HB 432-FN – AS AMENDED BY THE HOUSE
12Feb2009… 0089h
2009 SESSION
03/09
HOUSE BILL 432-FN
AN ACT relative to penalties for telephone harassment involving a number used to facilitate transportation of voters or otherwise to support voting or registering to vote.
This bill makes it a class B felony for a person to commit telephone harassment by making calls to a telephone number used to facilitate transportation of voters or otherwise to support voting or registering to vote.
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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Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.
12Feb2009… 0089h
09-0414
03/09
STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Nine
AN ACT relative to penalties for telephone harassment involving a number used to facilitate transportation of voters or otherwise to support voting or registering to vote.
Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:
1 New Paragraph; Telephone Harassment; Voter Transportation. Amend RSA 644:4 by inserting after paragraph III the following new paragraph:
IV. A person shall be guilty of a class B felony if the person violates RSA 644:4, I(a) under circumstances involving making telephone calls to a telephone number that he or she knows is being used, at the time of the calls, to facilitate the transportation of voters to polling places or otherwise to support voting or registering to vote.
2 Effective Date. This act shall take effect upon its passage.
LBAO
09-0414
01/14/09
HB 432-FN - FISCAL NOTE
AN ACT relative to penalties for telephone harassment involving a number used to facilitate transportation of voters or otherwise to support voting or registering to vote.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The Judicial Branch, the Judicial Council, the Department of Corrections, and the New Hampshire Association of Counties state this bill may increase state and county expenditures by an indeterminable amount in FY 2010 and each year thereafter. There will be no fiscal impact on local expenditures or state, county, and local revenue.
METHODOLOGY:
The Judicial Branch states this bill will add to RSA 664:4, IV., the offense of telephone harassment, normally an unspecified misdemeanor, as a class B felony if the harassment involves a telephone number used to facilitate transportation of voters. The Branch states this bill will not add cases to the docket, but has the potential to increase the cost of existing cases with the increased penalty. The Branch states the cost of an unspecified misdemeanor case is $35.75 and the cost of a class B felony case is $335.98 in FY 2010 and each year thereafter. Increasing the penalty from an unspecified misdemeanor to a class B felony will increase the cost by $300.23 per case. The Branch has no information to estimate how many charges would be brought as a result of the changes contained in the bill to determine the fiscal impact on expenditures. However, if a single case were to be appealed to the New Hampshire Supreme Court, the fiscal impact would be in excess of $10,000.
The Judicial Council states this bill may result in an indeterminable increase in general fund expenditures. The Council states if an individual is found to be indigent, the flat fee of $756.24 per felony is charged by a public defender or contract attorney. If an assigned counsel attorney is used, the fee is $60 per hour with a cap of $4,100 for a felony charge. The Council also states additional costs could be incurred if an appeal is filed. The public defender, contract attorney and assigned counsel rates for Supreme Court appeals is $2,000 per case, with many assigned counsel attorneys seeking permission to exceed the fee cap. Requests to exceed the fee cap are seldom granted. Finally, expenditures would increase if services other than counsel are requested and approved by the court during the defense of a case or during an appeal.
LBAO
09-0414
01/14/09
The Department of Corrections states the average annual cost of incarcerating an individual in the general prison population for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2008 was $32,753. The cost to supervise an individual by the Department’s division of field services for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2008 was $779. The Department states this bill may increase expenditures by an indeterminable amount, but is unable to predict the number of individuals that might be impacted.
The New Hampshire Association of Counties states to the extent an individual is prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced to incarceration, the counties may have increased expenditures. The Association is unable to determine the number of individuals who might be detained or incarcerated as a result of this bill. The average cost to incarcerate an individual in a county facility is $30,165 a year.