In its inaugural episode, New Hampshire Uncharted dives into the State Budget—a critical yet often misunderstood blueprint that determines funding for essential services like education, healthcare, transportation, and public safety. With insights from Charlie Arlinghaus, Commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Administrative Services, and Phil Sletten, NHFPI’s Research Director, the discussion unpacks how the budget is structured, and the current challenges posed by economic fluctuations and federal funding uncertainties.

“The New Hampshire State budget isn’t just a set of numbers on a spreadsheet. It reflects our values, our priorities, and ultimately the kind of state that we want to live in,” said Gene Martin, NHFPI’s Executive Director and podcast host.

In the podcast, Arlinghaus highlighted the importance of New Hampshire’s budget process, noting “If you want the government to do it, it has to be in the budget. And if it isn’t in the budget, you can’t.”

Sletten added that declining revenues and uncertainty around federal funding make this year’s budget process particularly complex: “Federal funding for Medicaid was $1.4 billion last fiscal year, which is the single largest source of revenue the state collected – larger than the business profits tax, larger than gross liquor or lottery revenues. Medicaid was the single largest source. So, I’m definitely going to be watching for that.”

On the Budget Cycle & Revenue Challenges

• “We’ve gone through the 10 or 12 flushest years in the history of state government…And I mean, we’ve had some ups and downs, but most budget cycles have been budgets of plenty and not budgets of scarcity. And so, I think a lot of muscle memory has been lost in some of the senior ranks and senior financial managers where they don’t necessarily remember. I mean, there are people who do remember when everything was always a cut and everything was always really hard. But we’ve gone through a couple of budget cycles where there were decisions about how to spend the money as opposed to how to cut programs, and I think this is different.” – Charlie Arlinghaus
• “There is a legend in New Hampshire budgeting that the House typically cuts what the Governor does, and then the Senate adds money back. And I would say to you that’s true, except when it isn’t.” – Charlie Arlinghaus

On Federal Funding & the Budget

• “What every agency would tell you…is stay close to your federal contacts. Because what’ll happen is you’ll have a federal contact – you’re not reading the newspaper to figure out what’s going on.” – Charlie Arlinghaus

What to Watch

• “So I think the thing to watch if you are watching at home on your couch with a bag of potato chips, is what’s the House finally going to do on revenues? Where will they [the House] end up and what’s the attitude of the Senate, which we’ll know in the early hearings going in. Are they going to bump revenues up or are they going to basically stick to kind of where the House is? That’s what I want to watch.” – Charlie Arlinghaus