Five Key Questions for Kelly Ayotte Ahead of Her Budget Address

Contact: Ryan Mahoney, ryan@amplifynh.org

Five Key Questions for Kelly Ayotte Ahead of Her Budget Address

CONCORD, NH – As Governor Kelly Ayotte prepares to deliver her first budget address, Granite Staters deserve clear answers about how she plans to fix the financial mess left behind by her predecessor, Governor Chris Sununu, without making working families pay the price.

Ayotte has promised to follow the “Sununu Path” — which has led New Hampshire into a financial mess Ayotte is left to clean up — but her rhetoric, decision-making, and lack of transparency appear to be modeled more after the Trump Path. Ayotte has been missing in action on key economic challenges. With a $21 million state budget shortfall​, skyrocketing property taxes​, and Trump’s erratic policies posing new risks to New Hampshire’s economic stability​, here are five questions Kelly Ayotte must answer in her first budget address:

1. Will Governor Kelly Ayotte reverse the tax hikes Granite Staters have seen under Republican Governor Chris Sununu or will taxes continue to go up under Ayotte?

• Under Republican leadership, statewide property taxes increased by $100.7 million in FY2024, a 38.3% jump.  Republican Mayor of Manchester, Jay Ruais, who campaigned on tax cuts, just raised property taxes by 3.82%—the city’s largest increase in over a decade, while Lebanon residents are bracing for an 11.9% municipal property tax increase, and Gorham property owners face a crushing $3.74 increase per $1,000 valuation, leaving residents furious about disappearing services and rising costs.

• Berlin residents are facing a 4% estimated city tax hike, even as the city trims its sails, holding off on capital projects like school building fire alarm upgrades.

• The Republican-backed SWEPT (Statewide Education Property Tax) continues to burden local towns, with property tax hikes of 6.8% in Durham, 7.9% in Londonderry, and 8.06% in Manchester—a thinly veiled ploy to slash the state budget while forcing towns and homeowners to shoulder the costs.

• One top New Hampshire Republican staffer even floated the idea of a state sales tax — a bipartisan third-rail for New Hampshire voters.

  
  

2. Where will Governor Ayotte find the revenue to close the budget shortfall?

• New Hampshire’s budget shortfall stands at $21 million​, largely due to years of Republican tax giveaways to the ultra-wealthy while costs have been downshifted to local communities. 

• Ayotte has pledged “no new taxes,” but with municipalities already raising property taxes to compensate for lost state funding, can she keep that promise? What specific steps will she take to stabilize New Hampshire’s fiscal future?

• Will she acknowledge the deeply entrenched fiscal mismanagement under Republican leadership after years of balanced budgets while investing in critical needs like education, healthcare, and infrastructure under the Democratic administrations of Governors Jeanne Shaheen, John Lynch, and Maggie Hassan?

  
  

3. How is Governor Ayotte preparing for a Trump Trade War that could hit New Hampshire’s economy, and where will she make up for lost tourism and trade revenue?

• The Republican obsession with budget cuts could also undermine New Hampshire’s vital tourism industry. Experts warn that proposed 30% budget cuts to tourism marketing could result in $68 million less in tax revenue annually, erasing the New Hampshire Advantage and crippling one of the state’s largest economic drivers.

• New Hampshire exports $1.4B in goods to Canada, resulting in 182,000 New Hampshire jobs. The 25% Trump tariff set to take effect in March is expected to cost middle-class Granite Staters $1,100 per year, including $375 more in winter home heating oil, our largest import. 

• With exports to Canada making up nearly 19% of all New Hampshire exports, how does she plan to make up for the revenue shortfall created by reduced trade? Will there be supplemental funding support for exporters through the Department of Business and Economic Affairs (BEA)? Will the state be expanding energy assistance programs to make up for higher energy import costs to low-income individuals?

• Has Kelly Ayotte gotten assurances from the Trump Administration around impact to the New Hampshire economy and budget? Will she?

  
  

4. How does Governor Ayotte plan to protect critical state programs from federal funding freezes or cuts? Has she warned or stood up to Elon Musk or Donald Trump?

• The recent Trump Administration freeze on federal grant and loan funding has already threatened $1.5 million in COPS grants for police departments, jeopardized coverage and access for 184,000 New Hampshire Medicaid recipients, risked the state’s $14 million for homelessness programs. Ayotte refused to join a lawsuit with other governors to sue the federal government to protect New Hampshire against these unconstitutional freeze.

• With Trump poised to continue cutting federal aid to states, has Ayotte had any conversations with Washington leaders about protecting New Hampshire’s critical funding? And if federal money disappears, will she cut these services, or will she raise taxes to make up the shortfall?

  
  

5. Kelly Ayotte modeled her Commission on Government Efficiency (COGE) gimmick off Elon Musk’s “DOGE.” Will her agency too plan to arbitrarily and unilaterally cut critical programs, eliminate NH jobs, or dismantle critical agencies in violation of New Hampshire law?

• A central fixture in Governor Ayotte’s inaugural address was her announcement of a “Commission on Government Efficiency” — a gimmick she stole from Elon Musk and Missouri’s copycat agency.

• As head of Trump’s made up department with no legal authority, Elon Musk and his band of unvetted teenage staffers forced out the acting U.S. Treasury Secretary who had denied Musk and his team access to sensitive information like all social security numbers and the U.S. federal funding disbursal system. With this access, Musk orchestrated mass layoffs at USAID and effectively defunded the program, despite Congress, with its power of the purse, appropriating that funding.

• Elon Musk played a direct role in forcing the FAA chief’s resignation, leading to safety concerns that affected flights at Manchester-Boston Regional Airport​ in the wake of a fatal commercial plane accident for the first time in 15 years.

• Will Ayotte similarly empower the heads of her “COGE” to carry out the same illegal, unilateral actions in New Hampshire? Has Ayotte used her influence to stand up for Granite Staters against these illegal actions that harm New Hampshire, or is she more focused on avoiding conflict with Trump and Musk?

  
  

Granite Staters Deserve Real Answers – Not Abdication of Responsibilities

“Kelly Ayotte campaigned on ‘the Sununu Path,’ but so far, she’s following the Trump playbook—hiding from accountability, pushing efficiency gimmicks, and failing to stand up for New Hampshire’s economy,” said Amplify New Hampshire Executive Director Ryan Mahoney. “Granite Staters deserve real answers: Will she continue Sununu’s local tax hikes? Will she protect New Hampshire from Trump’s reckless economic policies? Will she fight to keep critical federal funding flowing or stand by as Washington Republicans strip resources from our communities? Ayotte can’t govern through empty slogans—she needs to address the financial mess she inherited and explain exactly how she plans to fix it without making working families pay the price.”

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About Amplify New Hampshire

Amplify New Hampshire is a 501(c)4 nonprofit organization founded to keep Granite Staters informed of the decisions made in local, state, and federal government that will impact their lives and empower them to enact change. For more information, visit amplifynh.org.