On Wednesday, the House Legislative Administration Committee voted to recommend HB 1033 as Ought to Pass with an Amendment, by a vote of 9-4. (Two amendments were actually adopted that work in tandem to amend the bill, as described below.) 

As we wrote in Bulletin #4, HB 1033 significantly burdens the ability of local, school, and county officials to speak and engage in the legislative process. The amendment makes the bill worse. During the work session that preceded Wednesday’s executive session, representatives on the committee did correctly recognize that the original version of the bill jeopardized the free speech of municipal officials. However, the amended version, presented in part to address that issue, appears to put an additional burden on local officials. 

The amendment would now insert a prohibition on the use of funds for lobbying into RSA chapter 24 (for counties), RSA chapter 31 (for towns, cities, village districts, and unincorporated places, although RSA chapter 31 is not the appropriate chapter for city governments), and RSA chapter 195 (for schools). Each new section uses the same language, stating that “no state grant or appropriation” or “funds collected from property taxes” can be used for lobbying by local governments. While the original version of the bill prohibited the “recipient” of funds from using those funds for lobbying, this amended version now prohibits the municipality from using funds for lobbying. 

A principal argument in support of the bill was that property taxes should not be used for lobbying, and one committee member even commented that people would be “horrified” if they knew that occurred. The evidence, however, is to the contrary. It is no secret that NHMA and similar organizations actively engage in lobbying, and it is well known that municipal dues are a part of every municipal budget. In most towns, these budgets are approved directly by the voters themselves, and they can easily choose not to include those dues in the budget. In fact, there have been occasional attempts at town meetings to remove NHMA dues from a budget, and those efforts have consistently been defeated.

Given the choice, local voters have routinely approved budgets that include dues for NHMA and other organizations that lobby on behalf of local government. While some voters may be “horrified” by this, the majority are not. That is why every one of the state’s 234 municipalities is a member of NHMA. 

The supporters of HB 1033 want to take this choice away from local voters. We believe voters should be permitted to make these decisions for themselves—just as the state legislature can decide for itself whether to use taxpayer funds for membership in the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), which lobbies the federal government on behalf of the states. 

Under New Hampshire law, municipalities fund their budgets and local functions primarily through property taxes. This includes paying vendors and other individuals and entities for services. Funds are not required to be separated out for any of these services. Some committee members reasoned that municipalities could, instead, fund lobbying and advocacy services through the use of other revenue streams, such as recycling fees or dog license fees. It is important to note that many types of municipal fees are restricted, meaning they can be used only for certain purposes spelled out in statute. And if a few citizens object to using their property tax money for lobbying, why would they be any happier about using their dog license fees for that purpose? 

A comment was also made that HB 1033 was just “house cleaning” because it merely extended a state requirement to local governments. The argument was that since RSA 15:5 prohibits recipients of state funds from using those funds to lobby the state, recipients of local funds should also be prohibited from lobbying the state. 

But this argument is not consistent with the purpose of RSA 15:5, as indicated by the legislative history of SB 206 from 2005, which was not discussed in the work session/executive session. The focus of that legislation, which gave us our current statute, was the ethics of the executive branch. The purpose of RSA 15:5 was to ensure that state funds would not be used to lobby the state. HB 1033 would prohibit a municipality from using municipal funds to lobby the state—an entirely different scenario. The use of municipal funds to lobby the state is more analogous to the use of state funds to lobby the federal government, whether through NCSL or directly by state officials who are paid from tax revenues. 

Just as the state makes decisions about the state budget through the legislature, municipalities, through their legislative bodies, should be able to make their own decisions about how to spend funds at the local level. Again, every municipal legislative body—in most cases, the town meeting—has the opportunity to decide how it will spend its money. Most political subdivisions have decided that it is more cost effective to contribute to organizations that speak on their behalf, rather than pay to send employees or elected officials to the legislature every week. And while it was suggested that taxpayers shouldn’t fund NHMA because not all residents agree with its positions, the same could be said for any other municipal action. 

Speaking of legislative history, there was also discussion about the legislative history of bills similar to HB 1033. With respect to previous, similar legislation, all these anti-local government lobbying bills were recommended Inexpedient to Legislative by overwhelming margins: HB 1560, 17-0 (2014); HB 233, 13-1 (2017); and SB 158, 5-0 (2020). Nothing has changed in the last few years that warrants a different result this time. 

The bill will go to the full House at its next session. Despite the committee’s report, we believe this bill can be defeated on the floor, but it will require a lot of communication with legislators before then. Please contact your representatives as soon as possible. Explain to them why the lobbying efforts of NHMA and similar organizations are so important and ask them to kill HB 1033.