The information contained in this article is not intended as legal advice and may no longer be accurate due to changes in the law. Consult NHMA's legal services or your municipal attorney.
Welcome to May—and the second half of the legislative session. April 10 was Crossover, the day on which bills must pass over from their originating chamber to the other side. This also means that the House has sent its recommended budget over to the Senate. Our two major focuses for the remainder of the session are zoning mandates and the state budget.
The state budget, as passed by the House, will downshift costs onto municipalities through cuts in funding and new obligations. The laundry list of “horriles” in the House proposed budget includes the following:
- The municipal distribution of the Meals & Room tax is frozen at $137, rather than distributing 30%. Based on revenue projections, municipalities would lose out on about $11 million.
- No new funding for state aid grants (SAG) for the state share of local wastewater project costs, and no funding for InvestNH, Housing Champions, or regional planning commissions, despite housing being a major priority for the state.
- In a year of massive cuts—from the Office of the Child Advocate to the Council for the Arts—significant new spending is proposed through roll back of the 2011 retirement reforms, affecting approximately 1600 active employees in the system. Although $27.5 million is appropriated for this cost in the proposed budget, that amount would—roughly— cover the cost of these changes for this upcoming biennium only. Since a future legislature has no obligation to continue funding the municipal portion of this cost increase, we anticipate significant downshifting onto municipalities if this proposal passes. Originally, the governor’s budget proposed a revenue stream to fund the increases in retirement costs through the expansion of slot machines (video lottery terminals—VLTs), but Division II of House Finance recom- mended diverting most of these funds into the education trust fund. The result? A huge additional bill for local taxpayers in the years to come.
- Other changes include repeal of RSA 31-A (revenue sharing); changes to CHIP, Medicaid, and Medicaid Advantage Programs; elimination of motor vehicle inspections (and resulting decrease in revenues); and changing local health officer authority.
Shifting gears to zoning mandates: The legislature is taking a “blame local government” approach to the statewide—actually, nationwide—housing shortage. As a result, there are dozens of zoning mandate bills, some of which conflict with one another and many of which are poorly drafted, vague, and conflicting with current statutes—and none of which actually incentivize or require the development of affordable housing, despite them being promoted as housing bills. To compound the problem, the majority of these zoning mandates are being rubber-stamped by the House Housing Committee and the Senate Commerce Committee’s subcommittee on housing, respectively, and then passing on the consent calendar, with no debate.
But that’s what NHMA is here for, and we’ll be advocating for our mem- bers—against downshifting and usurping of local control—for the re- mainder of this session, and every session. Members can greatly amplify our advocacy by calling their legislators, testifying at hearings, or inviting legislators to selectboard/council meetings to share their views and ask questions about how legislators are standing up for good policy and local control, and against downshifting, at the legislature. If you ever have questions, reach out to us at governmentaffairs@nhmunicipal.org.