2 out of 2 think tanks agree: NH Budget is a mess

Lauren Dorgan reports in the Concord Monitor that New Hampshire's budget situation is worse than it was two years ago:

That budget will start out with a $550 million hole, estimates Steve Norton of the New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Research, who gets to that number by tallying up about $450 million in federal stimulus money, primarily for education programs and Medicaid, plus the $110 million the state plans to seize from a state-established medical malpractice fund. (That seizure effort is now tied up in court.)

Charlie Arlinghaus of the conservative Josiah Bartlett Center calls it a "close to $600 million hole." He factors in the same things Norton does plus $50 million in "revenue sharing" aid to cities and towns that the state suspended for this budget cycle.

"I think the next budget will be dramatically worse than the current budget," Arlinghaus said.