State Budget

We continually monitor both the spending and revenue sides of state budget. We research the reasons spending on certain state activities and programs programs tend to expand disproportionately. We are interested in making the state budget, as well as the process by which it is developed and adopted, more easily understood by the public, the news media, and participants in the legislative process.

• Budget History and Drivers: Budget of the State of New Hampshire (01-01-2003)

  This PowerPoint presentation contains 70 slides. It was created at the invitation of the House and Senate Finance Committees and was presented to them on January 16, 2003. The presentation contains four parts: (1) General Fund spending 1993-2003; (2) Revenue and the Structural Deficit; (3) School Finance; and (4) Thinking About the Budget Process. This file contains the slides only and does not contain the text or notes.

• The New Hampshire Economy and the State's General Fund Budget (04-01-2002)

  This PowerPoint presentation includes speaker's notes for the graphics. It presents data about the structural deficit in the New Hampshire General Fund and some information related to the Education Trust Fund as well. The presentation includes projections for the revenues, expenditures, and resulting deficits of both funds through state fiscal year 2005. These projections were made in early April based on valuable information from key state budget officials.

• The New Hampshire Economy and the State Budget (05-01-2001)

  This presentation was first made on May 21, 2001, at the conference "The Uncertain Economy and NH's State Budget" organized by the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy.

• Revenue of the NH General Fund and the Structural Deficit (11-01-2000)

  This presentation was first made on November 13, 2000, at a workshop for all newly elected state legislators convened by the Main Street Republican Caucus.

• Heading for a $300 Million Deficit: The Challenge of the Next Biennium (06-01-2004)

  This report projects the General Fund revenue and spending under the state's current biennial budget (fiscal years 2004 and 2005). It also projects the next budget (fiscal years 2006 and 2007) on the basis of no change in law, regulation, or practice. The report suggests that the accumulated deficit will be $71 million by June 30, 2005, and will be $306 million by June 30, 2007, if no changes are made. This is a measure of the size of the problem that will confront the next legislature when it meets in January 2005.

• The NH Budget: Trends Through 2003 (02-01-2004)

  This report describes the deficits that have occurred in the state budget each year since 1999 and how the state has had to use 90% of its reserve funds to cover those deficits. It presents charts that show the increases in the state's General Fund spending and revenues since 1979 and how the school aid distributed from the Education Trust Fund has added to total state responsibility.

• Six Programs Fueled State Spending Increases, 1993-2003 (09-01-2002)

  This paper investigates the changes in spending in the state General Fund budget between state fiscal years 1993 and 2003. It calculates the ten-year change in policy priorities as expressed by the per capita appropriations made for 77 different state activities in inflation-adjusted dollars over the ten year period. It also identifies the six programs that accounted for nearly all real spending increase (above constant dollars per capita).

• House Budget Would Continue Shift of State Funds to Health Care and Corrections (04-01-2001)

  This report extends the budget analysis of the paper cited immediately below. It compares the appropriations proposed for the year 2003 in the budget bill passed by the New Hampshire House on April 17, 2001, with those of the current 2001 year.

• Shifting Priorities in the New Hampshire General Fund, 1991-2001: Higher Education Loses Ground to Rising Costs for Health Care and Prisons (04-01-2001)

  This report investigates the ten-year change in policy priorities as expressed in the appropriations made for 78 different state activities in the New Hampshire state budgets for 1991 and 2001. It identifies the four large cost drivers that contributed all of the real increase in the budget beyond constant dollar spending per capita. It also presents a 30 year perspective on appropriations for higher education and adult corrections facilities.

• State Government in New Hampshire: A Self-Portrait (04-01-2001)

  We compiled this report from the narrative descriptions all state agencies submitted to the Department of Administrative Services as part of their biennial budget request in the fall of 2000. This 90-page paper is a citizen's guide to what state agencies do, as told in their own words. It is a collection of descriptions of the state's various programs exactly as described by the people who work in those programs. Anyone who has wondered what New Hampshire's state employees do will find answers here. Anyone puzzled by the distinctions between the Department Environmental Services and the Department of Resources and Economic Development will find answers. Any legislator hoping to explain what goes on at "DRA" to a constituent should turn to page 18. Reporters and residents concerned about how State government responds to emergencies or provides for the elderly will find assistance here.

• Toward a Better and More Comprehensible State Budget Process (09-01-1997)

  The Center, responding to a request from the leadership in the New Hampshire General Court, created and conducted orientation sessions for House and Senate members in 1997 on the budget process and produced summary reports to keep members informed as the 1997 budget process The Center also solicited opinions and ideas from New Hampshire House and Senate members, legislative staff, and informed observers regarding the budget process. We also surveyed state budget processes throughout the other states. A series of findings and recommendations were made with many having been incorporated into a law passed in the 1998 legislative session. The most significant of these may be that the state will now test performance-based budgeting for a small number of programs and agencies in 1999.