Gov. Maggie Hassan endorsed Hillary Clinton today, appearing with her at a town hall meeting in Durham. Most of the event consisted of Hassan sitting on stage while her constituents complained about policies she has direct influence over as governor to Clinton. When Hassan did get a chance to speak, she had trouble avoiding the elephant in the room – her failed partisan brinkmanship on the state budget:
When a constituent stressed the need for more mental health treatment facilities, saying “we have so many people waiting for beds,” Hassan too stressed the need for more resources to treat mental health and substance abuse patients, but failed to mention that her budget impasse was directly responsible for withholding homecare funding and preventing a mental health crisis center from opening:
Hassan’s hometown newspaper’s editorial board lays the blame for the substance abuse treatment-related consequences of budget maneuvering squarely in Hassan’s lap. From the Portsmouth Herald:
On June 24, the day before New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan vetoed the budget, we urged her to reconsider…
…Given the state’s dangerous opiate abuse epidemic we were particularly concerned about delaying a major increase in funding for prevention, treatment and rehabilitation programs. Also hanging in the balance were road and highway projects along with raises for home health care workers, who had not seen an increase in more than a decade.