The state Senate voted along near party lines Thursday to pass a $15.8 billion state budget . The final votes came after a long — and at times testy — debate, during which Democrats tried to reverse Republican policies touching Medicaid, housing, childcare, and school choice.

Overall, the Senate budget plan spends about $200 million more than the House’s budget, but about $200 million less than the plan proposed by Gov. Kelly Ayotte. It largely reverses the House's deep cuts to higher education and mental health services, and undoes reductions to Medicaid provider rates.

Among other things, the GOP-written budget would lift caps on the state's voucher-like education freedom accounts, a policy that Republicans, like Sen. Victoria Sullivan, argued was critical.

"I know families, their

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