Our economic secret weapon

Our university system provides the best incentive for companies to locate here

Taylor Caswell

It’s not often that an institutional leader embarks on a mission to eliminate their job. That is the proposal of Cathy Provencher, the current chancellor of the University System of New Hampshire.

Provencher is a tremendous leader with an accounting background, and as the former system CFO, knows how the numbers work, especially after the budget for the system was cut by the Legislature in 2025. In June, she asked the system’s board of trustees to endorse the idea of eliminating her position and consolidating it into the role of the president of the University of New Hampshire.

The back-and-forth on state budget cuts for higher education has been happening for years. Issues like enrollment, demographic trends, administrative costs, overhead and tuition costs have all shared the focus of debates among legislators, educators, university officials and business leaders.

New Hampshire is not alone in facing these types of challenges, but there is one aspect that doesn’t get a lot of attention and is critical about how the state attracts and retains investment.

Unlike virtually every other state, New Hampshire offers no big tax incentives or grants to businesses seeking to expand or relocate here. Those types of incentives are so common among states that, when I was commissioner, out-of-state businesses would often show up and start with something like, “Rhode Island is offering us $1 million in tax incentives and a free building. How much will you give us to locate here?”

The answer to that question is not an apology or an excuse: New Hampshire’s economy is consistently strong, yet no company has ever been paid to be here. What is it that speaks to business leaders that choose to stay or locate here, often in the face of incentives being offered elsewhere?

There are a lot of reasons for that, and it varies from company to company. But I would offer a distinction between companies that are “of a place” rather than “in a place.” New Hampshire’s employers are here because they choose to be, not because we paid them to be here.

Beyond that, I can say with 100% confidence that one of the major reasons those employers choose New Hampshire is that our university system and community college system play an often unheralded role as providing many of the benefits that businesses use and develop and deliver an exceptionally high-quality employee.

Our top employer is the healthcare industry, and our highest growth industries include life sciences, tech and advanced manufacturing, each of which requires highly qualified and well-educated employees.

Certainly, the students across those systems are potential future workforce and contributors to our communities. But it’s more than that: Our university system directly benefits the state’s employers in a multitude of ways. So many, in fact, that at times I wonder if the system itself even knows.

For me, it’s the Olson Center, where small manufacturers can access physical space, equipment, expertise and students.

It’s the Small Business Development Center, which provides a whole host of technical services for small businesses and startups.

It’s programs like the precision optics hub to coordinate among those manufacturers.

It’s nursing programs, hospitality and culinary training, and mechanical education across the CCSNH system.

It’s the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping and the new institute for marine aquaculture research bringing together research and funding related to the massive opportunities in (and on) the world’s oceans.

The connection between New Hampshire’s successful economy and our higher education systems runs much deeper than most people realize. It is our own Live Free or Die version of other states’ tax-incentive programs, and the data proves that.

A 2025 economic contribution analysis found USNH institutions generated $7.6 billion in economic activity in FY 2023 alone and supported nearly 52,000 jobs statewide. On the research side, every $100 in federal grant funding to UNH returns another $77 in economic activity, adding roughly $190 million to the state’s GDP in FY23.

Compare that to the incentive math other states run: A company chasing a $1 million check and a free building is chasing a one-time subsidy. New Hampshire is instead handing businesses a self-renewing pipeline of researchers, technicians and skilled graduates year after year, without cutting a single incentive check.

Kudos to Chancellor Provencher for being willing to eliminate her own job in the name of administrative efficiency. As policymakers head into another budget year, the job they can’t afford to eliminate is understanding the straight line between USNH and New Hampshire’s economic future — and amplifying it.

Taylor Caswell has led economic policy agencies on the state and federal level for decades, most recently serving as New Hampshire’s commissioner of business and economic affairs. You can reach him at linkedin.com/in/taylorcaswell.