On Monday, January 31, the House Municipal and County Government Committee is holding a public hearing on HB1342 which is another attempt to remove the Nashua spending cap.
The bill sponsors are all Nashua Democrat state reps and one sponsor, Melbourne Moran, is also a newly elected alderman-at-large.
From the analysis of the bill by Dan Richardson:
This bill would do two very bad things to a municipal charter annual tax (or spending) cap computation:
- It would remove the necessity for an annual municipal budget supermajority vote in order to exclude interest and principal payments on municipal bonded debt or capital expenditures outside the limits of the capped budget.
- It would remove the necessity for an annual municipal budget supermajority vote in order for an ordinance or accounting practice to redistribute budget items from within the limits of the capped budget to outside the limits of the capped budget.
Existing statutory budgetary control is facilitated by having at least greater than one-third of municipal legislature vote against such exclusion or override for the annual budget. There is no annual budgetary limit for excluded items or overridden cap with a supermajority.
In addition, this bill would remove the “before July 5, 2011” wording which was specifically added in 2021 to neuter prior NH Supreme Court decision that tax and spending caps enacted prior to July 5 were not grandfathered. “Before July 5, 2011” is the key language in the 2021 law that validates all caps enacted prior to 5 July 2011, regardless of whether they conformed fully with the 2011 language.
The obvious motivation by a narrow spectrum of sponsors is to more easily indebt the municipality up to state statutory limit. Given that tax (or spending) caps are based on a percentage of the prior budget, it is easy to see how ballooning capital expenditure and debt interest and principal obligation exponentially leads to municipal financial perdition.
Sign-in in opposition to the bill at gencourt.state.nh.us/house/committees/remotetestimony/default.aspx.
Enter your contact information, select “January 31”, “House Municipal and County Government Committee”, “HB1342”, select who you are and who you are representing, check “I Oppose this Bill”.
If you have testimony you can upload it under “Upload Remote Testimony” on this same form or email it to the committee at HouseMunicipalandCountyGovt@leg.state.nh.us. Always include your full name and city or town.
Hit Submit to complete the process.
You can also give your testimony in person at the public hearing on January 31 at 11:00 am in the Legislative Office Building, Rooms 301-303. See the committee’s schedule here. Bring 25 copies of your testimony to hand out to the committee members.