2023 NHMA Legislative Bulletin 02

LEGISLATIVE BULLETIN

“We Call It Local Control”

On Thursday, January 5, Governor Sununu was sworn in for a fourth term and gave his Inaugural Address to a joint session of the House and Senate in Representatives’ Hall. Among other items, he praised town moderators and election officials for their commitment to New Hampshire’s election process and expressed strong support for our long history of local control: 

It's not big government’s job to impose its will upon cities and towns, dictating this and mandating that and saying you must and you cannot. In New Hampshire, we distill decision-making down the lowest possible levels of power, empowering individuals to make their voices heard at the local level, where their voice is the greatest. 

Here in New Hampshire, we call it local control. We’ve been doing it for hundreds of years, and we’re not going to stop now. 

We agree.

A(nother) Look at Housing

The lack of housing affordable to a wide range of working households is having a direct, immediate and serious negative impact on the ability of many communities to host new business or to expand existing businesses … and placing severe burdens on many municipalities in the form of rising costs for emergency housing assistance.” 

Report of the Interim Study Committee on Funding for Affordable Housing. October 19, 2000. 

No, that’s not a typo. The issue of New Hampshire’s housing shortage has persisted since the mid-1990s, and it’s not an issue unique to the Granite State. There are many complex factors that contribute to the acute shortage of housing, and, in particular, affordable housing. We’ve heard a number of legislators speak to the need to address the shortage in recent months, and housing is certain to be a primary focus of the 2023 legislative session.  In fact, in this week’s calendar, the Speaker of the House announced the appointment of a Special Committee on Housing this year, and we anticipate that a fair number of housing-related bills will be headed there. The committee members are as follows:

 

Special Committee on Housing

 

Joe Alexander, Chair

Ben Baroody, Vice Chair

Mark McConkey

Josh Adjutant

Scott Wallace

Charlotte DiLorenzo

Thomas Walsh

Merryl Gibbs

Josh Yokela

Ellen Read

NHMA recognizes the need for diverse and affordable housing in New Hampshire and the responsibility of each municipality to afford reasonable opportunities for the development of diverse and affordable housing. We believe that municipalities should have discretion in determining how to increase affordable housing. To that end, NHMA supports legislation which promotes a collaborative approach between the state, municipalities, and other key stakeholders to address the state’s housing shortage and supports legislation that enables municipalities to find innovative ways to ensure an adequate supply of housing. Conversely, NHMA opposes legislation that detracts from existing local authority and that erodes local control over land use decisions. 

One bill that we are particularly interested in seeing come to fruition is LSR 2023-1045. Although the language has not-yet-been publicly released, nor has it been given an official bill number, we were fortunate to work with the sponsor, co-sponsors, and a number of interested parties to get an early glimpse at its language. The bill, as drafted, would provide municipalities access to new water, wastewater, and other infrastructure funding in exchange for voluntary changes to local zoning ordinances that promote the building of more housing.  

The bill seeks to address some of the largest costs associated with housing. Developers will build the type of dwelling units that the market demands, and what the market demands varies based on where a unit will be located in the state. Urban, urban-adjacent, suburban, and rural areas all have unique characteristics, which makes it impossible to create a one-size-fits-all solution. However, all of these areas do share a few characteristics, namely the infrastructure that does or could connect them. That infrastructure is very expensive to install and maintain, but the existence of some of that infrastructure does have tangible costs that could translate to lower home prices—specifically, water and sewer infrastructure. 

Water lines currently cost between $1.5 and $2 million per mile, and basic wastewater infrastructure upgrades cost between $20 and $40 million. While that’s a significant amount of money – usually too much to justify an extension or capacity upgrade to existing lines – access to those types of infrastructure make housing cheaper to build because the cost of a couple of pipes from a home to a street is significantly less than drilling a well, testing the water, installing whatever contaminant mitigation devices are necessary, and installing a septic system including leach field. The exact same house can cost up to $50,000 less to build if it has access to that public water and sewer infrastructure as one that must install a well and septic system. 

When there’s access to public water and sewer infrastructure, concerns related to well radii and sufficient land to install a replacement septic system diminish. Therefore, it would be possible to increase the density of building across a variety of dwelling unit types without impacting public health or safety. 

LSR 2023-1045 combines these two ideas into one package labeled the “Housing Champions Program.” It is a voluntary program that would grant municipalities access to funds for local infrastructure in exchange for changes to local zoning codes that promote the building of more housing. The program would be administered by the Bureau of Economic Affairs (BEA) and the Housing Champions Designation would occur on a 3-year rolling basis. Rulemaking would occur in advance of the launch of the program to allow the BEA to fill in the details about what sorts of zoning code changes would be necessary to adopt for designation as a “Housing Champion” and how the additional money would be allocated. The bill has yet to go through the legislative process, but we are hopeful that, at least, the initial allocation of $25 million would be made available for disbursement by BEA. 

We hope to see this type of approach on housing embraced.

Cannabis Legalization Efforts Continue

Fifteen cannabis-related bills have been filed this year, with a number of them pertaining to legalization of cannabis. This year’s legislation focuses on anything from complete legalization to legalization and sale by the liquor commission (a redraft of a bill that House members coalesced around last year) to state-regulated retail sale of cannabis. Two options seem most likely to pass the legislature: sale by the liquor commission or state-regulated retail sale. 

The idea of the liquor commission selling cannabis may sound familiar because that was the idea behind last year’s HB 1598, which we summarized in Bulletin #17. Although the bill language is not yet public, in speaking with legislators familiar with both bills, both LSR 2023-70 and LSR 2023-516 would propose a liquor commission sales approach with some differences, and some differences in how profits from the sale of cannabis will be distributed. 

State-regulated retail sale of cannabis appears more likely to pass this year, however. LSR 2023-528 has the bipartisan backing of both the House Majority Leader and House Minority Leader – meaning passage in the House is almost certainly assured – along with the support of several senators. Its fate almost certainly rests with the Senate and Governor. Although the bill language is not yet public, in speaking with legislators in both parties in the House familiar with the legislation, it appears that the draft bill would see municipalities receive a distribution of funds similar to, but perhaps more favorable than, last year’s HB 1598. We have heard from a number of legislators this year that they are concerned with the New Hampshire Retirement System’s unfunded accrued liability, and we anticipate intense discussions on how much – rather than whether – to fund that unfunded accrued liability. 

NHMA has a detailed policy related to the sale of cannabis. Our Legislative Policy Conference adopted a policy that NHMA opposes legislation that authorizes the sale of cannabis unless the following provisions are included: 

  • Local opt-in (not opt out). The legislation must state that the processing, manufacture, refinement or sale of cannabis products in any municipality shall only be permitted after the legislative body of that municipality has adopted the provisions of enabling state legislation permitting such activities (“opt-in,” not “opt out”). 
  • Funding. Legislation that legalizes the sale of cannabis must include provisions for adequate and sustained funding to municipalities to address the costs associated with legalization because municipalities will be the governmental entities that will have to directly deal with the impacts of legalization. 
  • Host Community Agreement. Any legislation allowing for retail establishments for the sale of cannabis or cannabis products shall include a requirement for a host community agreement with the municipality in which a marijuana establishment is located, which may include provisions such as a community impact fee; a limit on the percentage of sales of total gross receipts that are related to cannabis sales; security measures for premises; agreements to fund police details when necessary; for crowd or traffic control; and termination of business provisions. 

We are looking forward to working with legislators to craft legislation that would maintain local control by allowing municipalities to opt-in (not opt-out, as in last year’s HB 1598), provide funding for municipalities, and provide for host establishment agreements.

Live Bill Tracker

 Code

 Scan to stay informed on legislation affecting cities and towns! 

As we wrote about last week, NHMA has launched a new feature on our website: a live bill tracker. This tracker, run by the software platform FastDemocracy, will enable visitors to our website to see what bills NHMA is following. It also allows visitors to subscribe to daily or weekly (published Fridays) updates on either all the bills that we’re tracking or specific bill topics. We have organized the bills into topics based on our member-adopted Legislative Policies and Principles. Visitors can also choose to subscribe to individual bills. Subscribers will get updates as things happen – e.g. bills are scheduled for committee hearings, votes, etc. – and updates only on the bills which move forward. Visitors will also notice that we will be adding publicly facing notes explaining what the bill does; indicating NHMA’s applicable legislative policy; and stating our position. Some of the information we’ve traditionally published in the Bulletin will now be available through our live bill tracker. The benefit of the bill tracker is that members can always have real-time information on bill activity: With a 4-minute delay and automatic updates, the bill tracker will ensure that you know if and when something changes with the bills that interest you.

New Bills

Please click here to find a list of newly published bills that NHMA is tracking. We will be publishing a table every week as new bills are published this year. Please note that publication of bills is occurring about two weeks later this session than in prior sessions. Also, the Senate deadline for final sign offs has been extended from January 12 to January 17. 

House Standing Committees

 

ELECTION LAW

Steve Smith, Chair

Connie Lane

Ross Berry, Vice Chair

David Cote*

Katherine Prudhomme-O’Brien

Gerry Ward

Ralph Boehm

Heidi Hamer

James Qualey

Joan Hamblet

Aidan Ankarberg

Russell Muirhead

Claudine Burnham

Luz Bay

Stephen Kennedy

Angela Brennan

Robert Wherry

Jessica Grill

Clayton Wood

Heath Howard

 

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND ADMINISTRATION

Carol McGuire, Chair

Jaci Grote

Matt Simon, Vice Chair

Peter Schmidt

Tony Lekas

Jeffrey Goley

Glenn Bailey

Dianne Schuett

Matthew Santonastaso

Michael O’Brien

Chris True

Matthew Wilhelm

Tom Dolan

Fred Davis

Kimberly Abare

Daniel Fitzpatrick

Jason Gerhard

Sherry Gould

Shane Sirois

Juliet Smith

 

FINANCE

Ken Weyler, Chair

Mary-Jane Wallner

Keith Erf, Vice Chair

Sharon Nordgren

Dan McGuire, Vice Chair, Div. I.

Peter Leishman, Chair, Div. I

Joseph Pitre, Vice Chair, Div. II.

Thomas Buco

Tracy Emerick, Chair, Div. II.

William Hatch*

Gerald Griffin

David Huot

Maureen Mooney, Vice Chair, Div. III.

Mary Heath

Jess Edwards, Chair, Div. III.

Kate Murray

Harry Bean

Karen Ebel

J.R. Hoell

Laura Telerski

Joe Sweeney

Mary Hakken-Phillips*

Jose Cambrils

Jerry Stringham*

Daniel Popovici-Muller

 

 

JUDICIARY

Bob Lynn, Chair

Marjorie Smith

Scott Wallace, Vice Chair

Timothy Horrigan

Joe Alexander

Charlotte DiLorenzo

Louise Andrus

Cam Kenney

Dave Testerman

Mark Paige

Walter Stapleton

Rebecca McBeath

Richard Tripp

Shelley Devine

Jeffrey Greeson

Judi Lanza

Katelyn Kuttab

Zoe Manos

Kristine Perez

Eric Turer

  

LABOR, INDUSTRIAL AND REHABILITATIVE SERVICE

William Infantine, Chair

Brian Sullivan

Brian Seaworth, Vice Chair

Benjamin Baroody

Lino Avellani

Michael Cahill

Andrew Prout

Linda DiSilvestro

David Love

Timothy Soucy

Stephen Boyd

Donald Bouchard

James Mason

Joshua Adjutant

Riche Colcombe

Mark Mackenzie

Mike Drago

Kristina Schultz

Michael Granger

Daniel LeClerc

  

MUNICIPAL AND COUNTY GOVERNMENT

Len Turcotte, Chair

Laurel Stavis

Diane Pauer, Vice Chair

Bruce Tatro

Joseph Guthrie

Susan Treleaven

John MacDonald

Julie Gilman

Richard Lascelles

Jim Maggiore

Josh Yokela

Latha Mangipudi

Diane Kelley

Eric Gallagher

Deborah Aylward

Matthew Hicks

Richard Brown

Allan Howland

Tim Cahill

David Preece

  

PUBLIC WORKS AND HIGHWAYS

Mark McConkey, Chair

John Cloutier, Vice Chair

David Milz

Martin Jack

Jim Fedolfi

Michael Abbott

Clifford Newton

Michael Edgar

Thomas Kaczynski

Barry Faulkner

Richard Beaudoin

Sue Newman

Bill Boyd

Daniel Eaton

Charles Melvin

Michael Pedersen

Steven Bogert

Mark Vallone

James Connor

Louis Juris

  

RESOURCES, RECREATION AND DEVELOPMENT

Andrew Renzullo, Chair

Suzanne Vail

Bob Harb, Vice Chair

Rosemarie Rung

Linda Gould

Eamon Kelly

James Horgan

Alexis Simpson

Juliet Harvey-Bolia

Heather Baldwin

Robert Healey

Will Darby

Dan Wolf

Tommy Hoyt

Tanya Donnelly

Jessica LaMontagne

Ron Dunn

Peter Lovett

Tim McGough

Linda Ryan

  

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND ENERGY

Michael Vose, Chair

Kat McGhee

Doug Thomas, Vice Chair

Rebecca McWilliams

Jeanine Notter

Jackie Chretien

Michael Harrington

Lucius Parshall

Troy Merner

Tony Caplan

John Lewicke

Chris Muns

Lex Berezhny

Henry Noel

JD Bernardy

Wendy Thomas

Tom Ploszaj

Thomas Cormen

James Summers

Ned Raynolds

  

WAYS AND MEANS

Laurie Sanborn, Chair

Susan Almy

John Janigian, Vice Chair

Richard Ames

Jordan Ulery

Thomas Southworth

Fred Doucette

Dennis Malloy

Walter Spilsbury

Thomas Schamberg

Fred Plett

Sallie Fellows

Dan Hynes

Bill Bolton

Julius Soti

Susan Elberger

Cyril Aures

Nicole Leapley

David Rochefort

Geoffrey Smith

Upcoming Hearings

Hearing times and dates are subject to change. Click on any bill below to view the most up-to-date information. 

House Election Law, LOB, Room 306-308

Jan 10, 2023 

HB 101

Title: relative to requiring voters declare a party affiliation prior to a state primary election.

Hearing 1:00 PM

HB 116

Title: relative to fees and primary petitions required for primary ballot election access.

Hearing 2:00 PM

House Education, LOB, Room 205-207

Jan 11, 2023 

HB 103

Title: relative to school board member qualifications.

Hearing 11:25 AM

House Municipal and County Government, LOB, Room 301-303

Jan 11, 2023 

HB 70

Title: relative to residency requirements for deputy town clerks.

Hearing 10:30 AM

HB 72

Title: relative to the tenure of public librarians.

Hearing 10:45 AM

HB 80

Title: relative to tax exempt status for county real property leased for agricultural uses.

Hearing 2:30 PM

House Education, SH, Room Reps Hall

Jan 12, 2023 

HB 61

Title: relative to teaching on discrimination in the public schools and discrimination in public workplaces.

Hearing 9:30 AM

House Executive Departments and Administration, LOB, Room 306-308

Jan 12, 2023 

HB 30

Title: allowing a county to exempt its chief administrative officer from compulsory participation in the retirement system.

Hearing 10:00 AM

HB 183

Title: relative to employment of retired firefighters at the fire academy.

Hearing 10:45 AM

HB 193

Title: relative to administration of the New Hampshire retirement system.

Hearing 11:30 AM

 

NHMA Upcoming Events

Jan. 7

2023 Town & School Moderators (SB 2) Workshop (hybrid) – 9:00 – 1:30

Jan. 9

Webinar:  2023 Legislative Preview – 12:00 – 1:00

Jan. 12

2023 Regional Legislative Preview in Lebanon – 6:30 – 8:00

Jan. 18

2023 Regional Legislative Preview in Dover – 7:00 – 8:30

Feb. 2

2023 Regional Legislative Preview in Sugar Hill – 6:00 – 7:30

Feb. 4

2023 Town & School Moderators (Traditional Town Meeting) Workshop (hybrid) – 9:00 – 1:30

Please visit www.nhmunicipal.org for the most up-to-date information regarding our upcoming events. Click on the Events& Training tab to view the calendar. 

For more information, please call NHMA’s Workshop registration line: (603) 230-3350.

2023 NHMA Legislative Bulletin 02

January 6, 2023

GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS CONTACT INFORMATION

Margaret M.L. Byrnes
Executive Director

Natch Greyes
Government Affairs Counsel

Katherine Heck
Government Finance Advisor

Jonathan Cowal
Municipal Services Counsel

Timothy W. Fortier
Communications Coordinator

Pam Valley
Administrative Assistant



25 Triangle Park Drive
Concord NH 03301
603.224.7447
governmentaffairs@nhmunicipal.org