Executive Director Message

Welcome to summer! We kick off the summer with the end of the legislative session—and, in record breaking fashion--a state budget, which passed both the Senate and the House without going to a committee conference, and was signed by the governor on June 20. Be on the lookout for our final Legislative Bulletin, which will include summaries of all the legislation of municipal interest that passed in the 2023 session—and join the government affairs staff for NHMA’s Legislative Wrap Up webinar in August.

In June, NHMA launched a new program to respond to the significant—and unprecedented—federal funding opportunities available to cities and towns through legislation like the Investment in Infrastructure and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act. This new NHMA program, the Coaching and Technical Assistance Program (CTAP), launched as a beta test on June 5. The goal of this project is to help small municipalities in New Hampshire successfully access federal, state, and other funding in order to implement impactful projects in their communities. Municipalities with populations under 10,000 can apply, and up to ten will be selected to receive technical assistance and coaching from Arnett Development Group (ADG) to prepare them to apply for an available grant opportunity.

This is new territory for NHMA, but we want to see these critical funds come into New Hampshire—and get to the local level! For that to happen, New Hampshire’s cities and towns must be properly positioned to compete with municipalities from across the country. We’ve launched CTAP as a beta test so that we can assess the success of the program, the interest of our membership in such a program, and whether it should continue long term for all NHMA members. This is a very exciting new venture for NHMA and our members, and we want to give a special thank you to the Community Development Finance Authority (CDFA) for its support of us in getting this program off the ground.

And although we don’t want to rush past summer, fall training opportunities will be here before you know it. We’re so thrilled to launch a new Financial Policies Certificate Program, which will kick off on September 13 here in Concord. (Our other certificate program, the Academy for Good Governance, will return in 2024, as we plan to alternate years for each of these programs.) Of course, fall is budget season, so our annual Budget & Finance Workshops will take place on September 12 (Manchester, with a virtual attendance option) and September 19 (Littleton).

Margaret M.L. Byrnes, Executive Director