CONCORD — As New Hampshire lawmakers look for ways to cut the state budget, Republicans in the State House want to eliminate the state’s Office of the Child Advocate, the Commission on Aging, and the Housing Appeals Board.
“Are you sure about the Child Advocate?” Rep. Rosemarie Rung, a Democrat from Merrimack, asked during a work session Monday to discuss this and several other budget-related proposals. “Have you discussed — I mean, they’re the overseer of YDC.”
The Youth Detention Center — a juvenile corrections facility in Manchester that’s been renamed the Sununu Youth Services Center — has been embroiled in one of the largest child abuse scandals in U.S. history. Over 1,100 former residents of the facility have filed lawsuits alleging physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, and several state workers have been arrested.
“Yeah, they’re there,” Rep. Dan McGuire, the Republican from Epsom who chairs the subcommittee holding the work session, responded.
House Finance Division I, which is one of three legislative subcommittees working on various aspects of the massive state budget — which was proposed by Gov. Kelly Ayotte in February and is currently being debated by the Legislature — approved a series of amendments to that budget on Monday that would eliminate these state agencies.
“There’s a number of these smaller things that are sort of nice-to-haves, but they’re not necessary,” McGuire said. “And so, we need the money. I don’t know how to put it any blunter.”
The committee voted, 5-4, along party lines in favor of recommending the amendment eliminating the Office of the Child Advocate, firing its staff, and repealing the statutes that created it. The full House will also have to approve the amendment before it’s officially added to the proposed budget. Then the entire budget will have to be passed with this amendment included for it to become law.
All four Democrats on the committee voted no.
“We just had a discussion an hour ago about a $150 million appropriation needed to fund the YDC settlement fund,” Rung said, referring to the money the state is being forced in court to pay to the facility’s victims.
“And this office, you know, it’s $1 million a year. To me, if we can prevent future liabilities that we’ve seen with the YDC … I think this is one of those positions, one of those offices, that actually is a cost saving to us in the long run. I think it’s penny-wise and pound-foolish to get rid of this.”
Cassandra Sanchez, New Hampshire’s child advocate, said she was at a conference in Boston when she heard from one of her legislative partners about the vote. She said the news came as “quite a shock and surprise.”
As child advocate, Sanchez serves as a watchdog overseeing the state’s child welfare and juvenile justice systems and advocating for the best interests of children in the state. Her position and the office she leads were created by the Legislature in 2018. It is independent of any other state agency or official. Sanchez is under contract until January 2026; the budget would become effective July 1, 2025.
Sanchez said she and her team hadn’t been told this was even being considered ahead of Monday’s vote, including on Feb. 26 when she gave a presentation to the subcommittee.
“They did mention that there needed to be further cost-saving measures, but had not floated any idea of the potential of repealing our statute,” she said. “And given our office budget is so minuscule, I had not even thought of that as a potential option.”
Eliminating the Office of the Child Advocate would save the state approximately $2 million over two years, McGuire said. He noted that most of the cost savings come from firing the eight staff the office employs besides Sanchez. Amid a tight fiscal environment, the House is currently trying to trim Ayotte’s two-year budget proposal by around $800 million after the Ways and Means Committee predicted state revenues would be much lower than the governor’s estimates. As subcommittee chair, McGuire said he’s been tasked with finding $200 million of that savings.
Sanchez argued her office actually saves the state money in the long run. She said her team works to identify situations where children are being harmed and address them before they grow into a situation that spurs a costly lawsuit.