A strong case can be made that it’s not the two-year operating budget, but its companion trailer bill that becomes the most important piece of legislation lawmakers take up every other year at the State House.

That’s because the budget is only numbers, while the trailer bill contains all the policy changes to state law needed to carry it out.

When Gov. Kelly Ayotte signed the budget in late June, House Majority Leader Jason Osborne, R-Auburn, pointed to the trailer bill as the mechanism for his Republican caucus to achieve essential elements of the “Contract with New Hampshire” on which the House GOP campaigned in 2024.

“This budget is the product of Republican unity and principled leadership,” Osborne said. “It defends taxpayers, repeals car inspections, increases aid to local schools,

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