HB1405: relative to requiring municipalities to use official ballot voting procedures for bond issues.

HB 1405-LOCAL - AS INTRODUCED

2003 SESSION

03-2322

08/09

HOUSE BILL 1405-LOCAL

AN ACT relative to requiring municipalities to use official ballot voting procedures for bond issues.

SPONSORS: Rep. Dodge, Rock 80; Rep. Weare, Rock 84; Rep. Itse, Rock 80; Sen. Barnes, Dist 17; Sen. Gatsas, Dist 16; Sen. Green, Dist 6

COMMITTEE: Municipal and County Government

ANALYSIS

This bill requires municipalities to use official ballot voting procedures for bond issues.

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

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Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.

03-2322

08/09

STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Three

AN ACT relative to requiring municipalities to use official ballot voting procedures for bond issues.

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

1 School District and Municipal Bonds. RSA 33:8 is repealed and reenacted to read as follows:

33:8 School District and Municipal Bonds or Notes.

I. The issue of notes or bonds by a school district or municipality shall be authorized by a vote of 3/5, and in accordance with official ballot voting procedures under RSA 40:13, regardless of whether such school district or municipality has adopted official ballot voting procedures.

II. Only votes in the affirmative or negative shall be included in the calculation of any majority of all the voters present and voting at an annual or special meeting of such school district or municipality called for the purpose of paragraph I.

III. 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.

IV. A public hearing shall be held at least 14 days before a scheduled vote. Notice of the public hearing shall be published once in a newspaper having a general circulation in the school district or municipality at least one week before the public hearing. The deliberative session shall qualify as the required public hearing in school districts or municipalities which have adopted official ballot voting procedures under RSA 40:13.

V. The warrant for a special meeting shall be published once in a newspaper having a general circulation in the school district or 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.

VI. 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.

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