NHMA director warns statewide zoning mandates, budget cuts could shift costs to Bedford and other towns

Margaret Burns, executive director of the New Hampshire Municipal Association, briefed the Bedford Town Council on state-level proposals she said are likely to affect local government budgets and authority.

Burns told the council that NHMA members have adopted a policy opposing statewide zoning mandates and that this year lawmakers have introduced about 50 individual zoning mandate proposals. “Under NHMA’s member adopted policies, we oppose all zoning mandates,” she said. She said many of the bills are moving rapidly, often being placed on consent calendars with little floor debate.

Why it matters: Burns said fast-moving statewide zoning mandates could remove local decision-making power and create conflicting requirements that are difficult for towns to implement. She added that unclear or internally inconsistent language in bills increases the risk of litigation, which would impose costs on municipalities and ultimately on local taxpayers.

Details from the presentation and council discussion

- Study commission: Burns described House Bill 399, a study commission on the New Hampshire Zoning Act. She recommended caution about changing law before the study is completed, saying the commission should review statutes comprehensively before lawmakers adopt broad mandates. Councilor Kathleen Bemis asked whether the study is statewide or limited to specific towns; Burns said it is statewide and composed mainly of legislators and leadership appointees, which may limit direct municipal representation.

- Right-to-know expansion: Burns flagged House Bill 66, a high-priority right-to-know proposal that she said would broaden municipal obligations to send records and could create a two-tier approach to requests. She told the council NHMA is concerned the bill would force towns to respond to large, out-of-state commercial requests without adequate protections for municipal labor and costs.

- Meals-and-rooms and other municipal aid: Burns said the state budget is facing a revenue gap and described proposals in House Finance to reduce the municipal share of the meals-and-rooms tax (from 30% toward 25% in committee discussion) and to change distribution formulas in ways that could leave some towns with no distribution. She said NHMA opposes cuts to the municipal share and urged local advocacy.

- Risk pools and SB 297: Burns identified Senate Bill 297 as a significant concern because it would change risk-pool governance and require municipalities to appropriate contingency dollars if a pool’s reserve falls below statutory levels. That change, she said, would shift risk and potential new costs onto municipal budgets.

- Other topics: Burns summarized NHMA services (legal advice, training, publications, and advocacy), noting a staff of about 10 and a governing board of 25 local officials. She encouraged Bedford officials to use NHMA resources and to contact their legislators.

Delegate and council questions

Bedford’s delegation — including state Sen. Denise Ricciardi and several House members — attended and answered council questions about priority bills. Representative Catherine Rambo described amendments in judiciary committee to HB 66 intended to narrow the scope of electronic record delivery and to allow municipalities to require in-person review in some cases; she noted postage can be recovered for mailed records but that labor costs are generally not covered. Senator Ricciardi confirmed she is opposing bills she called “bad bills” and urged local advocacy on meals-and-rooms and zoning topics.

Council members and the delegation discussed other bills cited by NHMA, including Senate Bill 84 (state zoning changes), Senate Bill 297 (risk pools), and ambulance-billing bills (SB 245 and HB 316). Several councilors asked the delegation to pull problematic measures from consent calendars and to brief the council when fast-moving bills could affect Bedford.

Ending: Burns closed by encouraging Bedford officials to sign up for NHMA bulletins and the bill tracker and to raise municipal concerns with the town’s legislators. Councilors thanked the NHMA director and the delegation for attending.