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Commissioners decide transfers from unanticipated expense not required after legal review of RSA 24:15
Summary
County finance staff requested several intrafund transfers to cover health insurance, contracted nursing, sheriff outside detail and debt service. Commissioners reviewed RSA 24:15 and concluded transfers were not required provided the county’s total appropriations were not exceeded and therefore declined to move the transfers.
At a regular meeting, Belknap County finance staff presented requests to transfer funds from an unanticipated expense line to cover several overspent or at‑risk line items.
Lori (county finance staff) asked to transfer $2,353 to finance health insurance; $135,719 to contracted nursing services in the nursing home; $13,198 to the sheriff’s office for outside detail; and $9,309 to the general fund debt service.
Commissioners asked whether the transfers were required by auditors or by state law. The transcript records a statutory citation read into the record as RSA 24:15; the statute was discussed by commissioners and staff as stating that no county officer may incur liability in excess of an appropriation but that county commissioners may augment one appropriation with another where the total payments for all purposes do not exceed the total sum of appropriations by the county convention.
Based on that interpretation, several commissioners said transfers were not required if the county’s total appropriations had not been exceeded. Commissioner Deborah and others expressed a preference to leave department line items as reported so future budgeting will reflect actual overspends rather than masking them through transfers. Sheriff Bill said he preferred transfers because they “zero out” a department budget for recordkeeping and to defend spending decisions, but he acknowledged commissioners would support him if any external challenge arose.
After discussion, the board agreed not to make the transfers and to leave the current reporting in place. Commissioners noted the county has sufficient funds to cover the shortfalls for the remainder of the fiscal year and that the transfers are a budgeting tool rather than a statutory necessity when the total county appropriation is not exceeded.
No formal vote was recorded; commissioners indicated consensus to defer the transfers.
