Last week the governor announced the establishment of the Governor’s Office for Emergency Relief and Recovery (GOFERR), which is charged with the investment and oversight of COVID-19 relief and stimulus funds provided to New Hampshire by the federal government. He then appointed a Legislative Advisory Board to gather information and provide recommendations on the disbursement of the federal funds. The committee comprises the Senate President and minority leader, the House Speaker and minority leader, and the chairs and ranking minority members of the House and Senate Finance Committees. 

The committee met by conference call on Monday and Wednesday of this week, and was meeting again this morning. The committee plans to continue meeting every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 1:00 p.m. 

In last week’s Bulletin we said we would be preparing a survey for all municipalities to gather information about expenditures and lost revenues resulting from the coronavirus; we hoped to distribute the survey by April 24. That schedule was expedited significantly after the Legislative Advisory Board said at its Monday meeting that it would like to hear from municipalities, including from NHMA, at today’s meeting. With a little less time than we had planned for refining and polishing, we got the survey done overnight and distributed it on Tuesday. We were extremely pleased to receive responses to the survey from 125 municipalities in only 48 hours.  Thank you to all our members who responded so promptly. 

The high response rate demonstrates that municipalities are extremely concerned about the financial impacts, and the answers indicate that the expected effects are significant, but that it’s too early to estimate them with anything approaching precision. We do know that municipalities are at least as concerned about lost revenues—especially but not only property tax delinquencies—as they are about additional expenditures. Many have also expressed concern about potential loss of state aid, especially meals and rooms tax revenue and the one-time $20 million appropriation that was approved last year. 

As this Bulletin went to press this morning, NHMA representatives were presenting the survey results and other information to the Legislative Advisory Board. We will produce a written summary of the results and make it available to our members soon. Other local officials were also providing information to the board this morning about the challenges their municipalities are facing. 

It is early in this process, and no decisions have been made. We will keep you posted about developments in this Bulletin and, as necessary, with updates on our website or by e-mail. In the meantime, we continue to urge all municipalities to track all COVID-19-related expenses and lost revenues for possible reimbursement.

As we mentioned last week, The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has given notice of its intent to provide financial assistance to the State of New Hampshire, local governments, and certain private nonprofit organizations under the national emergency declaration.  Eligible emergency protective measures taken to respond to the COVID-19 emergency at the direction or guidance of public health officials may be reimbursed.  State and local government entities and certain private nonprofit organizations throughout the entire state are eligible to apply for assistance. 

The New Hampshire Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (HSEM) will disseminate information regarding assistance guidelines and the application process in the near future.