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Senator’s bill would let counties opt into biennial budgets; panel advances measure
Summary
Senator Tim Lang introduced a bill to let counties put a biennial budget option to voters; the committee moved the bill forward on an OTP vote and placed it on the consent calendar after limited public comment and support from the counties association.
Senator Tim Lang told the committee a bill under consideration would allow county commissioners, by majority vote, to place on the ballot a question asking voters to opt a county into a biennial budget cycle that mirrors the state’s two-year process. Lang said the proposal is ‘‘pretty straightforward’’ and would let counties align their off-year budget process with the state’s.
Kate Horgan of the New Hampshire Association of Counties said the association ‘‘does not take position on the bill as it is enabling’’ but offered to answer operational questions about how counties currently do budgets. Committee members had no substantive objections as drafted.
The committee moved the bill OTP (ought to pass) and placed it on the consent calendar following an executive session and an oral vote recorded in the hearing transcript. Senators discussed ballot timing requirements — commissioners must vote before September 1 to get the question on the November ballot — and asked staff to adjust statutory language in a potential amendment related to the timing and governing-body definitions.
The panel took no further amendments at that time and put the item on the consent calendar.
