Secretary of State urges funding for local records manager, warns digitization has costs beyond a single hire

David Scanlon, New Hampshire’s Secretary of State, told the House Finance Committee that the position of local government records manager was established in 2002 but never funded. "I certainly see the importance of at least filling the position of local records manager," Scanlon said, describing the role as a resource to help municipalities improve storage, digitization and ADA accessibility for records.

Scanlon said larger towns often maintain good archives but some smaller municipalities store records in poor conditions. He described a state archival digitization center and said localities can use state resources, but that creating a statewide, publicly available document repository would add costs beyond the salary. "I think that's a good place to start," he said of an initial $40,000–$50,000 figure for website/storage in the bill; he added the cost would likely grow if the program scaled up.

Committee members cited the bill’s fiscal note and asked if the $50,000 estimate for a five‑year subscription remains accurate. Scanlon said that figure is "a good place to start," but that demand could push the cost higher and that implementation could be incremental; he also offered to have his IT team help a constituent try to recover records allegedly lost after a municipality moved files to the cloud.

Committee outcome: the chair opened and closed the work session on HB 164; the bill remains retained for further consideration.

Ending: Lawmakers signaled interest in pursuing the position but asked for clearer budget estimates for storage and ongoing program costs before authorizing a statewide repository.