Legislative Reports: State Budget - October 3, 2025 Windham Independent
Legislative Reports - State Budget
In April, I wrote about how the House passed the state budget on to the Senate. On June 27, Governor Ayotte finally signed the state budget into law, but not before a few more twists and turns.
The budget consists of two bills, both of which must pass: HB1, which contains the dollar amounts for every account, and HB2 which contains all the law changes needed to make HB1 work.
After the Senate completed their budget work, a Committee of Conference was needed to negotiate a middle ground that would allow a budget to pass the House, the Senate, and be signed into law by the Governor.
On June 26, the House voted on the Committee of Conference reports. HB1 first failed 182-183 (22 Republicans voting against), then after a caucus, passed by a 185-180 vote (with 4 Republicans switching to a yes vote). HB2 passed in the narrowest possible way: a 184-183 vote, with the Speaker voting to break the tie (20 Republicans voting against).
There is no way to summarize everything that happened in the budget process - it took hundreds of people many months to get the job done… but here are a few observations:
Any state budget is immensely complicated. Even with my strong financial background and three years of being on the Finance committee, I still have plenty to learn about it. I do not know of one person on this Earth that fully understands every aspect of our state budget (just like nobody fully understands the federal tax code). We all rely on colleagues and experts we trust to evaluate certain parts of the budget, while working hard to provide the same expertise and knowledge to others.
There is no way to have a budget that everyone is happy with - if we ask every state representative, Senator and the Governor to write their own budget, we’d get 425 different versions. So, how do we get so many people, each of which has unique budget likes and dislikes, to agree on one state budget?
Welcome to negotiation and tough compromises. The Finance committee and House leadership have to consider what is the most responsible course of action, but also what the budget must include or exclude in order to get the budget past the House, Senate, and the Governor. Often, that involves including in the budget something certain representatives really want, and working to help others understand the need to tolerate different budget wants.
There is ALWAYS something to hate in the state budget. Any representative or senator can point at something they dislike about it to justify voting against it. But the real question to ask them is… will killing a particular version of the budget lead to a better budget being adopted, and if so, how do we get the votes to get there? You’d be surprised by how many people vote no, then show no concern about the questions above.
The state budget is the most fiscally responsible, principled budget we could possibly pass this term. HB1 failed before passing, and HB2 needed the Speaker to break a tied vote - any better budget did not have the votes to pass. Had we failed, the only other way to move forward was what happened my first term - the Senate budget made massive concessions to the Democrats, leading to a much worse budget passing in the House by a voice vote. No, thank you - I’m not walking down that path.
Do I wish more was possible? Of course… but since I cannot write the budget that I personally want into law (and nobody should have that power), I have to do the best we can with the resources and votes we can get.
Please reach out to me at 603 267 4142 (call or text), or by email at dpmwindham@gmail.com (a quick call or text after emailing me would ensure I never miss an email from you) with any questions or concerns.
Daniel Popovici-Muller
Windham State Representative,
Vice Chairman, Finance II Committee
Education Funding Committee