CONCORD, N.H. — Gov. Kelly Ayotte says she plans to focus on affordable housing issues, childcare and public safety initiatives as policy priorities in the year ahead.
Meeting with reporters following the Executive Council meeting on Wednesday, she also touted the state’s ranking as the “freest” state in the country by the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy, which bills itself as “New Hampshire’s free-market think tank.” The Concord-based libertarian organization has granted the award to the Granite State for 24 consecutive years.
Tennessee ranked the second-freest in this year’s report, finishing just four hundredths of a point behind New Hampshire.
Ayotte noted considerable progress this past year in some of her priority issues like bail reform. But she said there is work to be done on areas like affordable housing.
She gave credit to the Republican controlled House and Senate for passing policy measures meant to encourage housing, but Democrats have criticized them for not spending money on the issue.
Ayotte said she would like to also work on tax credits for co-locating childcare at businesses and large work centers.
And she said she wants to work on making the roads safer by making changes to laws related to drunk driving, noting that the state has too high a level of refusals for breathalyzer tests compared to other states.
“There’s plenty of work to do,” she said.
Ayotte said some of the effective dates on housing are just coming up. She noted partnerships are key and included the former Mohawk Tannery site in Nashua as an example of collaborative approaches to housing.
“We are going to expand child care in the state and how can we make it easier also for child care providers. Sometimes it can be too bureaucratic when they are submitting to HHS in terms of the child care scholarship, how can we streamline those processes,” she said.
Distracted driving is also a concern, she said, and some recommendations will require legislation. Another priority is to ensure that the changes that have come are working well in terms of implementation.
“If we have to make adjustments we will make them but I hope I have the opportunity to do this work,” she said.
The Republican governor is almost at the midpoint of her two-year term. She said she has an upcoming report at the end of the year from her committee to look at efficiencies and she said anything that is there that she can use to help she will also work to implement.
This article first appeared on InDepthNH.org and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.