Gov. Ayotte reneged on promise to meet with faith leaders

While I wasn't credited in the article, my colleagues Revs. Allison Palm and Jon Hopkins were. This was a statement that we worked on together. Governor Ayotte repeatedly rejected our ask for a meeting with her about the state budget. She gave us her word that she would meet with us during her campaign but couldn't find time for us when the moment required it.

Read it on the Union Leader website here.

WE ARE leaders in the Granite State Organizing Project’s statewide Faith Leader Caucus. Faith leaders from across the state have been coming together to share our moral concerns with elected leaders since 2020, when we met with all the declared candidates for president here in New Hampshire.

In 2024, we came together again to host faith-based conversations with all four candidates for governor. In all of these meetings, we shared concerns about issues such as affordable housing, Medicaid and health care, and public education.

All the candidates, including now Gov. Kelley Ayotte, promised that if elected that they would stay in open communication with the Faith Leaders, meeting with us to discuss the issues that impact the people we serve.

Since the election, clergy and lay leaders from different faith traditions have repeatedly asked to meet with Gov. Ayotte in order to discuss concerns we have with the proposed state budget. Our group tried repeatedly to schedule the promised meeting with Gov. Ayotte, with no response. Finally, members of the faith community visited the governor’s office on May 8 and May 14 to deliver a written request for this meeting. On May 30, Chief of Staff Chris Connelly informed us that Gov. Ayotte will not meet with us.

As leaders of faith communities, we often see the impacts of policy decisions and budgets on our communities firsthand. Our people are already struggling with the costs of health care, child care and the lack of affordable housing for seniors, retirees, hourly workers and young families.

The state budget is a moral document, how government chooses to allocate funding shows its priorities. When the focus is to cut funding that tears at the social fabric of communities, then the government disregards the welfare of its constituents.

As it stands today, the proposed budget does not fund the Affordable Housing Trust Fund. Without the ability to access this funding, developers will not be able to build the housing we need.

The proposed budget will also require working people earning between $15,000 to $21,000 per year to pay up to 5% of their income on health care premiums. For people trying to survive at this low income, any increase in costs will require a Hobson’s choice between food and shelter or health care.

We hear over and over from elected officials that faith communities can fill the gap when there are cuts to services such as food and shelter. The truth is that we are not equipped to fill in the gaps, and we are not a substitute for social services. By making such statements our elected officials are refusing to take on the responsibility for the needs of our state’s most vulnerable.

Gov. Ayotte said she would be a governor for all of New Hampshire and all the people, but her refusal to discuss the moral implications of the state budget with faith leaders proves that she is a governor for only some of the people.