New Hampshire lawmakers yesterday passed and the governor signed a continuing resolution to keep state government running.
The resolution came in the final hours of the fiscal year.
Earlier in the morning, state representatives sustained Governor Benson's veto of the budget.
NHPR's Josh Rogers has that story coming up a little later.
But first, the continuing resolution will allow the state to spend more than the Governor had said he would allow.
New Hampshire Public Radio?s David Darman has the story.
Governor Craig Benson put the best face on a day that did not entirely go his way.
In remarks just after the House and Senate passed a continuing resolution, the governor counted his legislative accomplishments, and defied his critics.
11 my veto was sustained. We got a continuing resolution passed, even though we were threatened numerous times that that would never happen. So government is going to be open for business tomorrow, as I?ve been saying all along. 11 25
But the continuing resolution spends at the very same levels the Governor had objected to in the first place.
Senate lawmakers had tacked the higher spending plan on the temporary one the House had sent them just hours before.
But the new measure is set to expire on October 1st.
In the meantime, House and Senate lawmakers can try again to craft a new biennial budget that will either meet the governor?s muster?or will be veto proof.
Senator Dick Green of Rochester chairs the Senate Finance Committee, and has battled for the higher spending levels of the budget in the continuing resolution.
He says since those higher spending levels are temporary, all the players that drafted the budget could pull something from the eleventh hour compromise.
The governor got what he wanted in terms of that budget not going into place over the biennium. The senate the house and a large majority of the house, got the same budget, but only for 90 days, with the understanding that we would all sit down and try to work it out.
Governor Benson promises to push for lower spending in the permanent budget.
But the governor and lawmakers were only about 60 million dollars apart in their budget positions.
While that may sound like a lot, it represents only a small fraction fo the 2.7 billion dollar general fund.
Still, some senators say they see no areas that can be cut without causing undue hardship for thousands of people.
While the final shoe has not yet dropped, at least one group breathed a sigh of relief when the continuing resolution passed.
State employees such as police officers, social workers, and clerks risked not getting paid without a temporary budget in place.
Paul Stokes is president of the State Employees Association of New Hampshire.
He says the governor and lawmakers from the House and Senate have to find a way to avoid the brinksmanship that he saw in the legislative budget process.
I think if they open up their minds to really solving the problem, playing ?gotcha? politics that we have seen so prevalent here, that we can really make some changes for everybody?s good.
State employees can go to work today knowing that there will be no interruption to their paychecks.
But lawmakers will have to start sorting out who will serve on the committee of conference to sort out yet another version of the state budget.
Senator Jack Barnes of Raymond says he?s confident that a new, workable budget will emerge.
In the next three months things will be worked out so that everybody will be happy. And state government is still operating. The toll booths will still be there, the liquor stores are open, the beaches are open. And everbody?s operating just like it was yesterday.
Lawmakers will work on the budget for the rest of the summer.
But come the end of September, the budget negotiations could end up looking like an end of summer re-run.
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