HB 420 – AS INTRODUCED
2007 SESSION
10/01
HOUSE BILL 420
AN ACT relative to the procedures for approving, reviewing, and transferring appropriations in county budgets.
SPONSORS: Rep. Patten, Carr 4; Rep. Phinizy, Sull 5
COMMITTEE: Municipal and County Government
This bill requires that appropriations in a county budget include information on revenues, that requests for transfers be in writing and approved by the county convention, and that supplemental appropriations include funding approval.
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Explanation: Matter added to current law appears in bold italics.
Matter removed from current law appears [in brackets and struckthrough.]
Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.
07-0158
10/01
STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Seven
AN ACT relative to the procedures for approving, reviewing, and transferring appropriations in county budgets.
Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:
1 Counties; Appropriations. Amend RSA 24:14, I to read as follows:
I. All moneys to be appropriated by the county shall be stipulated in the budget on a “gross” basis, showing revenues from all sources, including gifts, grants, bequests and bond issues, as off-setting revenues to appropriations affected. Appropriations by the county convention shall be itemized in detail and a record thereof shall be kept by the clerk of the convention and the county treasurer. The executive committee of the county shall have authority to review the expenditures of the county after adoption of the county budget. Such review may occur as often as voted by the executive committee, but no less than quarterly each year. The convention may require the county commissioners to report once each quarter to the convention or to the executive committee the expenditures of the county as compared to the budget as voted, in such detail as determined by the convention. [The county convention may require that the county commissioners obtain written authority from the executive committee before transferring any appropriation or part thereof under RSA 24:15.] Any request to transfer funds shall be made in writing by a department head to the county commissioners who, if they approve same, shall report in writing their recommendation to the executive committee. The executive committee by majority vote may approve such transfer of funds in whole or in part.
2 Counties; Supplemental Appropriations. Amend RSA 24:14-a to read as follows:
24:14-a Supplemental Appropriations.
I. The commissioners may apply to the county convention for an appropriation to be made subsequent to the adoption of the annual county budget, or the convention, on its own initiative, may consider and act upon a proposed supplemental appropriation. The clerk of the convention shall deliver or mail to each member of the county convention (who will be in office on the date of the convention vote on the proposed supplemental appropriation) and to the chairperson of the board of selectmen in each town and the mayor of each city within the county and to the secretary of state a statement including the amount of the proposed supplemental appropriation and the objects for which the money is required. The convention shall schedule a public hearing on such appropriation to be held within 30 days of the mailing or delivery of said statement. Notice of the date of said hearing and the date of the convention vote on the proposed appropriation shall accompany said statement. A supplemental county appropriation shall require a vote of the county convention as provided in RSA 24:13.
II. The funding for such supplemental appropriation shall be made, after a public hearing held for the purpose, by the executive committee and with the approval of the county convention, by the following methods, singularly or in combination as determined by the county convention:
(a) From available current surplus;
(b) By raising the amount from county taxes to be imposed in the next fiscal year;
(c) From such other funds that are made available to the county.
3 Counties; Exceeding Appropriations; Transfers. Amend RSA 24:15, III to read as follows:
III. [Unless otherwise ordered by the county convention, under] According to the procedures in RSA 24:14, whenever it appears that the amount appropriated for a specific purpose will not be used in whole or in part for such purpose, the county commissioners may use such sum to augment other appropriations, if necessary, provided the total payments for all purposes do not exceed the total sum of appropriations in any year made by the county convention.
4 Effective Date. This act shall take effect 60 days after its passage.