Back to Budget

After budget negotiations between the House and Senate broke down last week, Gov. Lynch and the Executive Council called lawmakers back to Concord for a special session on June 9. House and Senate leaders Terie Norelli and Sylvia Larsen are scheduled to release a bill the afternoon of June 7 that will get a public hearing June 8 and go to the House and Senate for debate on June 9.

They didn’t start from scratch in writing this bill. It includes $270 million in budget cuts and adjustments that were already agreed to by a joint House-Senate conference committee in recent weeks.

That committee walked away from budget talks, however, over the remaining $30 million and the issue of expanded gambling.

Continue Leave a Comment June 8, 2010

Measuring Mental Health Costs

Demand is up for mental health services in New Hampshire, but resources to provide them are dwindling. And more are on the chopping block, including the Anna Philbrook Center, the state’s facility for treating children and adolescents with severe mental health needs.

Children would still be treated, but at the main wing of the New Hampshire Hospital, instead. Fourteen adult beds would be eliminated to make room for the kids. It is not clear at this point how the state’s obligation to educate the children would be met or who exactly would pick up that bill.

Continue May 3, 2010