Lede: Taylor Caswell, commissioner of the Department of Business and Economic Affairs (BEA), told Ways and Means members the state’s most pressing economic constraints are a shortage of housing, gaps in broadband access and workforce recruitment, and described programs and investments designed to respond.

Nut graf: BEA described Invest NH investments of roughly $60 million targeted to accelerate near‑ready affordable multifamily projects, a per‑unit municipal grant for communities permitting affordable units, demolition and site preparation grants and a housing champions designation program with municipal infrastructure grants. Caswell also summarized broadband deployment progress supported with ARPA funding, tourism promotion results and a new digital New Hampshire Business Gateway that will centralize state services for firms.

Body: Caswell said BEA used federal recovery funds (ARPA) to support near‑term affordable housing completions: the Invest NH program provided nearly $60 million to boost projects that were close to being deliverable but needed gap financing. Another strand offered $10,000 per affordable unit to municipalities that permitted qualifying projects; Caswell said that per‑unit incentive was popular and had been used for infrastructure and project gap financing.

The commissioner described a municipal “Housing Champions” designation established by the legislature; BEA announced about 18 communities were named in the first round and about $5 million in infrastructure grants would be available to designated communities. On broadband, Caswell said the state has reduced the number of unserved locations substantially since 2022 and expects work to be finished by 2027, using programs to close remaining gaps and to treat internet access as infrastructure.

Caswell highlighted tourism results — visitor spending and tax receipts improved after the pandemic — and noted BEA’s marketing toolbox for local businesses (ready‑to‑use creative templates and ad placement) and the tourism return‑on‑investment metric BEA uses. He also described a roughly $10 million investment to build the New Hampshire Business Gateway, a one‑stop digital portal for businesses to interact with state services and permitting.

Ending: Caswell asked the committee to view housing and broadband as foundational investments that support labor force growth and welcomed follow‑up technical briefings on housing permitting and broadband mapping.