Gov. John Lynch (D-Hopkinton) spoke to reporters after attending a meeting with President-elect Obama and said that he is not depending on money from the federal government to help New Hampshire close its current budget deficit.

"I'm certainly not counting on money from the federal government to deal with our remaining $75 million shortfall, so I'm not counting on that," Lynch said on a conference call with reporters.

Lynch was attending a meeting of the National Governors Association which met with Obama in Philadelphia and said he does not think Obama will give states money that would make the current state budgets worse.

"I believe that President-elect Obama is sensitive to not requiring that states to match investment dollars coming from the federal government because I think he's sensitive to the fact that that would exacerbate the financial challenges that the state is facing and not help," he said. "I also think that he's sensitive to the fact that he doesn't want to offer one time moneys that will just raise the cost of the fix cost infrastructure such that the states will be dealing with a year or two later."

He said that Obama and the governors discussed the possibility of the federal government increasing money directed towards improving the nation's infrastructure and increasing the amount of money they give to the states for Medicare.

"We have about $200 million worth of road projects that we could get going and really get going in about 180 days. I do believe that investing in the infrastructure will be a priority for President-elect Obama's administration and is a priority which I believe is embraced by a majority of the governors," Lynch said.