CONCORD, N.H. — Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s Commission on Government Efficiency — known by its catchier acronym, COGE – is beginning its work to investigate better ways to structure state departments.
But members of the commission are adamant: Don’t compare us to DOGE.
While the Washington, D.C.-based entity helmed by technology CEO Elon Musk has established itself as a no-holds-barred force seeking to lay off thousands of federal workers and find billions of dollars in government savings, the New Hampshire counterpart has far less dramatic aims, its leaders say.
And some on the commission have questioned how many efficiency gains might be found in the Granite State at all.
“I’m not Elon Musk — nor is Andy,” former Gov. Craig Benson, one of the co-chairs of the state commission, said in an interview Wednesday, pointing to his co-chairman Andy Crews. “We’re not trying to do things the same way.”
The commission had its first public meeting on Wednesday in a conference room at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at St. Anselm College.
First announced by Ayotte during her Jan. 9 inaugural address, the commission has a mandate of reducing government waste. “They are going to put proposals on my desk to streamline government, cut spending, and ensure that we’re doing everything we can to create value for our taxpayers,” Ayotte said in her speech.
Organizational meeting
Those proposals are still far away. The commission’s first meeting, which lasted half an hour, was largely organizational; each of the commission’s 15 members reported on meetings they have had with state commissioners and shared few details.
But one theme emerged: The commission is seeking to collaborate, not aggravate. “I will say that the smiles have been contagious from our side as well as theirs, which is a great way to start this,” Benson said, referring to the commissioner meetings.
And unlike DOGE in Washington, D.C., none of the New Hampshire members are currently contemplating sweeping cuts to the state workforce, commission members say.
“It’s not really about taking the meat cleaver to things; it’s about finding efficiencies,” said Drew Cline, the chairman of the New Hampshire State Board of Education and president of the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy.
That point was echoed by Republican House Speaker Sherman Packard — one of two legislative members of the commission. In an interview after the meeting, Packard said he did not foresee COGE recommending many cuts to state personnel, if any.
“I think New Hampshire already has a pretty efficient government,” Packard said. “I mean, we’re definitely (not) Washington, D.C., or maybe New York or California. We don’t have, I would say, extreme minimal or any fat (to cut) whatsoever at this time.”
Broad mandate
Established by executive order, the commission has a broad mandate: it “shall submit to the Governor proposals to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of State government.”
The executive order details no deadline for those recommendations, nor is there an end date for the commission itself.
And while House lawmakers are currently working on the most traditional vehicle to restructure state government — the two-year budget — members of COGE say most of their recommendations are aimed at longer term reforms.
“The idea with the COGE was not so much about this budget, but to say, ‘Let’s look ahead into the next biennium. What are the structural things we should be looking at?’” Ayotte said at a Feb. 5 press conference.
To that end, the commission members have divvied up state departments and carried out preliminary interviews with department heads. Most are “eager” to work with COGE to find new mechanisms for efficiency, members reported Wednesday.
But because those meetings are not public, little is known so far about what ideas have been discussed — and how feasible they might be to enact.
Al Letizio Jr., a wholesale food supplier CEO and a member of the commission, spoke with the Department of Revenue Administration. His takeaway was that the state could collect more in business tax revenues if that department had the tools to go after out-of-state companies that conduct business in New Hampshire but don’t pay tax on that business activity.
“We recently revamped some of our business tax codes with that market-based sourcing back a couple years ago, and when we did that, there’s a possibility that we may not be capturing some out-of-state businesses that are conducting business in the state of New Hampshire — companies that are being exempted from paying taxes in their home states, and somehow maybe falling between the cracks,” Letizio said in an interview Wednesday.
Snippets of proposals
Other commission members previewed snippets of proposals that had come up in their conversations. Packard suggested standardizing state firearms proposals within the Department of Safety, which oversees the New Hampshire State Police.
“It would make sense — I mean, I’m just using this as a minor example — to make sure that they all buy the same firearms so it’s all interchangeable,” he said.
Benson, who ran the meeting, said commission members will need to conduct more interviews in the coming weeks in order to better develop efficiency proposals. The commission is next set to meet March 26.
“What I’d ask is that we step up our efforts to have additional meetings,” he said. And he suggested that commission members try to include lower-ranking state officials and department managers in order to improve ideas.
Despite calls by Musk and other Trump administration officials for major reforms to federal departments, Letizio argued Wednesday that Republican control of New Hampshire’s government under Gov. Chris Sununu means there is less need for upheaval.
“If we were over the border in Massachusetts, working with the (Gov. Maura) Healey group, you couldn’t walk into a room without finding a billion dollars worth of savings,” Letizio told the commission.
“But we are fortunate that in New Hampshire, where we’re following a government who’s been in place for eight years, who’s done a great job, and it makes our jobs a little bit more challenging to find that efficiency.”
Democrats are wary
Democrats, meanwhile, are wary. Rep. Laura Telerski, of Nashua, drove to Manchester to sit in on the meeting. Speaking afterward, she said the actions of Trump and Musk had sparked curiosity.
“I think what we’ve seen in the last few weeks coming out of Washington with Elon Musk and DOGE is extremely concerning in terms of the chaos, the attacks against our hard-working employees, and the drastic cuts to funding without proper input from all parties,” Telerski said. “So I wanted to make sure that we’re doing it differently here in New Hampshire.”
What Telerski heard Wednesday was “fine” — at least when it comes to “finding collaboration and cooperation between departments.”
“That’s good,” she said.
But she and other Democrats raised a separate objection about the COGE meeting: transparency. Wednesday’s meeting “was held with little notice to legislators and without an option for the public to livestream the meeting,” she said in a statement on Wednesday.
Outside the budget process
Exactly when the recommendations will emerge — and what form they will take — is not clear. Ayotte released a budget proposal Feb. 13 that already includes some recommended spending reductions for state departments, and she has already instituted a state hiring freeze as the state faces uncertain revenues.
Any additional recommendations from COGE will likely fall outside of the budget process, which ends in June.
Speaking Feb. 5, Ayotte stressed that COGE will not be making unilateral decisions and will not be run with the same intensity as DOGE.
“This is a commission that will make recommendations to me,” Ayotte said. “Those recommendations will be public, and so ultimately I will be the decision maker.”
we want to do, because it’s the right thing to do.”
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