to streamline the permitting process to ensure it takes no more than 60 days and puts the burden on the state to meet this timeline or forfeit the right to act.

This is a first step in ensuring that we are a good actor as a state and set a model for local communities to follow as we respond to the critical housing shortage our state faces.

But let me be clear about something, we aren’t going to meaningfully bring down prices, and loosen our supply, unless our local communities are coming to the table and recognizing the role each of them play in our shared success as a state.

What we have here in New Hampshire is working, it’s working for all of us, and the more that we can share this with others, the stronger we are going to be. It’s important for us to understand what we’re doing well as a state in the context of our neighbors.

As I said earlier, our job growth is leading the region, and it’s our ability to attract talent to our state that is really to thank for the economic prosperity our state is seeing. We cannot be shy about telling the story about what we’re doing, which is why I felt it so important to keep funding going to promote our state, encourage tourism, and spread the gospel of the New Hampshire Way.

And since we’re on the subject of what draws others here…our natural beauty as a state is both one of our points of pride and the bedrock of our unique quality of life. To me, it’s pretty much common sense to say that our North Country, our lakes region, our beautiful open spaces, shouldn’t be scarred by poorly envisioned projects that detract from our quality of life.

Which is why I am announcing on Feb 13th, a landfill moratorium and a revamped regulatory process for approving these projects going forward, to ensure that our beauty as a state is not compromised.

And lastly, before I close, I want to mention one of my new initiatives, the Commission on Government Efficiency, what you all know as, the COGE. COGE will be working diligently to develop new ideas on how the State can operate going forward.

Like past Governor-appointed commissions to study and improve government operation, we’ve brought in outside experts to bring new thinking and ideas.

I look forward to reviewing their recommendations in the coming months, as they thoughtfully consider ways we can do things better as a State.

In conclusion, our state remains in an enviable position. To maintain our standing as the beacon of the northeast, and adjust to the revenue environment we are facing, some recalibrations are in order.

But we have been thoughtful and taken care to ensure they will not be felt by those that depend on us the most.

This budget is a step forward for our future, and it will help us directly address the challenges we face in growing our prosperity as a state.

This is truly a budget for all of New Hampshire.

Thank you for your time this morning, God bless you, and God bless the great State of New Hampshire.