HB1272: relative to allowing towns to have an official ballot vote on the issuance of specific bonds or notes.

HB 1272 - AS INTRODUCED

2003 SESSION

03-2136

08/10

HOUSE BILL 1272

AN ACT relative to allowing towns to have an official ballot vote on the issuance of specific bonds or notes.

SPONSORS: Rep. Scanlon, Hills 57

COMMITTEE: Municipal and County Government

ANALYSIS

This bill allows any town to have an official ballot vote on the issuance of specific bonds or notes.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Explanation: Matter added to current law appears in bold italics.

Matter removed from current law appears [in brackets and struckthrough.]

Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.

2003 SESSION

03-2136

08/10

STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Three

AN ACT relative to allowing towns to have an official ballot vote on the issuance of specific bonds or notes.

Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:

1 Majority Needed for Bonds and Notes. Amend RSA 33:8 to read as follows:

33:8 Town or District Bonds or Notes. Except as otherwise specifically provided by law, the issue of bonds or notes by any municipal corporation, except a city or a town which has adopted a charter pursuant to RSA 49-B, without a budgetary town meeting, and except a school district or municipality which has adopted official ballot voting procedures pursuant to RSA 40:13 shall be authorized by a vote by ballot of 2/3, and the issue of tax anticipation notes, by a vote of a majority, of all the voters present and voting at an annual or special meeting of such corporation, called for the purpose. The issue of notes or bonds by a school district or municipality which has adopted official ballot voting procedures pursuant to RSA 40:13 or as provided in RSA 39:3-d, IV shall be authorized by a vote of 3/5. Only votes in the affirmative or negative shall be included in the calculation of any majority. No such action taken at any special meeting shall be valid unless a majority of all the legal voters are present and vote at such special meeting, unless the governing board of any municipality shall petition the superior court for permission to hold an emergency special meeting, which, if granted, shall give said special meeting the same authority as an annual meeting. The warrant for a special meeting shall be published once in a newspaper having a general circulation in the municipality within one week after the posting of such special meeting. The warrant for any such annual or special meeting shall be served or posted at least 14 days before the date of such special meeting. Every warrant shall be deemed to have been duly served or posted, if the return on the warrant shall so state, and it shall be certified by the officer or officers required to serve or post the same. All bonds or notes, authorized in accordance with this chapter, shall be signed by the governing board, or a majority of the governing board, and countersigned by the treasurer of the municipality, and shall have the corporate seal, if any, affixed to it. The discretion of fixing the date, maturities, denominations, the interest rate, or discount rate in the case of notes, the place of payment, the form and other details of said bonds or notes and of providing for the sale of such bonds or notes, may be delegated to the governing board or to the treasurer and shall, to the extent provision therefor shall not have been made in the vote authorizing the same, be deemed to have been delegated to the governing board.

2 Placement of Articles on Official Ballot. Amend RSA 39:3-d, I to read as follows:

I. Except as provided in paragraph IV, no article included in a warrant for a town meeting may be considered by placing a question on the official ballot used for election of town officers unless use of the official ballot for that article or type of article is specifically authorized or required by law.

3 Placement of Articles on Official Ballot; Bonds and Notes. RSA 39:3-d, IV is repealed and reenacted to read as follows:

IV. Articles concerning the issuance of bonds or notes may optionally be placed on the official ballot of a municipality regardless of its form of government.

4 Repeal. RSA 39:3-d, V, relative to an exemption for the town of Bedford, is repealed.

5 Effective Date. This act shall take effect 60 days after its passage.