Concord Monitor – January 21, 2025
By KELLY AYOTTE
New Hampshire is the envy of the nation. We’re number one for freedom, opportunity, taxpayer return on investment, public safety, child well-being and health. We have the lowest tax burden and lowest poverty rate in the country. Granite Staters expect their elected officials to work together to expand opportunity and enhance quality of life. We must be proactive in growing our economy, helping families prosper and making communities safer.
I want you to know I will be a governor for all of New Hampshire. Our state is so much bigger than any party or ideology. Even with partisanship at a fever pitch, I’m confident we can set a different example. While I couldn’t be more optimistic about our shared future, we can’t rest on our laurels. Our state faces real challenges that must be confronted head-on to keep us moving in the right direction. I’m proud our state stands as a model for the rest of the country when it comes to living within our means and having balanced budgets. I’m even prouder that we do it with no income tax and no sales tax — our New Hampshire Advantage.
As we look ahead to the state budget, there are challenges on the horizon. Federal funding from the American Rescue Plan Act is expiring. Business revenue is coming in lower than the past few years. That means we’ve got to tighten the belt here in Concord. What’s going out needs to match what’s coming in. We have to make reductions and recalibrate from the higher spending of the last few years, which is why I’ve instructed commissioners to roll up their sleeves to find ways to do more with less. We will look for better ways to do things with fewer dollars. Together, we will ensure our budget is responsible and balanced, and we will addresses our state’s most pressing needs, especially the need to protect our most vulnerable citizens.
If we’re going to remain the economic beacon of New England, we need to tackle our housing crisis, which affects everyone from young families looking to buy their first home to businesses trying to hire more workers. Getting serious about boosting housing production starts with the state modeling good behavior and overhauling permitting processes. It means streamlining state agency approvals and partnering with local communities that make zoning decisions. By bringing everyone to the table — state leaders, local officials and the private sector — we can tackle this challenge and deliver results.
We need this same concerted effort to strengthen our education system. Our state is in the top ten nationally for education funding, but success is about more than money. Parents should decide what learning environment is best for their children. That’s why I will work to expand and strengthen Education Freedom Accounts, which help empower families with school choice. I also want to improve the learning environment in classrooms. Teachers know what works for students and what doesn’t, and that’s why we will take action to ban the distraction of cell phones in schools. It’s also critical to emphasize the importance of career ready education and workforce training. Tremendous opportunities exist in the trades, opening more pathways to a well-paying career. I look forward to growing our workforce training programs and helping our community colleges expand the pipeline.
As a former attorney general, my top priority is keeping communities safe by supporting our law enforcement and first responders. To keep New Hampshire the safest state in the nation, we must strengthen the Group II retirement system to recruit and retain the men and women who keep our communities safe. We also need to ban sanctuary cities. Massachusetts’ illegal immigrant crisis shows us what these dangerous policies do not just to communities but to the state budget. The state has spent over a billion dollars housing migrants rather than investing in law-abiding residents — I won’t let that happen here.
Our mental health system is a key component of strengthening our communities and assisting families in getting help for their loved ones. Too often, substance use treatment and mental health care are siloed, when it would be more effective to address these challenges together. We’re going to find ways to partner with our community colleges and universities to expand educational opportunities for providers, and we will continue to elevate the importance of mental health awareness and suicide prevention efforts. Although we have a lot of work to do to tackle our challenges and keep moving in the right direction, I firmly believe our best days are still to come. I’m honored to serve as your governor, and I am ready to hit the ground running to deliver for all of New Hampshire. Working together, we can make the greatest state in the nation even better.