Mentioning how Massachusetts has spent a fortune on housing migrants, newly sworn-in New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte says her administration received’t “allow that to happen” in Granite State and is inviting extra Bay Staters to maneuver north.
Ayotte stored her “Don’t Mass up New Hampshire” slogan alive throughout her inaugural speech on Thursday. She typically talked about Massachusetts on the marketing campaign path as a “cautionary tale,” she stated.
“We also need to ban sanctuary policies in our state,” Ayotte stated, “and I am counting on the legislature to do just that this term.”
“We’ve got the Massachusetts illegal immigrant crisis right down the road if you want to see what these dangerous policies do not just to communities, but to the state budget,” she added. “They’ve spent over a billion dollars housing migrants rather than investing in their law-abiding residents. We can’t allow that to happen here.”
Ayotte’s remarks come the identical week as Gov. Maura Healey filed a $425 million spending invoice to pay for the Bay State’s emergency shelter prices via the remainder of this fiscal yr — present cash is anticipated to run dry by the top of January with out one other infusion.
The Healey administration spent simply over $856 million in fiscal yr 2024 on the migrant-family shelter program — lower than initially projected — and has already doled out greater than $357 million via the primary half of fiscal yr 2025, in response to state information final up to date Dec. 19.
Hundreds of pages of “Serious Incident” studies, additionally launched this week, expose incidents of kid rape, home violence, brawls, drunkenness, medication and extra within the Massachusetts emergency housing shelter system.
Ayotte, a former U.S. senator and state lawyer common, slammed the Bay State exhausting when she initially introduced her marketing campaign in July 2023, saying fentanyl had a pipeline into New Hampshire from “Biden’s open border to Massachusetts.”
Final March, Ayotte stated Healey “should be ashamed of herself” after the Bay State governor stated occasions like an alleged sexual assault at a Rockland migrant motel are “unfortunate” and “from time to time, things will happen.”
“That wasn’t the whole quote that I gave,” Healey advised WBZ’s Jon Keller on the time. “What happened to this young victim — this 15-year-old girl — is exactly why the federal government needs to act.”
Healey declared that Massachusetts is “not a sanctuary state” in an end-of-year interview with the Herald, saying she believes “violent criminals should be deported if they’re not here lawfully” and that native, state, and federal legislation enforcement ought to work collectively to research and prosecute crimes and take away folks from the nation who’re criminals.
Ayotte defeated Democrat and former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig, whom Healey endorsed, in one of the vital bitterly contested governor’s races. Ayotte replaces Republican Chris Sununu as New Hampshire’s governor.
“Look at the out-of-control spending, tax hikes, illegal immigrant crisis, people and businesses leaving in droves — what is normal today in Massachusetts wasn’t always this way,” Ayotte stated Thursday. “Year after year, their model of higher taxes and more government has made it harder to run a small business and harder for families to make ends meet.”
Massachusetts once more ranked the second worst state for one-way U-Haul movers final yr, coming in forty ninth on the U-Haul Development Index. A state company spokesperson advised the Herald final week there are indicators that the out-migration pattern is “reversing.”
From 2010 to 2023 (excluding 2020), New Hampshire served because the premier vacation spot state for relocating Bay Staters with a web achieve of 98,879 residents who flocked to the Granite State, Census Bureau estimates point out.
“To the people of Massachusetts, our Bay State neighbors, I want you to know we love that you visit our communities, shop at our businesses, and enjoy our great outdoors,” Ayotte stated. “To the businesses of Massachusetts, we’d love to have you bring your talents to the Granite State. Reach out to us — we’re happy to show you why it’s better here.”
