Policy Blog NH

A State Budget in the Red?

What does Judge McGuire’s decision on the state’s use of surplus funds from a state established medical malpractice joint underwriting association mean for the state budget?  The state budget included $65 and $45 million of these funds in the 2009 and 2010 budget respectively.  Obviously, if the decision holds throughout the appeal process the state’s books are out of balance. What that actually means, and how the state resolves the issue, is quite complicated.  

High School Drop-Outs in New Hampshire

Teens who drop out of school are more likely than their graduating counterparts to be unemployed, on public assistance, and be involved in criminal activity.  For the state to prosper socially and economically, we need an educated and skilled workforce.  Drop out rates and NH's drop out policies are changing, but how, and with what impact? 

And How Do You Lay Off 750 State Employees?

In 2008, there were 11,063 filled positions according to the State’s Department of Administrative services.  In a recent press release, the Governor indicated that executive agencies should be prepared to make layoffs, the total number of which was estimated to be 750.  This represents approximately 7% of the 11,063 filled positions in 2008.   How those layoffs would occur, however, wasn’t made clear in the press release, and the implications of these layoffs cannot be known without significantly more information on the details of those potential layoffs. 

 

What Can Atul Gawande Tell us About Health Care in New Hampshire?

The Center has done work looking at statewide health care financing in New Hampshire, culminating in the development of a health care dashboard which showed that New Hampshire is a high quality, but high cost health care system. But what about within the state?       

 

Growing State Prison Population Cannot Be Solely Explained by Changes in Crime Population or Economic Distress.

The number of inmates in the New Hampshire state prison system increased 560% in twenty-five years, from 394 inmates in 1982 to 2,615 in 2007.  Factors commonly associated with increases in a state’s prison population fail to explain the extraordinary rise in the number of New Hampshire state prison inmates.  As shown in the table below, New Hampshire’s resident population, number of people living in poverty, and number of violent crimes have not increased as fast as the number of inmates held in New Hampshire’s state prisons.  In fact, while the number of state prison inmates increased almost six times from 1982 to 2007, the number of property crimes and the number of arrests for all crimes in New Hampshire actually declined. 

Medicaid Caseloads and the State Budget: A risk point?

Another Risk Point for the State’s 10-11 Budget?  Counts of NH families with Children on Medicaid have grown at 8% per year between May of 2008 and May of 2009.  During the previous year, these caseloads increased not at all.  What will happen to Medicaid caseloads going forward and what implications are there for the 2010-2011 Medicaid budget? 

 

Private Versus Public Sector Wages in New Hampshire: It’s pretty clear that how you are paid depends on what you do!

New Hampshire state employees are paid less, on average, than private sector employees.  However, the average difference between state and private workers, excluding other non wage benefits like healthcare insurance and pension benefits, is small.  And depending on the type of work and level of experience, some state workers take home bigger paychecks than comparable private sector workers.

Health Care Jobs in New Hampshire

Policy makers' attempts at controlling health care costs, which will limit growth in the health care industry, should also include some thinking about an alternative economic development plan for the state.   Health care remains one of the only sources of economic growth in the state, particularly during this recession.