NH House Republicans pass 2026 budget that raises taxes on working families, funds school vouchers and tax breaks for wealthy

The budget now heads to the State Senate for further amendments and changes.

New Hampshire House Republicans voted on Thursday to pass the most bitterly partisan budget in a generation, a $16 billion plan that guts many state programs aimed at providing healthcare and affordable housing in order to pay for a vast expansion to the state’s school voucher program and offset recent Republican tax cuts for the top 1% and cuts to business taxes.

The budget also accounts for a vast expansion of the state’s Republican backed school voucher program, increasing costs by over $30 million.

Among the programs cut by the Republican budget: the Energy Efficiency Fund, the Affordable Housing Fund, and the Housing Champions Program, which worked to address issues in the state that House Republicans ran on solving, like tackling the state’s housing crisis.

The budget also includes drastic cuts to Medicaid, imposing new costs on low income Granite Staters with access to the program, with Republicans explicitly saying they want to discourage use by those enrolled in the program.

“In this budget there will be a small co-pay for Medicaid patients. Hopefully that means they will use it less.” Said Rep. Ken Weyler, Chair of the House Finance Committee at a hearing earlier this week.

“This budget contains new premiums for families with children on Medicaid, and for those in New Hampshire’s Medicaid expansion program. People with incomes under $20,000 a year, those who can barely afford to make ends meet, will now be forced to fork over 5% of their income just to keep their healthcare,” said House Democratic Leader Alexis Simpson at a rally on Wednesday.

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Simpson supported amendments to the Republican budget that would have restored many of the GOP’s cuts by raising taxes on state slot machines and eliminating Republicans’ vast expansion of their school voucher program. Those amendments were rejected by House Republicans.

Simpson’s sentiment was echoed by other Democrats in leadership.

“This budget imposes new costs on hardworking families and people with disabilities who rely on Medicaid to survive. A single parent with two children making $67,000 a year will now have to come up with another $280 per month, money that could be going toward rent, groceries, or childcare, or risk losing their children’s health insurance,” said Deputy House Democratic Leader Laura Telerski.

Top New Hampshire Democrats said Republicans were feeling empowered by Donald Trump’s gutting of the federal government, and were looking to apply that strategy at the state level.

“Let’s be honest — this is laughable. Trump is tanking the national economy, and New Hampshire Republicans are marching in lockstep behind him. Unemployment is up since November. And their budget would lay off hundreds of hardworking Granite Staters, including in the Department of Corrections,” said House Democratic Caucus Chair Matt Wilhelm.

Five prominent grassroots organizations — 603 Forward, MomsRising, New Hampshire Youth Movement, Granite State Organizing Project, and Rights and Democracy — issued a joint condemnation today against the House Republican budget, labeling it a “reckless plan that deepens inequality and sells out working families to protect the wealthy and powerful.”

“This budget doesn’t reflect our shared values. It reflects a rigged economy where the rich get richer, corporations get tax breaks, and the rest of us are left paying the price,” the organizations said in a joint statement. “Republican lawmakers are choosing to gut the programs thousands of working families rely on and raise taxes on folks who can least afford it—just so their wealthy donors and out-of-state corporate allies can keep cashing in. That’s not fiscal responsibility. That’s economic sabotage.”

The Republican-led budget proposal slashes $643 million from the governor’s initial plan, while directing $113 million into the state’s Rainy Day Fund. Significant cuts are planned for public college funding, child care assistance, mental health services, and Medicaid, all to preserve tax breaks largely benefiting wealthy individuals and multinational corporations.

The budget is also packed with non-fiscal amendments designed to bring greater support from Republicans who wanted even deeper cuts. Some amendments include anti-LGBTQ+ language that would ban transgender Granite Staters from public bathrooms, allowing the sale of brass knuckles and weakening vaccines requirements for children.

“Today, House Republicans passed a disastrous budget that slashes funding for health care, higher education, and public safety and raises costs for Granite Staters. House Republicans voted to force hardworking families on Medicaid to pay more in new health care costs, cut funding for family planning services, raise tuition costs, and eliminate funding to keep our communities safe.” Said New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley in a statement after the vote.

According to a new analysis by the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute, these severe cuts are directly attributable to deliberate tax policy choices made by Republican leadership over the past decade. Between 2015 and 2024, the state lost between $795 million and $1.17 billion due to business tax cuts, predominantly benefiting large corporations and wealthy residents, while shifting financial burdens to local communities through higher property taxes and user fees.

The organizations argue New Hampshire needs a fundamentally different approach to budgeting, calling for the state legislature to end special tax advantages for corporations and invest instead in education, health care, and child care.

“We need a new approach—one that funds the programs working families and small businesses depend on and expects millionaire CEOs to pay their fair share,” the groups said.