New Hampshire Town and City, September-October, 2017

September/October 2017

TownandCity N E W

H A M P S H I R E

A PUBLICATION OF NEW HAMPSHIRE MUNICIPAL ASSOCIATION

In This Issue:

2017 Annual Conference, Center Spread Strategic Governance: Your Link to a Desired Future....10 Finding the Right Data...............................................15 The Municipal Budget Committee.............................17 State Budget Recap – Twists and Turns.....................21

Contents Table of

Volume LX • Number 5

September/October 2017

3 A Message from the

NHMA Executive Director

5 Happenings 9 Upcoming Events 33 NLC Report: Participatory Budgeting Toolkit 34 Best Practice Series: Best Practices in Local Government Budgeting 37 This Moment in NHMA History/Name That City or Town 38 NHARPC Report: MS4 Permit 40 Up Close and Personal in the Field: Cheryl Lord 41 Up Close and Personal in the Field: Rick Hiland 42 Legal Q and A: The Default Budget in SB2 Towns

New Hampshire Town and City Magazine Staff

Executive Director Editor in Chief

Judy A. Silva Timothy W. Fortier

Contributing Editors Margaret M.L. Byrnes

Barbara T. Reid Art Director

Scott H. Gagne

Production/Design

Scott H. Gagne

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Strategic Governance: How Municipalities Can Envision and Achieve a Desired Future

15

Finding the Right Data: NHPFC.org as a Resource for Strategic Financial Planning

17

The Municipal Budget Committee: Roles and Responsibilities

21

State Budget Recap – Twists and Turns

27

Maximizing the Influence of Your Forecast

Cover Photo: Lempster Town Hall by Town Clerk/Tax Collector, Barbara Richards.

Official Publication of the New Hampshire Municipal Association 25 Triangle Park Drive • Concord, New Hampshire 03301 Phone: 603.224.7447 • Email: nhmainfo@nhmunicipal.org • Website: www.nhmunicipal.org New Hampshire Municipal Association Phone: 800.852.3358 (members only) NEW HAMPSHIRE TOWN AND CITY (USPS 379-620) (ISSN 0545-171X) is published 6 times a year for $25/member, $50/non-member per year, by the New Hampshire Municipal Association, 25 Triangle Park Drive, Concord, New Hampshire 03301. Individual copies are $10.00 each. All rights reserved. Advertising rates will be furnished upon application. Periodical postage paid at Concord, NH 03302. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to NEW HAMPSHIRE TOWN AND CITY, 25 Triangle Park Drive, Concord, NH 03301.

NEW HAMPSHIRE TOWN AND CITY serves as a medium for exchanging ideas and information on municipal affairs for officials of New Hampshire municipalities and county governments. Subscriptions are included as part of the annual dues for New Hampshire Municipal Association membership and are based on NHMA’s subscription policy. Nothing included herein is to be construed as having the endorsement of the NHMA unless so specifically stated. Any reproduction or use of contents requires permission from the publisher. POSTMASTER: Address correction requested. © Copyright 2017 New Hampshire Municipal Association

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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017

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New Hampshire Municipal Association

Board of Directors The Board of Directors oversees NHMA’s league services. The board is comprised of 25 local officials elected by NHMA member municipalities.

Seated, left to right: Caroline McCarley (Mayor, Rochester), Elizabeth Fox (Assistant City Manager/Human Resource Director, Keene), Shaun Mulholland (Town Administrator, Allenstown; Treasurer), Donna Nashawaty (Town Manager, Sunapee; Vice Chair), Brent Lemire (Selectman, Litch eld, Chair), Candace Bouchard (Councilor, Concord; Secretary), Scott Myers (City Manager, Laconia, Immediate Past President), Priscilla Hodgkins (Clerk/ Tax Collector, New Castle), and Chris Dwyer (Councilor, Portsmouth).

Standing, left to right: Eric Stohl (Selectman, Columbia), Bill Herman (Town Administrator, Auburn), Patrick Long (Alderman, Manchester), Philip D’Avanza (Planning Board, Go stown), Shelagh Connelly (Selectman, Holderness), Hal Lynde (Selectman, Pelham), John Scruton (Town Administrator, Barrington), Stephen Fournier (Town Administrator, Newmarket), David Caron (Town Administrator, Derry), Jim Maggiore (Selectman, North Hampton), Teresa Williams, Town Administrator, Wake eld,* Butch Burbank (Town Manager, Lincoln) and David Stack (Town Manager, Bow).

Missing: Ben Bynum (Clerk/Tax Collector, Canterbury), Elizabeth Dragon (City Manager, Franklin), and Nancy Rollins (Selectman, New London). *Teresa Williams resigned in November 2016.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE TOWN AND CITY

www.nhmunicipal.org

A Message from the

NHMA

Executive Director Judy Silva

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very once in a while we experience something that makes a strong impression on us; one of those moments when we drive home without ever turning on the radio. That happened to me recently when I attended the “Arizona or Bust” celebration held for Jessie Levine.

I have known Jessie for most, if not all, of my 25 years with NHMA. She served on the NHMA Board of Directors and often testified at the legislature. Always an energetic supporter of NHMA and local government, she was a good spokesperson.

So it was with much sadness that I learned several years ago of her ALS diagnosis.

Jessie has now moved to Arizona with her sister—hence the “Arizona or Bust” event before she left. (See item in Happenings section of this magazine.) The municipal managers who organized the gala used their best creative manager skills and planned a fantastic party. It was a gorgeous Saturday afternoon at Mt. Sunapee and there were decorations, a raffle, lots of food and drink, inside and outside seating, and a live band.

There were close to 300 people there—elected municipal officials and employees, city and town managers, and friends from across the state. A real who’s who of local government! And there was a line to get in—because Jessie personally greeted everyone as they arrived.

It was an assembly of the faces of local government. Everyone knew someone— and most likely at least 20 or 30 other people who were there. There was camaraderie and conversation, and serious discussions and laughter. Everyone came in support of Jessie, but it was also a gathering of people who genuinely cared about each other and respected each other.

It wasn’t a sad going away party; it was a party with a purpose, and it succeeded in raising a lot of money for ALS. The collegiality I observed and felt is part of what makes working with this community of municipal officials so rewarding. I made the hour drive home without realizing that I never turned on the radio—lost in the thoughts of a day spent with great people from New Hampshire cities and towns.

Warmest regards,

Judy Silva NHMA Executive Director

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Demystifying the MS4 Permit Wednesday, September 13 2017 12:00 pm—1:00 pm

Upcoming

Webinars NHMA will be hosting two webinars in September and October for members of the New Hampshire Municipal Association.

Demystifying MS4 Permit Current Use Assessment: 50 Years of Open Space Preservation

New Hampshire’s new federal MS4 permit, intended to address and reduce stormwater pollution at the local level, was released on January 2017 and goes into effect July 2018. While seemingly daunting, many municipalities are already well on their way toward compliance with their existing stormwater programs.

Join Rockingham Planning Commission Senior Planner Julie LaBranche, NHDES Watershed Outreach Coordinator Barbara McMillan, UNH Stormwater Center Research Engineer Timothy Puls, and Nashua Regional Planning Commission Interim Executive Director Jen Czysz as they provide a comprehensive overview of the new permit, walk through some easy first steps toward compliance, provide examples of how other communities/institutions are approaching the permit requirements, and share available resources.

Current Use Assessment: 50 Years of Open Space Preservation Wednesday, October 18 2017 12:00 pm—1:00 pm 2018 marks the 50th anniversary of the passage of Part 2, Article 5-B of the New Hampshire Constitution that authorized the assessment of “any class of real estate at valuations based upon the current use thereof”. After nearly 5 decades, New Hampshire’s Current Use Program is well established in statute, caselaw and practice – but continues to evolve as modern -day issues arise.

Join Current Use Board member and Chief Tri-Town Assessor Norm Bernaiche, along with Barbara Reid, NHMA Government Finance Advisor and former Current Use Board Chair, as they review the history of Current Use, explain operational aspects of the program, including the roles and responsibilities of landowners, assessors and the Current Use Board, and discuss the relevancy of recent court decisions and other matters that may warrant further consideration by Current Use stakeholders.

For details and registration information, visit www.nhmunicipal.org under Calendar of Events .

Questions? Call 800.852.3358, ext. 3350, or email NHMAregistrations@nhmunicipal.org.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE TOWN AND CITY

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HAPPENINGS Buckley Bikes to Work Between May 15-19, NHMA’s Legal Services Counsel, Stephen Buckley, logged 44 miles over 2 round trips by biking to and from work as part of the challenge hosted by the Central New Hampshire Commuter Challenge. Participants in the central New Hampshire region logged a total of 715 miles and a total of 62 trips logged. To learn more about how to get involved in your regional program, go to Commute Smart New Hampshire website at www.commutesmartnh.org.

Good work Steve!

Preece Presented with Prestigious Recognition At the National Association of Regional Councils 51st Annual Conference in Monterey, California in June, recently retired Southern New Hampshire Planning Commission (SNHPC) Executive Director David J. Preece, AICP was presented with the prestigious Walter Scheiber Leadership Award, presented in recognition of leadership excellence in advocating regional concepts, approaches, and programs at all levels of government.

Mr. Preece, former Executive Director of the Southern New Hampshire Planning Commission (SNHPC), has been instrumental in promoting engagement and participation with local communities on behalf of SNHPC. His focus on community outreach and engagement has revitalized collaborative planning efforts in the region, including his involvement in creating the Housing and Conservation Roundtable—a statewide, incentive-based program to give communities the ability to plan housing, economic development, and conservation as a unified planning strategy—has ensured its success. This www.nhmunicipal.org

roundtable brings together planners from a diverse set of communities and facilitates collaboration and communication across the region.

The National Association of Regional Councils (NARC) serves as the national voice for regionalism by advocating for regional cooperation as the most effective way to address a variety of community planning and development opportunities and issues.

Heavy Demand for NHMA’s On-Demand Training Program NHMA’s Legal Services team have been meeting members’ heavy demand for our On-Demand training program.

During the months of June and July alone, Attorneys Buckley and Byrnes have traveled all around the state and presented at a dozen On-Demand programs requested by member municipalities. Members have found they can get the training they need when they need it just by calling on NHMA’s OnDemand program. Each presentation is approximately 2 hours in length and costs $475. We encourage the requesting municipality to invite officials and employees from surrounding NHMAmember municipalities to attend and share the cost.

Here’s where and what our legal services team have been up to in June and July: Wilmot: Right-to-Know Law; How to Hold an Effective Meeting and Work as a Board Hinsdale: Budget Law Milford: How to Hold an Effective Meeting and Work as a Board Londonderry: Right-to-Know Law; How to Hold an Effective Meeting and Work as a Board

Dover: Conflicts of Interest and Ethics for Local Officials Colebrook: Planning Board and/or ZBA basics (roles and procedures) Lincoln: Budget Law Sanbornton: Recreational Liability New Durham: Conflicts of Interest and Ethics for Local Officials Littleton: Planning Board and/or ZBA basics (roles and procedures) Plaistow: Budget Law To request an NHMA On-Demand presentation, or for more information, please send an email to legalinquiries@ nhmunicipal.org.

Town of Bow Recognizes its Volunteers On June 29, Bow hosted a dinner at the Old Town Hall prepared by the Bow Community’s Men Club to honor and recognize those individuals who serve the town as unpaid volunteers on boards and commissions. Congratulations to the nearly 50 volunteers recognized at this year’s event. Whether a volunteer appreciation breakfast, picnic, or ice cream social, these types of events are a great opportunity to recognize and thank the volunteers who make your city or town so great.

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HAPPENINGS from page 5

Trail Maintenance for Volunteers Handbook Available!

Trail Maintenance for Volunteers is part of a series of training guides produced by The Stewardship Network: New England, a project of the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension with funding support from the NH Charitable Foundation. This guide is intended to be used by organizations or individuals seeking to train volunteers to conduct stewardship and educational activities. Use these guides to organize your own volunteer training workshop or to learn more about best practices. Materials includes instructor’s guides, slide presentations, videos, activities, sample agendas, and more.

Visit The Stewardship Network New England website for additional guides and training resources. If you have any questions, contact Emily Lord, Stewardship Outreach Coordinator, by email at emily.lord@unh.edu or by phone 603.862.1572.

Packed Room for Right-to-Know Law Workshop NHMA recently held its first Right-to-Know Law workshop at NHMA offices on June 8th to a full house of over 70 members in conjunction with the release of its new publication, A Guide to Open Government: New Hampshire’s Right-to-Know Law. NHMA’s Government Affairs Counsel Cordell Johnston, Legal Services Counsel Stephen Buckley and Staff Attorney Margaret Byrnes led the discussions during the full-day workshop.

The Right-to-Know Law (RSA Chapter 91-A) affects every aspect of local government in our state. Every board, committee, commission, and subcommittee in every town, city and village district in New Hampshire must comply with this law. As a result, all local officials and employees must understand the law and their responsibilities regarding both public meetings and governmental records.

Another full-day workshop is planned for Thursday, September 14 at NHMA offices in Concord. The workshop will address some of the most difficult issues under the law, including confidential information, electronic records and communication, procedures for nonpublic sessions, and communications outside a meeting. Check under Calendar of Events at www.nhmuncipal.org for registration details.

Governor Sununu signs SB 57 at a bill signing ceremony in Amherst Town Hall surrounded by municipal, water work professionals, state officials and legislative leaders.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE TOWN AND CITY

NHMA’s Government Affairs Counsel Cordell Johnston speaks to a full house of members as Legal Services Counsel Stephen Buckley and Staff Attorney Margaret Byrnes look on.

Municipal officials from Amherst, Claremont, Enfield, and North Conway gathered on July 20 to see Governor Chris Sununu sign SB 57 into law in a bill signing ceremony held in historic Amherst Town Hall. SB 57, an NHMA policy bill, appropriates $3.5 million to the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services to fund nineteen specific water and wastewater projects that received local financing approval prior to December 2008. The bill also authorizes a $5 million loan from the Drinking Water and Groundwater Trust Fund to extend a water line in Amherst to properties impacted by contamination. Governor Sununu praised the Legislature for “coming together in a bipartisan fashion to ensure public health and safety in this State.”

www.nhmunicipal.org

Arizona or Bust Sadly, Jessie Levine has left New Hampshire. In July, Jessie moved to Tucson, Arizona to live with her sister and family.

Jessie was most recently the Sullivan County Manager, serving as the Commissioners’ agent for the financial and adAbove, Jessie Levine acknowledging the ministrative management of the County. love and support Prior to her tenure with the county, Levine from family and served over 16 years in New Hampshire friends at the June 24th event held at municipal government as the Chief AdMt. Sunapee Resort. ministrative Officer for Bedford and New London and as the Assistant Town Manager/HR Director for the Town of Hanover.

During a conference in 2014, Jessie’s speech became inexplicably impaired. Upon returning to New Hampshire and after extensive testing, Jessie was diagnosed with ALS, commonly known Lou Gehrig’s disease, which affects the nervous system and causes muscles to weaken and lose function. Jessie’s disease has progressed to the stage where she can no longer work in a full-time capacity in her chosen career.

For those of you may not know Jessie well, her passion for community building is evident throughout her career: • The Newport Road Sidewalk and Streetscape Project in New London, which won the 2003 Plan NH Merit Award for Excellence in Design (and the Jessie W. Levine Roundabout, as proclaimed by the New London Select Board); • Establishing New Hampshire’s first Tri-Town Assessing Program in 2005; • Spearheading the Elkins Revitalization Project in 2008; • Serving as past-president of the New London Rotary Club; • Serving on the New Hampshire Municipal Association Board of Directors from 2005-2012; • Leadership New Hampshire Class of 2011; • 2015 New Hampshire County Administrator of the Year; • Recipient of the 2007 International City/County Management Association Program Excellence Award; • 40 Emerging Leaders under 40 Award from the Union Leader in 2010; • Raymond S. Burton Public Service Award;

www.nhmunicipal.org

Friends wanted to gather in a small setting to see their friend off as she embarked upon the next chapter in her life. Jessie thought better of it, and wanted to gather her friends, colleagues and acquaintances in a celebration of community building and also serving as a fundraiser to help others who are similarly afflicted with ALS. So, on June 24th, at the Mount Sunapee Resort, nearly 300 people gathered to recognize Jessie and raised nearly $12,000 to benefit Compassionate Care ALS (www.ccals. org), a non-profit organization with a mission to support people diagnosed with ALS, their families and communities as they navigate the complexities, both physical and emotional, associated with the disease. The organization provides resources including equipment, educational workshops, Medicare/Medicaid assistance, guidance and awareness in living with ALS, and caregiving.

We will miss you, Jessie, and think of you often. Be well.

Members of the Municipal Managers Association of New Hampshire gather on June 11, 2015 on Hampton Beach to do an ice bucket challenge in Jessie Levine’s honor. This photo would later be memorialized on a blanket and presented as a gift to Jessie.

Special Thanks to Prime Sponsors!

The NHMA and the MMANH wish to thank the following prime sponsors who supported and honored our friend and colleague who has touched so many lives through her professional and civic contributions in the Upper Valley and throughout New Hampshire.

Mount Sunapee Resort Sheila St. Germain Appleseed Restaurant Sheehan, Phinney, Bass & Green Elizabeth McClain Echo Communications Municipal Resources, Inc. Competitive Computer Cartographic Associates, Inc. Dave & Loretta Caron Cotton Cleveland & John Garvey Upton & Hatfield, LLP Virtual Towns & Schools Sugar River Savings Bank VHB Engineers Stantec Engineers King Arthur Flour JSJ Auctioneer Grezlak and Co. Interware Development Eversource Grappone, Inc. Donahue, Tucker & Ciandella Dubois & King Clough, Harbour & Associates Drummond Woodsum BMSI

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NEW HAMPSHIRE TOWN AND CITY

www.nhmunicipal.org

Upcoming

Events SEPTEMBER

Workshop: Budget and Finance Tuesday, September 12 9:00 am – 4:30 pm Location: SERESC Conference Center, Bedford Webinar: Demystifying the MS4 Permit Wednesday, September 13 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm Workshop: Right-to-Know Law Thursday, September 14 9:00 am – 4:00 pm Location: NHMA Offices, 25 Triangle Park Drive, Concord 2017 Municipal Law Lecture Series Saturday, September 23 9:00 am – 4:00 pm Location: Medallion Opera House, 20 Park Street, Gorham

www.nhmunicipal.org

For more information or to register for an event, visit our online Calendar of Events at www.nhmunicipal.org. If you have any questions, please contact us at nhmaregistrations@nhmunicipal.org or 800.852.3358, ext. 3350.

Workshop: Budget and Finance Tuesday, September 26 9:00 am – 4:30 pm Location: Attitash Grand Summit Hotel, Bartlett

OCTOBER 2017 Municipal Law Lecture Series Saturday, October 14 9:00 am – 4:00 pm Location: NHMA Offices, 25 Triangle Park Drive, Concord Webinar: Current Use Assessment: 50 Years of Open Space Preservation Wednesday, October 18 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm Workshop: A Hard Road to Travel Friday, October 27 9:00 am – 4:00 pm Location: NHMA Offices, 25 Triangle Park Drive, Concord

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STRATEGIC GOVERNANCE:

How Municipalities can Envision and Achieve a Desired Future EDITOR’S FORWARD: Every city or town should have a governing strategic document, a community blueprint. This blueprint maps out a future direction, a future vision, and the desired results the municipality would like to see achieved. This blueprint casts a clear vision of the community’s future, and in return, the budget should fulfill this vision.

The budget process is important because it impacts every municipal function. The wide range of responsibilities that cities and towns face only seem to grow from year to year, including police and fire protection, code enforcement, utility services, solid waste, economic development, infrastructure improvements, animal control, parks and recreation, and much more. Since the municipal budget determines the amount of funding available to each department, budgeting usually exerts more influence on what gets done than a strategic plan. It is because the budget is such an important part of municipal government that it should be tied to a strategic plan. Governing simply cannot be about shuffling the numbers a bit from year to year. The budget should be a work horse.

In Amherst, Mike Akillian instituted a very successful strategic planning and governance process across town government. His article reveals how“strategic governance” changed the way town officials reviewed and presented its budget to its residents with consistent and positive results. “Strategic governance” is a planning process that can help take the politics out of the municipal budget process. Every way that you can improve the budget process, and strategic governance itself, is ultimately an improvement for your city or town.

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By Mike Akillian

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he role of strategic governance is to help leaders and citizens create a desired future – intentionally. Key aspects of the process are to involve all stakeholders in envisioning that future, then to manage the present so that decisions and efforts made each day move the community towards that vision.

People at all levels of local government make decisions every day that have strategic consequences. So, it is essential that everyone in government be involved and engaged in shaping future directions to ensure that their decision making serves those priorities. This happens when communities deploy strategic thinking and leadership skills for use by all government personnel.

Strategic Governance Defined Strategic governance consists of two separate but related ongoing efforts. The first has to do with engaging citizens and officials in codifying what matters most to their community and in envisioning a desired future in which those values and outcomes are attained and preserved.

This is strategic thinking; it aims to help people decide what to achieve.

The second activity involves managing efforts to make that vision a reality. It entails framing and managing strategic initiatives as well as the day-to-day efforts of running a municipality. This is operational governance; it aims at ensuring that the right things get done at the right time for the right expenditure of tax dollars, i.e., how to achieve it.

Without both, a municipality will fail to serve its citizens fully. If a community successfully envisions a desired future but fails to take relevant steps to make it a reality, it won’t happen. Conversely, if municipal officials simply forge ahead – perhaps “doing what’s always been done” – without a clear framework for what they’re trying to accomplish, there is little likelihood they will successfully meet citizen expectations. As the old adage says, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.”

The Cycle of Strategic Governance Strategic governance enables communities to understand their past, envision the future, and manage the present as a way to get there.

NEW HAMPSHIRE TOWN AND CITY

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No plan, however strategic, can remain static, because we live in a constantly changing world. So this process calls for plans to be refreshed at least annually to serve as relevant and useful guideposts. Also, plans are more likely to be achieved if people believe they are realistic and match the reality they deal with daily.

A Step-By-Step Approach The process of doing strategic thinking and operational governance involves 10 activities and their associated work products, each of which can be accomplished by people who may not have done extensive strategic planning in the past. These phased steps create a framework through which department heads, selectmen, and other town officials can structure their thinking and efforts for maximum success. The work products from these activities include:

3. An environmental scan to anticipate key factors from within the town and from other sources (federal and state regulations, professional regulations and new requirements, etc.) that might well have an impact on community needs and departmental operations.

4. A SWOT analysis of external opportunities and threats that might impact each department along with departmental strengths and weaknesses that should be better managed.

5. A dashboard reflecting current key performance measures for each department.

6. A vision for where each department should be heading and what it should achieve over a specified time period.

7. A set of strategic initiatives that would be required to fulfill that vision (including those that would be required by other departments to support their efforts).

8. A vision dashboard reflecting all the outcomes each department wants to achieve over a multi-year planning period.

9. Strategic plans with associated budgets for those years.

10. A strategic plan presentation and document covering all these elements that are publicly presented to and discussed with the selectmen and shared with citizens.

What Each Activity Achieves Each of the 10 activities plays a specific role in ensuring that the past remains a reference point for the future, and

1. A defined work plan and timeline for the overall strategic governance process.

2. A set of historical dashboards that shows trends in service demand, spending, staffing, key initiatives, etc. for each department. www.nhmunicipal.org

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STRATEGIC from page 11 that current-day activities remain in service to what a community wants for its future.

The Hallmarks of This Approach Strategic governance differs from more traditional planning and management efforts because it is: • Rooted in meaningful data.

• Promotes strategic thinking, not just planning.

• Reinforces the municipality’s culture and values.

• Empowers all involved to do their best.

• Links the strategic with the operational and measurable.

• Provides a repeatable process that communities can learn to do on their own.

Case Study: Town of Amherst, New Hampshire ​​The town of Amherst is located in the southern tier of New Hampshire in Hillsborough County on the western edge of the Merrimack Valley and the eastern edge of the Monadnock region. With a population of approximately 12,000 residents and a land area of nearly 35 square miles, Amherst is a growing suburban-rural community that has successfully maintained many desirable historic and rural characteristics.

Overcoming Issues Through Strategic Governance Prior to adopting strategic governance in 2013, Amherst’s town government 12

had endured three default budgets in five years. This was, in part, due to: • A lack of clearly defined issues and outcomes, which made justifying expenditures hard.

• Citizens’ perceived a lack of transparency in town government.

• The Board of Selectmen focused on micro-management rather than on higher-level strategic thinking and operational governance.

​ In 2013, the selectmen embraced the idea of strategic governance, which was introduced to the town by selectman, Mike Akillian. Following a clearly prescribed process, town departments (Fire, Police, EMS, DPW, Community Development, Recreation, Town Clerk, Town Administrator, Tax Collector, Finance along with the public library developed strategic plans by completing the 10 work activities in just four months (May-August). They have also used these plans to underpin their annual operating plans and budgets for each year since then.

Consistently Positive Results The changes in town governance and in citizen support have been significant: • Since 2014, citizens have passed all town budgets and virtually all key warrants by a 2:1 margin and often by a 3:1 margin.

• More authority and responsibility has migrated down to department heads, while more timely information flows up to the town administrator and selectmen.

• Citizens always know where things stand and are very pleased with town government performance.

• Of the 31 municipalities in Hillsborough County, Amherst continues to have the 7th lowest tax rate (lower than 24 others) while providing excellent town services.

This represents an excellent value for taxpayers.

NEW HAMPSHIRE TOWN AND CITY

Other town committees, commissions, and boards have embraced strategic governance, and it has served as the basis for strategic planning of Amherst Village, the central village of Amherst’s historic district, the largest such district in New Hampshire.

Planning and Leadership for the Longer Term Department heads, selectmen, and the town administrator used strategic thinking as the basis for multi-year initiatives, operational plans, and budgets, and counted the FY15 planning cycle as the first of a multi-year planning process.

In public meetings, they used real-time tools to debate and clarify tradeoffs and impacts of various strategic scenarios for taxpayers. They also used other communications approaches to engage a wide array of citizens and groups across Amherst so that residents understood the process, the reasons for it, and the rationale for goal setting and decision making.

Most important, government officials began measuring and reporting on progress towards all goals, which are stated as citizen-oriented outcomes, so that residents can clearly see how they benefit from initiatives and investments.

Keeping Plans Relevant – Annually In each subsequent year, all plans have been refreshed in late spring to account for changes either within Amherst or those likely to impact the town from outside. Refreshed plans are presented annually to the selectmen, who use these plans as the basis for their annual operational planning and budgeting and for explaining to residents their intent and the elements that comprise the proposed budget. Department heads are now quite self sufficient in managing their strategic thinking and in presenting publicly. (All Amherst strategic plans can be found at http:// www.amherstnh.gov/board-selectmen/ pages/strategic-planning-budget-process.) www.nhmunicipal.org

Vertical and Horizontal Perspectives The strategic plans of the various town departments reflect the vertical perspectives of functional groups into which Amherst’s town government is organized to do work. But there are broader, more horizontal, categories that, together, shape the quality of life for Amherst residents. ​The Board of Selectmen have framed what they believe to be the broader strategic priorities of the town that they will use as the basis for their decision making over the next several years. These include: • • • • • • • • • •

Public safety (Police, Fire, EMS) Infrastructure/Built Environment Financial Condition Community/ Economic Development Town Character Environment/Landscapes Historic/Heritage Housing Recreation Education

Improving Master Planning and Capital Improvements Planning In the Process Strategic governance can also greatly enhance a community’s master planning efforts. When a community is clear about its strategic goals, its planning board inherits a broad framework to use as a basis for its land use planning. Too often, planning boards struggle to get significant public engagement to define their community’s long-term goals, which makes creating an appropriate multi-year land use plan that much harder. Most planning boards have neither the skills nor staff to tackle strategic thinking on their own. This often leads to master plans that fall short of their potential usefulness and the dollars invested in the process.

The strategic governance process helps communities frame the larger strategic goals, thereby enabling the planning www.nhmunicipal.org

boards to focus on their strengths in land use planning and aligning ordinances and project implementation with those long-term plans in a well-timed fashion. It also aids in thinking through the priorities and timing of capital expenditures because they are tied closely to clearly framed strategic initiatives.

Conclusion: A Framework for Smart Decision Making Strategic governance helps create a context for annual planning and budgeting.

Everyone in town government knows what longer-term goals they’re working for, so the plans and budgets for each year are driven by how much progress will be made towards those goals. This agreed-upon framework for the future also helps dull individual agendas, because there is clear consensus regarding the goals to be achieved. It also empowers more distributed and effective decision making throughout municipal government, because everyone knows the goals, the initiatives, and the budgets that have been approved by the electorate – all of which can enhance their daily decision making. This keeps activities and progress aligned with the broader goals and citizen expectations.

chair of the Board of Selectmen. In Amherst, Mike instituted a very successful process of strategic planning and governance across town government.

Mike also has a strong background in education. He has served as vice president of an executive-education firm training clients such as the Harvard Business School faculty and executives at General Electric, Pillsbury, and Perdue Farms in using technology for informed decision making. The Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges has adopted his refinements to traditional strategic planning as best practices for its 1,900 member organizations and 40,000 individual members.

Together with Sarah Marchant, Mike serves at the Center for Strategic Governance (https://strat-gov.com?), a public service company that aims to help municipalities and schools attain the futures they desire.

Ultimately, the power of strategic governance is in engaging citizens and municipal officials in a collaborative venture of attaining the future they want at a cost they can afford.

About the Author Mike Akillian has over 35 years of experience in applying strategic planning, marketing, management, communications, and decision support to help organizations, and municipal government, prosper. Mike lives in Amherst where he has served on the Ways & Means Committee, the Capital Improvements Planning Committee, the Superintendent of School’s strategic planning team, and as a selectman and vice SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017

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Budget & Finance WORKSHOPS 9:00 am—4:30 pm

Tuesday, September 12 SERESC Conference Center, Bedford, NH

9:00 am—4:30 pm

Tuesday, September 26

Attitash Grand Summit Hotel, Bartlett, NH

Cost is $90 and includes continental breakfast, lunch, and a copy of NHMA’s 2017 edition of The Basic Law of Budgeting: A Guide for Towns, Village Districts, and School Districts.

Understanding the Municipal Budget Process

Using the 2017 edition of NHMA’s Basic Law of Budgeting as a guide, this full-morning session will address all aspects of the municipal budget process focusing on appropriations, gross-basis budgeting, separate vs. special warrant articles, multiyear contracts, transfers, lapses, spending limitations, duties of official budget committees, special budget requirements under the SB 2 process (official ballot voting), and other topics. This session is a must for members of governing bodies, budget committees, and other local officials involved in the budget process. Ample time will be provided for questions.

Presented by: Stephen Buckley, NHMA Legal Services Counsel, and Margaret Byrnes, NHMA Staff Attorney.

How to Finance Municipal Budgets

This session will address the numerous ways to finance the municipal budget including user fees, reserve and special revenue funds, unanticipated revenue, use of fund balance, capital improvement plans, long-term debt, and of course property taxation. The importance of multi-year planning will be explained along with the process to estimate budgetary impacts on the property tax rate.

Presented by: Stephen Buckley, NHMA Legal Services Counsel and Barbara Reid, NHMA Government Finance Advisor.

Top Tips for Successful Budgeting

This panel of seasoned finance officials will share their tips for a successful budget process – tried and true steps to help selectmen, budget committee members, city/town councilors, and voters understand the choices, impact and effect of budgetary decisions. While not as humorous as some of David Lettermen’s “Top 10” lists, this session will nevertheless send you home with new ideas to help develop your budget proposal and to convey to decision-makers at all levels the most important aspects of your budget message. Sponsored by: NH Government Finance Officers Association.

Presented by: Judie Belanger, Director of Finance and Administration, City of Portsmouth; Betsy McClain, Director of Administrative Services, Town of Hanover; and Judie Milner, Finance Director, City of Franklin.

2018-2019 State Budget—What’s In (or Out) for Cities and Towns?

This session will review the municipal funding that is in and out of the biennial state operating budget that took effect July 1, 2017, as well as municipal funding that was provided in separate legislation outside the budget. The history and recent trends of state aid to municipalities will be highlighted.

Presented by: Barbara Reid, NHMA Government Finance Advisor.

Questions? Call 800.852.3358, ext. 3350, or email NHMAregistrations@nhmunicipal.org

Register online at www.nhmunicipal.org under Calendar of Events

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www.nhmunicipal.org

Finding the Right Data:

NHPFC.org as a Resource for Strategic Financial Planning

By Justin Lowe

F

inancial forecasting and comparative budget analysis are important tools for municipal governments and are included among the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) best practices for budget preparation.

Both the GFOA and the Government Accounting Standards Board provide guidance on the proper use of these methods, highlighting their utility and discussing some of the datarelated concerns. They emphasize that the results from these approaches, like any other form of quantitative or analytical modeling, rely on access to appropriate data. One of the challenges that goes unmentioned is the acquisition and preparation of the data­­—a critical and time-consuming step in the analysis process. The New Hampshire Public Finance Consortium (NHPFC) maintains their public web portal for exactly this purpose, providing free access to an expanding number of municipal datasets to help users overcome this challenge.

Limited modeling, such as basic forecasting, can be performed without access to data beyond that which is stored in a government’s own records. However, this type of “isolated” modeling can lead to “improper conclusions,” the GFOA warns. To improve forecast models and to engage in any type of meaningful comparative analysis, municipal governments must look beyond their own data; they must consider data from similar municipalities and include various supplementary datasets and econometrics.

In New Hampshire, most of this data is considered “open data” and is made available by various state agencies and indexed on the New Hampshire Department of Information Technology’s Open Source and Open Data site

www.nhmunicipal.org

(https://www.nh.gov/doit/open-source/) with the intention that it be available for anyone to use without restriction. However, the task of aggregating and organizing the data into a usable form often requires various technical and data analysis skills and both familiarity with, and access to, appropriate software tools. This creates an “artificial restriction”effectively reducing the accessibility of the data for many people.

There are several for-profit, private sector companies that offer services which address the need for accessible data.

They offer public portals and tools at various price points that allow users to access and analyze public data. When considering whether to purchase these services, it is important to understand that in most cases the primary product is the service and accompanying tools, with data access simply an ancillary benefit. This has the effect of replacing the barriers of time and skill with one of cost; the pricing models limit the adoption of these services, either placing them out of reach of smaller municipalities or making it difficult to justify for those simply looking to provide data access without the need for additional services. With limited adoption among municipalities, the issues of compartmentalization and decentralization of the data across many sites remains an issue. Here, the NHPFC saw an opportunity to overcome these barriers by providing a state-wide resource for municipal financial data.

The Consortium contacted Axiomatic, a Portsmouth-based firm responsible for managing the New Hampshire Department of Revenue Administration’s (NHDRA) Municipal Tax Rate Setting Portal (MTRSP) and Assessment Web Portal, to develop an improved site at no additional cost SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017

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DATA from page 15 to either the municipal governments or the public. In 2016, the NHPFC re-launched their public web portal at www.NHPFC.org, with a new interface and an improved data model. The portal provides local governments in New Hampshire and the public with free, convenient access to a centralized resource for state-wide municipal finance data that would otherwise be spread across numerous municipal websites, stored in various financial software systems, or simply inaccessible without significant time and effort.

The new NHPFC site obtains municipal financial data directly from the NHDRA’s MTRSP database, providing public access to standardized financial data from every municipality in the state. Axiomatic built custom extract, transform, and load (ETL) processes to import, re-organize, and re-structure the financial data and supplement it with data from other sources, such as demographics from the New Hampshire Office of Energy and Planning and unemployment figures from the New Hampshire Department of Employment Security, to ensure that the datasets can be continually updated. The aggregated data can then be displayed on sample graphs available on the site or downloaded as an easy-to-use CSV text file, allowing users to jump directly into their analysis work. The portal itself was re-built to ensure that it is accessible and usable across a greater range of devices from desktop and laptop computers to tablets and smartphones.

the data itself—to provide documentation about where the original data came from, the date it was retrieved or imported, and any number of other details or limitations which would be important for users to be aware of when determining if the data is appropriate for their analysis.

In addition to providing improved access to the data, the site also features several pre-defined graphs, allowing users to visualize common comparisons and financial trends. With only a few mouse clicks, users can generate a graph and save it as a high-quality image which can be placed directly into reports and presentations.

As new datasets are added to the model and new feedback is received from users, new graphs are made available.

Effective fiscal policy-making relies on informed decision-making supported by rigorous analysis, which, in turn, must be built on a foundation of sound data. This is the purpose of NHPFC.org—to remove the barriers preventing access to that data and to make it easily available for anyone who wishes to use it. With continued feedback and support from the community the site will remain a valuable resource, adapting and expanding as needed to meet the needs of its users.

Justin Lowe is the Director of Operations at Axiomatic in Portsmouth. He is the project leader for NHPFC.org and can be contacted through the www.NHPFC.org website or directly at justin@axiomnh.com.

The NHPFC data model includes 11 pre-defined graphs as follows: • • • • • • • • • •

Components of Gross Valuation Non-taxable Property Values Population Estimates Property Tax Commitment Property Tax Commitment per Capita Property Tax Rates Total Equalized Assessed Valuation per Capita Uncollected Taxes as a Percentage of Property Tax Commitment Unemployment Rates Unreserved General Fund Balance as a Percentage of Property Tax Commitment • Voted Appropriations per Capita

The NHPFC and Axiomatic were also concerned with transparency, an oftenoverlooked aspect of providing access to data. Transparency in both data and the analysis process is just as important as the results when presenting findings or justifying decisions. For this reason, the NHPFC.org data model was designed to store metadata—information about 16

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www.nhmunicipal.org

The Municipal Budget Committee: Roles and Responsibilities

By Margaret M.L. Byrnes

N

o town is required to have a budget committee, but many towns do. If your town does have a budget committee, understanding the committee’s role starts with determining whether the budget committee is official or advisory.

What is an Official Budget Committee?

Whether the committee is referred to as a budget committee, an advisory budget committee, a finance committee, or another name, unless it was adopted by the voters pursuant to RSA 32:14, it is not an official budget committee. Non-official budget committees serve in an advisory capacity to the governing body, which is in control of the budgeting process.

However, if the voters did adopt an official budget committee under RSA 32:14, the responsibility for budgeting has been delegated from the governing body to the official budget committee. In addition to the three to twelve members-at-large, an official budget committee must have one governing body ex officio member, and one village district and/or school board member ex officio, if there is a village district and/or school district that lies wholly within the town. RSA 32:15.

Therefore, while sections 1 – 13 of RSA Chapter 32 apply to all towns, village districts, and school districts that adopt an annual budget, sections 14 – 24 apply only to those with official budget committees.

Overview of Official Budget Committee’s Roles and Responsibilities The purpose of the budget committee is to assist voters in the prudent appropriation of public funds. RSA 32:1.

RSA 32:16 enumerates the four essential functions of the budget committee. www.nhmunicipal.org

1. Prepare the budget. It is the budget committee’s operating budget that is submitted to the New Hampshire Department of Revenue and presented to the voters for adoption at the annual meeting. That being said, the governing body, not the budget committee, has the authority to propose other appropriations (i.e., separate warrant articles containing appropriations). When a village district or school district lies wholly within a town with a budget committee, the town budget committee also prepares the proposed budget for that village district and/or school district. In addition, in SB 2 towns, the budget committee prepares the default budget as well as the proposed operating budget if the voters previously delegated that responsibility to the budget committee.

RSA 40:14-b; RSA 40:13, IX(b).

• Recommendations: As part of the budget committee’s role of assisting voters in the prudent appropriation of public funds, the budget committee is required to put its recommendation (or non-recommendation) on special warrant articles (along with the governing body’s recommendation). Furthermore, if the town meeting has voted previously under RSA 32:5, V-a or RSA 40:13, V-a to require recommendations by numeric tally on all warrant articles containing appropriations (and, in the case of RSA 40:13, V-a, ballot questions), the budget committee’s and governing body’s recommendations should appear on the warrant/ballot for all such articles. RSA 32:5, V-a and RSA 40:13, V-a also permit the governing body in a town to vote to include the numerical tally on these articles when the town meeting has not voted to do so.

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BUDGET from page 17 • Reviewing (not controlling) expenditures: In conjunction with budget committee’s responsibility to prepare the budget, the committee also has the authority to review current expenditures by acquiring a “comparative statement of all appropriations and all expenditures by them made in such detail as the budget committee may require.”

RSA 32:22. In fact, RSA 32:22 says that the budget committee “shall meet periodically to review such statements.”

The purpose of this review is to determine whether the budget is meeting the needs of the town or school district, as the case may be, and to assist the budget committee in putting together a budget. In other words, reviewing current and past expenditures assists the budget committee in preparing future budgets, but it does not give the budget committee authority to control expenditures. See RSA 32:22.

2.

Communicate with the governing body and other officials and employees. The budget committee has not only the authority but also the obligation to “confer with the governing body or bodies and with other officers, department heads and other officials, relative to estimated costs, revenues anticipated, and services performed to the extent deemed necessary by the budget committee.” The statute goes on to say that it is “the duty of all such officers and other persons to furnish such pertinent information to the budget committee.”

Therefore, the basic process should work as follows: First, all officers and departments submit state18

ments of estimated expenses and receipts to the governing body.

Then, the governing body submits its own recommendations to the budget committee, together with all information necessary for the preparation of the annual budget, including each purpose for which an appropriation is sought and each item of anticipated revenue.

In towns with a town manager, all officers and department budgets are submitted to the manager. The manager prepares a recommendation to the select board by January 31 of each year. RSA 37:6, V. However, RSA 32:16 and RSA 32:17 also make it clear that the budget committee has the authority to request information directly from department heads and other officials. While requested information should be provided to the budget committee, the committee must remember that it has no authority to direct municipal staff work duties. Requests should provide a reasonable time frame and a reasonable format for producing the documentation. A careful balance must be attempted between acquiring information necessary for budget preparation and not interfering with the duties of other employees or officials.

Conduct the budget hearings.

3.

At least one budget hearing must be held to “disclose or discuss” all purposes of appropriations. “Purpose of appropriations” includes separate warrant articles containing appropriations, in addition to the operating budget. No new purpose or amount (i.e., one that wasn’t disclosed or discussed at the hearing) can be added to the proposed budget without having an additional budget hearing. Additional budget hearings can be held up until the deadline for finalizing and post-

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ing the budget. For budget hearing and other deadlines, see NHMA’s Important Date Calendars at https:// www.nhmunicipal.org/.

4. Deliver the budget! The budget committee must forward copies of the final budgets to the clerk, as required by RSA 32:5, VI, and deliver two copies of the budget and recommendations on special warrant articles to the respective governing body at least 20 days before the date of the town meeting, to be posted with the warrant.

The 10% Limitation In towns with an official budget committee, the total amount appropriated by the meeting, including amounts appropriated in separate and special warrant articles, cannot exceed the total recommended by the budget committee by more than 10 percent. RSA 32:18. The 10 percent calculation is computed on the total amount recommended by the budget committee (including separate warrant articles), less that part of any appropriation item which constitutes “fixed charges.”

Fixed charges include appropriations for principal and interest payments on bonds and notes, as well as mandatory assessments imposed on towns by the county, state or federal governments.

In official ballot referendum (SB 2) towns and districts, the 10 percent limitation is calculated based on the initial recommendations of the budget committee prior to the first session, even if the budget committee changing its recommendations after amendments are made at the first session.

RSA 32:5, V(b).

Exceptions to the 10% Limitation: • Vote to override, RSA 32:18-a.

If a warrant article for a bond is not recommended in its entirety by the budget committee, www.nhmunicipal.org

the governing body may vote to place the article on the warrant with the phrase “passage of this article shall override the 10 percent limitation imposed on this appropriation due to the non-recommendation of the budget committee.”

must be conducted through a quorum of the board.

This is just an overview! For more information on municipal budget law, refer to NHMA’s publication, The Basic Law of Budgeting.

Margaret M. L. Byrnes is Staff Attorney with the New Hampshire Municipal Association. She may be reached at 800.852.3358 or at legalinquiries@ nhmunicipal.org.

• Cost items excluded, RSA 32:19.

Under RSA 32:19, amounts that are included in a budget for funding the cost items of collective bargaining agreements are exempt from the 10 percent rule.

As a final point, remember that an individual budget committee member has no authority to act on his or her own. The duties and authority described in RSA Chapter 32 are granted to a budget committee, not a budget committee member. Therefore, official action on behalf of the committee

www.nhmunicipal.org

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017

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A Message from Governor Chris Sununu

Encouraging Cities and Towns to Participate in 2020 Census Efforts As the 2020 census approaches, I am asking all cities and towns in our great state to join in the effort to make sure every New Hampshire citizen is counted. An accurate count is important to the State and its municipalities for a variety of reasons, and the special role that local communities play in our State’s governance and culture makes local government participation in the 2020 census efforts critical to our success in ensuring fair representation for New Hampshire.

For the state as a whole, the census plays a key role in ensuring that New Hampshire receives a fair share of our citizens’ tax dollars back from the Federal Government. The stakes are also high for municipalities. Every city and town has an interest in seeing that all of its citizens are counted. This is because the State also uses census data for a variety of purposes, including the drawing of district maps for the General Court and Executive Council, the distribution of State funding and grant monies, and regional planning initiatives.

The first important step in the 2020 census is the Local Update of Census Addresses (LUCA) operation. It is through the LUCA program that cities and towns will have an opportunity to verify and update the address lists that the Census Bureau will use when it begins the actual count in 2020. The Census Bureau is currently distributing invitation letters and registration forms to over 39,000 eligible governments, including New Hampshire’s municipalities, and the last day to register for the LUCA program is December 15, 2017. For more information, visit the LUCA website at https://www. census.gov/geo/partnerships/luca.html.

With the help of the 234 cities and towns across our state, I am confident that we can ensure that all of our citizens are counted and that New Hampshire receives the representation and support that it deserves. My administration is committed to working with you to make this happen.

Thank you in advance for joining us in this effort.

United States Census Bureau • Local Update of Census Addresses (LUCA) Operation Census data tells us who we are as a community The U.S. Constitution requires that a census be conducted every ten years. Although the primary purpose of the decennial census is to apportion seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, census data is used to: • Distribute federal funds for over 1,000 programs administered by 26 federal agencies to tribal, state, and local governments.

• To help the federal government distribute more than $400 billion in funds annually for infrastructure, programs, and services. Most of these programs distribute funds based on formulas that use census data.

Provide statistical support for grant applications that fund • community and regional development, education, agriculture, energy, and environmental programs, as well as other needed community improvements and enhancements.

• Help your community plan for future needs.

• State governments also disperse resources to local governments based on formulas using census data.

• Local governments rely on census socio-economic data such as income, educational attainment, poverty, language spoken, disability status, etc. to plan for future growth.

• To help ensure an accurate decennial census count in your community.

Census data tells us who we are as a community, and census data is collected based on the address list that local governments are asked to verify. Local governments are encouraged to participate in the LUCA program which is a voluntary decennial census operation and is the only opportunity prior to the 2020 Census for local governments to review and update the U.S. Census Bureau’s residential address list

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for their jurisdiction. The Census Bureau relies on a complete and accurate address list to reach every living quarters and associated population for inclusion in the census.

To conduct the census, the U.S. Census Bureau mails questionnaires to every household based on its Master Address File (MAF) of residential and group quarters addresses. However, the MAF may not have every address in every city or town. To make sure that every residence receives a census questionnaire, the Census Bureau invites local governments to verify the Master Address File for their area. Local governments participating in the LUCA program may use local GIS resources with partnership software provided free by the U.S. Census Bureau to verify their addresses, including those in new annexations and developments.

The LUCA program requires an investment of time by local governments to verify the Census Bureau address list for their areas, but failure to verify addresses in our communities may create a larger and more long-term cost. Missing addresses can result in a loss of state and federal grant funds for the next decade. If your government lacks the resources to participate in LUCA, you can arrange for a higher level of government, such as a county; or an organization, such as a regional planning agency or council of governments, to conduct your address review.

If you have any questions, please contact Partnership Specialist Yara McSweeney at 617.733.6175 or at yara.a.mcsweeney@census.gov or Data Dissemination Specialist & Media Relations, Alexandra Barker at 617.519.1099 or alexandra.s.barker@census.gov.

www.nhmunicipal.org

State Budget Recap – Twists and Turns

By Barbara T. Reid

T

he legislative session in each odd numbered year is dominated by the task of developing and adopting an operating budget for the ensuing two-year period beginning July 1. Each budget session is different from any in the past; with its own twists and turns and a few surprises, which helps keep even seasoned State House observers like ourselves here at NHMA on our toes! This year’s budget session was no exception, beginning with the Governor’s proposal to create a local infrastructure improvement fund, to the failure of the House to adopt a budget, and to significant municipal aid being provided “off-budget” in separate legislation. Ultimately, the state biennial budget adopted by the House and Senate, and signed into law by the Governor, along with funding contained in separate bills, provided a mixed bag for municipalities with both favorable outcomes and some disappointments.

tion in accordance with the “catch-up” formula is an NHMA policy position.

Section 75 of the trailer bill suspends the statutory “catchup” formula for both years of the biennium. The catchup formula provides that 75% of the year-over-year increase in revenue from the meals and rooms tax (but not more than $5 million in any one year) be added to the previous year’s municipal distribution to gradually reach the statutory apportionment of 40% of the revenue to municipalities and 60% to the state. Meals and rooms tax revenue has consistently grown over the past decade with the municipal portion reaching a high of 29% in 2010. However, with suspension of the catch-up formula in 2011-2014, 2016 and now 2018 and 2019, the municipal percentage of the meals and rooms tax revenue continues to decline. For fiscal year 2018, the municipal share will be 23%, and is estimated to decline to 22% in fiscal year 2019 based on official state revenue estimates.

The following recaps the funding provisions of municipal interest included in the biennial state operating budget (Chapter 155, HB 144) and the accompanying trailer bill (Chapter 156, HB 517) which includes statutory changes necessary to implement the budget. The budget, including all provisions described below, was effective for the two-year period beginning July 1, 2017.

• Revenue Sharing. Section 86 of the trailer bill continues the suspension of revenue sharing which provided $25.2 million per year to municipalities. Revenue sharing has been suspended every year since fiscal year 2010.

• Meals and Rooms Tax Distribution. The operating budget includes the meals and rooms tax distribution to cities and towns in the amount of $68,805,057 for each year of the biennium. This is the same level of funding that was provided in fiscal year 2017. The actual amount paid to each municipality may vary from year to year since the distribution is based upon annual population estimates. Funding of this distribu-

• Highway and Bridge Funding. The operating budget includes $30,681,888 and $30,811,690 for fiscal years 2018 and 2019, respectively, for highway block grants to municipalities. This money represents approximately 12% of the revenue that comes into the highway fund from the road toll (gas tax) and state motor vehicle fees in the previous year, and is apportioned to cities and towns based on road miles and population.

www.nhmunicipal.org

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017

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STATE BUDGET from page 21 An additional $4.1 million is provided each year of the biennium from revenue raised through the 4-cent road toll increase on July 1, 2014, and is distributed based on the same formula as the highway block grants. An additional $400,000 is appropriated each year to assist those municipalities with relatively high roadway miles and low equalized property values. Finally, section 241 of the trailer bill authorizes disbursement to municipalities of twelve percent of highway fund revenues regardless of the amount appropriated in the budget. This reflects NHMA policy.

Municipal bridge aid is funded at $6.8 million each year of the biennium, and is funded from revenue raised from the 4-cent road toll increase enacted in 2014.

This reflects NHMA policy.

• State Aid Environmental Grants for Water, Wastewater and Landfill Closures. The operating budget includes $7,332,728 and $5,383,716 for fiscal years 2018 and 2019, respectively, to fund existing obligations (i.e. projects that have already received funding approval by the Governor and Executive Council) for water, wastewater and landfill closure grants. Grant payments are made over the life of the amortization period of the municipal financing (bonding or borrowing from the state revolving loan fund). The decrease in funding from fiscal year 2018 to fiscal year 2019 reflects the end of the payment period for some projects.

This is an NHMA Policy position.

Section 144 of the trailer bill continues the moratorium on environmental grants for projects 22

that received local financing approval after December 2008, and which are not funded through previous legislation.

• Flood Control. The operating budget includes $866,250 each year for payments-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) to municipalities in the Merrimack River and Connecticut River flood control compacts, regardless of payments, or lack thereof, from other states involved in the compacts. This is NHMA policy.

Section 142 of the trailer bill requires the New Hampshire Department of Justice to undertake every reasonable legal effort to collect all amounts due to the State of New Hampshire from other states under the Merrimack River flood control compact.

• Land and Community Heritage Investment Program (LCHIP).

The operating budget appropriates $3.5 million each year of the biennium for LCHIP, continuing the funding for this program from revenue raised by the surcharge on the real estate transfer tax recording fee. This is NHMA policy.

• Police Standards and Training. The operating budget fully funds the Police Standards and Training Council, including the New Hampshire Police Academy, through general fund appropriations of $3.4 million and $3.6 million in fiscal year 2018 and fiscal year 2019, respectively.

This is NHMA policy.

• Drinking Water and Ground Water Trust Fund. Section 208 of the trailer bill amends RSA 485-F dealing with the Drinking Water and Ground Water Trust Fund by changing administration of the

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trust from the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services to the commission established under Chapter 11, laws of 2016. The composition of the commission is also amended to include among others, additional municipal and public water system representatives.

• Education Funding. The operating budget includes $925.6 million in fiscal year 2018 and $912.1 million in fiscal year 2019 for adequate education grants to school districts. Special education aid, formerly known as catastrophic aid, is funded at $22.5 million each year of the biennium. School building aid is $35 million in fiscal year 2018 and $33 million in fiscal year 2019.

• State Aid for Funeral Expenses. Section 65 of the trailer bill repeals state payments of funeral expenses for recipients of public assistance.

Municipal funding was also contained in legislation separate from the biennial budget as follows: • State Aid Grant (SAG) Funding. Chapter 207 (SB 57) appropriates $3,518,391 to the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services to fund nineteen specific water and sewer projects that received local financing approval prior to December 2008, and/or were completed prior to July 1, 2013. This is an NHMA policy position.

The bill also authorizes a $5 million loan from the Drinking Water and Groundwater Trust Fund that was established in Chapter 11, laws of 2016, to extend a water line in Amherst to properties impacted by contamination. www.nhmunicipal.org

• Highway and Bridge Funding.

Chapter 227 (SB 38) appropriates $36.8 million from surplus funds in the 2016-2017 biennium to the New Hampshire Department of Transportation (DOT) to provide targeted funding for local highway and bridge infrastructure projects.

The bill allocates $30 million for highway funding in addition to the funding included in the state operating budget under Chapter 155 (see above). These grants will be apportioned between municipalities under the same formula as regular highway block grants (Apportionment A) pursuant to RSA 235:23, I. The bill also allocates $6.8 million as additional aid for the municipal bridge program under RSA 234. These funds shall not be used to supplant local budget appropriations, but may be accepted and expended as unanticipated revenue under RSA 31:95-b whether a municipality has adopted the provisions of that law. A list of additional block grant funding by municipality is available on NHMA’s website (www.nhmunicipal.org) in the Legislative

www.nhmunicipal.org

Bulletin box in the top link titled SB 38 Anticipated Block Grant Funds. This reflects NHMA policy.

A copy of NHMA’s 2017-2018 Legislative Policy Positions is available on our website at https://www.nhmunicipal.org/Advocacy. The full Final Bulletin with a recap of all new laws of municipal interested can be found

on our website. Please contact NHMA Government Affairs at Governmentaffairs@nhmunicipal.org with questions related to the biennial state budget or any other legislation.

Barbara T. Reid is the Government Finance Advisor for the New Hampshire Municipal Association. She can be reached by telephone at 603.230.3308 or by email at breid@nhmunicipal.org.

Environmental Funding Includes: Flood Control, Landfill Closure, Public Water Systems, and Water Supply Land Protection.

Highway Funds Includes: Block Grants Apportionment A, Construction Aid, Municipal Bridge Aid, SB 367 Block Grants and SB 38 Grants.

General Funding: Meals & Rooms (catch-up formula suspended FY 10-14, FY 6, FY 18-19), Revenue Sharing (suspended FY 10-19), State Retirement Contribution (discontinued 2013 and beyond).

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NHMA’s 76 Ann th

Wednesday, November 15 – Thursday, November 16, 2017 The Radisson Hotel • Manchester, New Hampshire

The Challenge of

Change

C

hange affects every city and town at some point.

In some cases, employees resist change. When a major change disrupts their familiarity, some employees become upset. This may range from minor staff restructuring to implementation of a new computer system.

While these changes may be necessary for the future of your municipality, if you fail to get everyone on board with the changes, you are likely to face barriers during this transition.

We’ve all heard that laughter is the best medicine, and it’s true. Humor relieves stress, elevates moods, and makes you more resilient to change. Managing change with humor is, in fact, the key ingredient in this year’s keynote speaker address – Finding the Funny in Change.

Keynote Speaker Finding the Funny in Change For professional speaker and comedienne Jan McInnis, life is full of “finding the funny.” Inspired by fifteen years as a marketing director in the 9 to 5 world, Jan has spent the past 22+ years on the full-time speaking circuit entertaining audiences with her knack for humorous analysis.

Learning doesn’t have to be boring! Whether it’s going green or the myriad of new rules and regulations that govern cities and towns, we are constantly reacting to a new playing field.

Municipal professionals are routinely having to reassess and re-evaluate their practices. And all of this change causes fear, tension and miscommunications!

At 9:00 am, on Wednesday, November 15th, come hear Jan as she combines her hilarious comedy with PRACTICAL tips on dealing with change through using humor. Jan will show us how to diffuse tension instantly, kick off tough conversations, and facilitate communications. . . all by using humor that you, yourself can do. And Jan will also give us the latest 24

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research between laughter and health – yes, people actually study this stuff! Get energized by Jan as you discover the steps you can take to conquer, and even embrace, change.

Don’t miss out – you will leave the keynote address feeling inspired and ready to take advantage of all the opportunities that this session-packed conference offers.

Exhibit Hall Reception A Relaxing Atmosphere to Meet With Friends (Wednesday) Join NHMA staff, board members and conference attendees at the Exhibit Hall Reception on Wednesday, November 15, from 5:00 pm to 6:30 pm. This is an opportunity to unwind and enjoy spending time with NHMA staff, board of directors, new friends, old colleagues, and new contacts. This event will be held in the Exhibit Hall this year, so come and enjoy some music, hors d’ oeuvres, and beverages in a relaxing atmosphere.

Networking Opportunities (Wednesday and Thursday) The Annual Conference offers attendees a multitude of ways to connect with colleagues and experts from throughout the state to discuss common concerns, exchange ideas, and share solutions. Extended break times and meals offer ample opportunity to explore booths and meet and network with exhibitors and sponsors. Take advantage of learning how your municipal colleagues are meeting challenges in their municipalities by talking with other officials during breaks, at lunches, at program sessions, and at the reception.

Ask questions and offer ideas based on your city or town’s experiences. Peer-to-peer learning is one of the key benefits of attending NHMA’s annual conference.

Exhibit Hall Explore State-of-the-Art Products and Services (Wednesday and Thursday) This year we hope to fill the huge exhibit hall with over 100 exhibitors. So please take the time to visit the Exhibit Hall www.nhmunicipal.org

nual Conference MARK YOUR CALENDARS!

The 76th NHMA Annual Conference is scheduled for Wednesday, November 15 and Thursday, November 16 at The Radisson Hotel in Manchester. Don’t miss out—this is the Associations’ premier training and networking event and attracts more than 550 attendees and over 100 exhibitors and sponsors.

Join municipal officials from throughout New Hampshire at this year’s conference to attend educational sessions and hear speakers with inspiring ideas to help you better serve your municipality and its residents.

on Wednesday and Thursday to find state-of-the-art products and cost-saving services.

Explore the wide array of products, goods, services, and resources that will be displayed, as well as booths with helpful information from state and federal agencies. Past conference attendees report that by doing business with a convention exhibitor they saved significant amounts of money from what their municipality had previously been spending for the same service or product. Review the conference schedule and block out some time to visit our exhibitors and sponsors and learn how these businesses and governmental agencies can help your city or town.

The Exhibit Hall opens to attendees on Wednesday, November 15 at 10:00 a.m. We would like to thank our exhibitors and sponsors for their role in helping us put on such a great event. We couldn’t do it without them.

Mobile Conference App Coming Back This Year Conference Details at Your Fingertips!

Again this year, NHMA is excited to offer a mobile conference application that will have information on conference sessions, exhibitors, sponsors, attendees, speakers, and more. You’ll be able to use your iPhone, iPad, Android phone, or tablet to access this valuable conference information. You can even input your conference schedule for ease and convenience.

The app provides access to the conference schedule, session alerts, presenter and exhibitor information, and maps.

You can also share your own tweets and photos, plus send

For More Information and Session Schedules www.nhmunicipal.org

messages of interest to other attendees throughout the two-day event.

Concurrent Session Topics for 2017 (Wednesday and Thursday) The program sessions are offering relevant and thoughtprovoking concurrent sessions for this year’s event.

Currently some of the sessions planned include: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Court and Legislative Updates Right-to-Know Law Demystifying the MS4 Permit US Census/Local Update of Census Addresses (LUCA) Update and Beyond Body Worn Cameras, Drones and Cybersecurity Issues How Strategic Governance Can Help You Build Strong Voter Support for Your Budgets Hot Trends in Employment Law Health Care Reform Update NHRS Decennial Commission Electronic Waste in New Hampshire – Time to Cash In? Right-to-Know Law and Law Enforcement Records Municipal Taking of Property – Procedures and Pitfalls Working Together: Sharing Services Between the Town and the School Understanding Road Law . . . And much more!

Attendees will learn from experts in these areas and from their peers. In addition, attendees gain valuable tools and resources to take back to their city or town.

Visit NHMA’s website at www.nhmunicipal.org/annualconference to view the latest information on concurrent sessions, speakers and presenters, and other conference details.

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N E W

H A M P S H I R E

Basic Loan Requirements: • Bond issue approved by governmental entity

M U N I C I P A L

June 2017 Bond Sale Results True Interest Cost for: 10 year loans 1.76% • 15 year loans 2.34% 20 year loan 2.67% • 25 year loan 3.15% 29 year loan 3.33%

• Audit by CPA Firm

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B A N K

The Bond Bank’s Next Bond Sale Issue will be on January 10, 2018

• Completed application approved by Bond Bank Board

• Local bond counsel opinion

B O N D

Are you planning a capital project for 2018?

We can assist you with your planning by providing various scenarios based on level debt or level principal payments for different terms.

Contact us now for your estimated debt schedules.

To schedule a meeting, obtain debt service schedules, or for details about our schedule, fees, Bond Anticipation Note programs, and current interest rates, please contact Tammy J. St. Gelais, Executive Director, at info@nhmbb.com or call (603) 271-2595 or toll-free in NH at (800) 393-6422. For more information, visit our website at www.nhmbb.org.

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Maximizing the Influence of Your Forecast

By Shane Kavanagh

“Forecasting is very difficult, especially if it is about the future.”

– Niels Bohr, Nobel Prize-Winning Physicist Forecasting revenues is a fundamental part of budgeting and financial planning. Revenue forecasts allow public officials to anticipate resource availability and plan accordingly for things like enhancing services to the community, changing the salaries and benefits of public employees, and adjusting tax rates. Governments use 12- to 18-month forecasts to develop budgets that are balanced and affordable. They use longer-term forecasts to analyze the financial sustainability of existing policies and programs, and to provide warning about potential imbalances in the government’s financial future. A forecast provides a shared basis for discussion about what the fiscal future might look like and what actions can be taken. In the absence of a formal forecast, a common assumption is that the future will not be much different than the past—an assumption that could be seriously flawed.

That said, to paraphrase Niels Bohr, forecasting is not without its challenges. One of the biggest challenges is that forecasts are often not effective in influencing financial decisions. Frequently, decision makers are much more strongly influenced by other factors. A forecast is not effective at influencing decisions just by virtue of its accuracy and reliability. These elements are necessary and important, but alone they are not sufficiently effective. This article examines several strategies you can use to boost the utility of your forecast.

Forecaster Credibility Establishing the forecaster’s credibility is essential because www.nhmunicipal.org

decision makers are more likely to use a forecast from a trustworthy source (and less likely to use a forecast from a disreputable source). Therefore, a good place to boost the utility of your forecast is to build credibility. Even if you don’t have a credibility problem, more credibility is never a bad thing. In any case, research suggests that people generally overestimate how trustworthy and credible they seem to other people.

Understand Your Audience. A forecaster who demonstrates an understanding of the audience’s concerns and needs will seem more credible. Common questions about a revenue forecast might include: What are the implications for constituents’ tax bills? Can we lower taxes? What is the impact on high-priority (often capital) projects? Can we afford improvements or augmentations to a high-priority service? Are our current services and obligations affordable into the future?

One way to cement an understanding of the audience’s concerns is to discuss them directly. For example, in the City of Sunnyvale, California, staff met with elected officials to review the city’s long-term forecasts in study sessions, rather than the regular council meetings. This allowed the elected officials to ask questions and exchange ideas with staff about key forecast assumptions before it was presented at the city’s council meetings. Staff was then able to fine-tune the forecast presentation, which A) better aligned the forecast presentation to the informational needs of elected officials, and B) demonstrated to elected officials that staff took their questions and concerns seriously. For example, elected officials were often curious about how new growth and development projects would affect the city’s tax revenues.

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FORECAST from page 27 portunity to discuss the point at which new development would be included in the forecasts versus when it was too speculative to be included. Because there were differences of opinion on this question, the less formal meetings allowed for a more relaxed discussion than might have been possible in regular council meetings.

Know the Facts. Having a substantive command of the facts underlying revenue performance builds the forecaster’s credibility. The details a forecaster should know will depend on the community. For example, the City of Palo Alto, California, has a population of about 66,000 and is located at the epicenter of Silicon Valley. Palo Alto’s staff remains abreast of the health in the Silicon Valley economy in general, and growth in venture capital activity in particular because those measures have been reliable indicators of the economic activities that will affect Palo Alto’s revenue sources. Palo Alto also pays close attention to microeconomic statistics. For instance, one of the city’s revenue sources is a tax on hotel occupancy, so it monitors room rates, occupancy rates, and the construction of new rooms.

The City of Houston, Texas, is the fourth-largest city in the United States, so it wouldn’t be practical for Houston’s forecasters to achieve the level of granularity that a smaller government like Palo Alto might need.

However, Houston does conduct detailed examinations of key industries in the local economy like oil and gas, as well as other indicators of economic performance that foreshadow revenue yields. As a result, though Houston’s staff may not have the same level of detail as a smaller city, they can still credibly demonstrate their knowledge of the environment.

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The forecaster should translate a strong knowledge of the environment into a set of assumptions about the financial and economic environment that underlay the forecast. The assumptions should rely on objective information that is relevant to the factors that drive revenue yield. To the extent possible, the assumptions should also be compared to forecasts or analysis performed by credible third-party experts such as consultants or universities. Differences may increase credibility if there are clear local circumstances that merit a difference from regional trends – this shows the forecaster’s knowledge of the environment. If a third party’s analysis is directly relevant to the circumstances of the forecaster’s organization, then similarities between assumptions can also increase credibility, as the forecaster is thus shown to not have biases that cause him or her to deviate from what other analysts examining a similar question have found.

Acknowledge Uncertainty. A forecaster can maintain credibility while acknowledging uncertainty around the assumptions. In fact, acknowledging uncertainty can strengthen the forecast. The forecaster for the City of Manhattan, Kansas, labels particularly uncertain assumptions “wild cards” and demonstrates for the audience how different outcomes in the wild-card assumptions could raise or reduce city revenue. This helps decision makers prepare for outcomes that differ from the baseline forecast.

Decide If You Want to Adopt a Conservative Approach. One of the toughest issues in maintaining credibility as a forecaster is making “conservative” versus “objective” forecasts.

A conservative forecast systematically underestimates revenues in order to reduce the danger of budgeting more spending than actual revenues prove able to support. An objective forecast

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seeks to estimate revenues as accurately as possible, with the goal of making optimal use of all available resources—but it also carries a higher risk of being too optimistic (which could lead to budgetary shortfalls during the fiscal year). Governments with highly effective forecasts are almost evenly split in describing their forecasting approaches as objective or conservative, with a slight tilt toward “objective,” on the whole. While these governments had two different philosophies among these governments, there was one important commonality: The decision to be objective or conservative was explicit and consistent with the goals and expectations of the governing board.

For example, in the case of the conservative forecasters, the governing boards have a clear preference for endof-year surpluses that could be put toward building reserves or paying for capital projects. There is an expectation, then, that actual revenues will exceed what was budgeted, so when they do, no one is shocked or disappointed and the forecaster maintains credibility. However, for governments where the board does not have this same preference, a conservative forecast could lead to credibility problems.

If actual revenues consistently exceed forecasts, decision makers may come to feel that the forecaster is unreliable or, at worst, manipulative. In recent years, one government that experienced this challenge has moved toward more objective forecasts to be in line with the preferences of the governing board. Before that, when the finance staff produced conservative forecasts, some board members felt that that the finance office was “playing games” with the budget.

Of course, an objective forecast could also harm a forecaster’s credibility, especially if the forecast is too high and the government is forced make painwww.nhmunicipal.org

ful budget cuts. Governments with effective forecasts and an objective forecast philosophy adopt a number of strategies to mitigate the risk posed by shortfalls (e.g., contingency accounts, short-term revenue monitoring, etc.) and maintain credibility.

Implement Principles and Processes That Support the Use of Forecasting Forecasts will be more effective at influencing decisions if they are inputs into a decision-making process that encourages good use of forecasting information. Policies that emphasize the fundamental principles of financial health, such as minimum reserve levels and appropriate use of one-time revenues, set the tone for using forecasts in decisions.

Developing Principles. Financial policies have been a mainstay GFOA best practice for years; however, a less well-known practice is that of financial principles. Principles bridge the gap between the rationality of a forecast and the emotions that often drive decisions. Principles speak to decision makers’ passions and values by asking them to answer questions like “What kind of organization do we want to be?” and “What kind of leader do I want to be?” For example, Traverse City Area Public Schools (TCAPS), in Michigan, adopted three principles to guide its decision making:

• There should be a focus on academic return on investment— TCAPS should get the most bang for its buck.

Such principles help decision makers put a higher value on financial analysis than might otherwise be the case. For example, if TCAPS is to actively seek out the best strategies for educating its learners, and break with past practices when necessary, then it needs a forecast to better illuminate the path forward. In fact, TCAPS’ board has used its principles as the basis for financially savvy decisions such as selecting programs based on cost-effectiveness and optimizing the size and scale of school buildings based on enrollment.

Considering the Budget Process.

Though principles and policies help create a mindset that includes forecasts in decision making, the most important financial decisions are made during the budget process. The budget process, then, must be designed to encourage the use of forecasting information. The foremost design principle is that nontraditional budgeting formats tend to encourage better use of forecasting.

Traditional budgeting formats are characterized by an emphasis on control of spending through detailed line items; the inputs into public services (i.e., staffing, materials, etc.) rather than the outcomes; and incremental decision making, wherein the government starts the budget with last year’s expenditures

and adjusts them up or down at the margins as may be required, given assumed revenue growth or contraction.

Conversely, governments with budgets that incorporate a planning orientation, take program performance into account when allocating resources, and take an explicit, structured approach to weighing competing potential uses of resources against each other are more likely to get value out of revenue forecasts.

A good example of how a less traditional approach can encourage better use for forecasting information is the beginning of the budget process. The traditional, incremental budget process tends to emphasize expenditures because budget discussions begin with the question, “What did we spend last year?” An alternative approach to budgeting starts by asking what resources are available, perhaps engaging public officials to have a discussion on whether tax and fee levels are appropriate given the service demands of the public. This difference in approach, although subtle, emphasizes revenue forecasts as a tool to reveal the level of resources available as the starting point for budget discussions. The City of Auburn, Alabama, describes this as a “live within our means” philosophy that has been important for focusing their decision makers on the forecast.

Beyond annual budgeting is longterm financial planning and visioning. Long-term financial planning has

• Education priorities should drive the budget. The TCAPS budget should reflect the most current strategies for providing a worldclass education to its learners.

The budget should not just be an incremental adjustment from whatever was done last year.

• You can’t be all things to all people.

Delivering world-class education at an affordable cost demands focus. TCAPS should pursue a limited number of specific goals. www.nhmunicipal.org

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FORECAST from page 29 become increasingly common among leading local government budget practitioners. A GFOA survey of leading budget practitioners found that 59 percent of respondents had implemented a comprehensive planning process (with some having started as early as 2008).

Critically, the vast majority of these (90 percent) believe that multi-year financial planning and projections have improved fiscal discipline and long-term financial sustainability in their governments, and two-thirds of those described the improvement as significant.

Develop An Accessible Presentation for Your Forecast It is not easy for a forecaster to get his or her message across in a way that will stay with those who hear it. Finance will not be the first language of many audience members. Even those with more financial expertise will likely not have the same breadth and depth of experience with revenue analysis as the forecaster, so they may miss some nuance. These challenges mean that the forecaster must be careful to present forecast information in a way that maximizes its accessibility.

Getting the forecasting message across starts with a clear understanding of what the audience needs and wants to know. Even if the message is focused on the essentials, a problem is that local government revenues are often measured in sums that the audience has no practical, real-life experience with; they do not have access to millions of dollars in their personal lives, so the forecast numbers are an abstraction to them. Therefore, the forecaster needs to make the numbers more fathomable. The most basic way of doing this is by comparing revenues to expenditures and reserve levels, thereby making the connection between the revenue forecast and the prospects for achieving and maintaining structural balance 30

in the budget. It also suggests, for example, the implications for tax rates, a city’s ability to put a certain number of police officers on the streets, or a school district’s ability to put a certain number of teachers in classrooms.

Another powerful way to make forecast numbers more tangible is by reducing numbers to a personal scale, such as showing revenues per capita (e.g., per resident or per student) or showing the impact of revenue changes on individual tax bills. Fairfax County, Virginia, shows a five-year history of the property tax on a typical homeowner, using the average assessed value of a home in the county. This shows the impact of any changes in revenue on the taxes paid by a homeowner. The City of Redmond, Washington, has used a method called “the price of government” with success.

It compares the city’s revenues against the total personal income of all Redmond residents, revealing how much of citizens’ resources are being consumed by the city and providing a good context for city council discussions about what increasing or decreasing revenues would mean for constituents. (Total personal income for the community is calculated by multiplying Redmond’s per capita income from the U.S. Census Bureau’s “American Community Survey” by the city’s total population. While this does not capture income from Redmond’s commercial sector, the city still finds it a useful proxy.)

A powerful way of making forecast numbers more concrete is to use interactive forecasts to simulate changes in key variables or forecast assumptions. Excel (and other software packages) can be used for graphical what-if analyses with variables that change live, in front of the audience, allowing them to see the effects of the change for themselves. Research shows that such interactivity enhances the audience’s understanding and retention of numbers because the audience is able

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to engage with the presentation, rather than sit back as passive observers.

Finally, know that the speaker’s confidence level has a powerful impact on the believability of his or her message. The term “con man” is a modern shortening of an older term, “confidence man”—a powerful, if disturbing, demonstration of the power of confidence to make a message believable! While forecasters should certainly not seek to “con” the audience, they must be aware of the effect that their perceived level of confidence will have on the way in which the message is received. A balance must be struck between presenting the forecast with its inescapable uncertainties and projecting the confidence that comes from having performed a thorough technical analysis with strategies that mitigate risk.

Conclusions Because decision makers are strongly influenced by factors other than facts, a forecast itself will not make effective impact decisions just because it is accurate and reliable—they are necessary but not sufficient. But several strategies are available to help you improve the utility of your forecast. Improve your credibility by understanding your audience, knowing the facts, acknowledging uncertainty, deciding on a conservative or an objective forecast. Implement principles and processes that support the use of forecasting. Develop principles and consider the budget process. And finally, make your forecast accessible.

Shayne Kavanagh is the Senior Manager of Research for GFOA’s Research and Consulting Center. He can be contacted at skavanagh@gfoa.org. This article originally appeared in the February 2017 issue of Government Finance Review (www.gfoa. org) and is adapted from Informed Decision-Making through Forecasting: A Practitioner’s Guide to Government Revenue Analysis, by Shayne Kavanagh and Daniel Williams (GFOA: 2017).

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NHMA Releases New Publication on New Hampshire’s Right-to Know Law

Check out our new “go-to” resource for public officials when confronted with the numerous legal issues surrounding New Hampshire’s Right-to-Know Law.

Only $55 for Members $95 for Non-members The Right-to-Know Law (RSA Chapter 91-A) affects every aspect of local government in our state.

Every board, committee, commission, and sub-committee in every town, city and village district in New Hampshire must comply with this law. As a result, all local officials and employees must understand the law and their responsibilities regarding both public meetings and governmental records.

Join Legal Services Counsel Stephen Buckley, Government Affairs Counsel Cordell Johnston, and Staff Attorney Margaret Byrnes for a full day workshop on Thursday, September 14 on the Rightto-Know Law. They will address some of the most difficult issues under the law, including confidential information, electronic records and communication, procedures for nonpublic sessions, and communications outside a meeting. There will be ample time for questions and answers on all aspects of the law.

Go to NHMA’s online store at www.nhmunicipal.org/shop to order your new book today!

Learn more about the Right-to-Know Law at a full-day workshop on Thursday, September 14 at NHMA Offices in Concord. $90 includes workshop, meals and new book!

Check our website for registration details.

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National League of Cities Provides Participatory Budgeting Toolkit Participatory Budgeting (PB) is a better way to manage public funds. It is a democratic process that gives ordinary people real decision-making power over real money.

One case study involved the city of Seattle. When former Seattle Councilmember Nick Licata first heard about PB, he was interested in what it would take to bring the practice to Seattle. In July 2015, Mayor Ed Murray and Councilmember Licata announced the city of Seattle would launch the second youth-led PB process in the U.S., calling it Youth Voice, Youth Choice. In its first year, the process engaged more than 3,000 young people in determining how to spend $700,000 of the city’s budget. The youth decided to fund seven projects related to services for youth and people experiencing homelessness.

The nine months of intensive planning and engagement of local stakeholders set this PB process up for tremendous success. As PB continues to spread to cities, counties, districts, schools, public housing developments, and other types of public agencies, many community leaders

are asking the same questions Councilmember Licata asked as he considered launching PB in Seattle.

In response to the growing interest in launching PB, the Participatory Budgeting Project created a toolkit for municipal officials and their staff. The toolkit answers questions about how PB processes typically work, sample PB materials, what impacts PB creates, the kinds of budgets that can be used for PB, the types of resources and staffing needed for PB, and how to get started.

PB holds enormous potential to transform individuals, communities, and government, but making the change can seem really hard. The toolkit is for municipal officials and staff that are interested in launching a PB process. Its purpose is to help you understand what it takes to start a PB process and how to lay a foundation for success. If interested, you may download this toolkit at www.paticipatorybudgeting.org.

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★

BEST PRACTICES ★

New Hampshire Municipal Association

Best Practices Series

★

BEST PRACTICES ★

Best Practices in Local Government Budgeting A government’s budget reflects its vision, strategy, and priorities. Similarly, the process public sector leaders use to create and communicate the budget reflects how they operate. The most effective processes are inclusive, transparent, and efficient. They build trust through involvement and buy-in from citizens, department heads, and elected officials. According to public sector experts and professional organizations, local governments build greater trust and buy-in from stakeholders when they adopt and adhere to budgeting best practices. Operational best practices ensure budget planning is strategic and organized. Communications best practices help local leaders convey information simply, clearly, and frequently, which results in greater transparency and strengthened trust.

Local Governments’ Most Important Documents Budgets matter. As public sector budgeting has become more strategic over the last several decades, the budget itself has increasingly become a combination of a policy, operational prescription, and communication tool. A local government’s budget reflects its policies and civic priorities. It indicates how a community anticipates raising revenues, spending, and investing, encapsulating both fiscal and programmatic policy decisions. Its changes from one year to the next, articulating the direction in which a community wants to head. For instance, all else being equal, increased spending on police year over year signals 34

that a city is placing a higher priority on addressing public safety. Furthermore, it should convey not just what a community’s policy priorities are, but also how the government’s leaders plan to operationalize resources to address them. It conveys a strategic plan to those within and outside the government – those stakeholders including citizens, department heads, staff, and elected officials. Each year, the budget is the most important document a local government will produce.

Facing Numerous Challenges

lack experience in the public sector and finance, citizens tend to have difficulty understanding how government works.

4. R elations with council. Finance and budget directors sometimes cite lacking clear direction from their councils and boards, which can result in reduced alignment around a central vision or strategy and unclear performance measures.

1. Economic uncertainty. Given economic cycles, public sector organizations must plan for revenues that may rise or decline at different paces due to future conditions.

5. L ack of budget ownership within and collaboration across departments. Department heads have substantial expertise within their own fields, but as policy challenges become more cross-functional, shared resources must be distributed across departments and interdepartmental personnel must collaborate more.

2. Changing revenues and costs.

Factors largely beyond government control like property valuations, consumer behavior patterns, and the economy influence revenue levels. Unfunded retirement liabilities and changing demographics are examples of structural factors significantly impacting how governments spend.

6. D ifficulty tracking budget revisions and accessing realtime information. During planning and development, budgets change often as forecasts are updated, budget requests are modified, and stakeholders offer input. Tracking those changes consistently across different versions of documents and spreadsheets is difficult.

3. Limited citizen engagement.

Especially because they often

7. E rrors slow down budgeting process. Manual data entry,

Local governments face numerous challenges, over which they have varying amounts of control:

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ad hoc calculations, and maintaining disaggregated supporting documents can lead to time-consuming errors.

8.

Staff retirement and other turnover. As baby boomers retire, and as other staff leave and join the team, it can be difficult reconciling old and new work, especially amid an ongoing budget process.

Overcoming Challenges with Best Practices Best practices have been compiled from local government budget and finance directors, as well as researchbased findings from professional associations. Adopting these operational best practices has helped public sector teams successfully improve their budgeting efficiency, effectiveness, buy-in, department ownership, and citizen engagement.

Have a clear, well-defined 1. process. As an organization is planning for, developing, and approving the budget, all key steps of the budget process should be clear on an annual and monthby-month basis. Visual representations of the process – budget calendars, timelines, and flowcharts – can help clearly identify important deadlines, milestones, required action items, and involved personnel.

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2. S tart with a vision, goals, and a strategic plan. The budget supports what a municipality and its citizens want to accomplish – now and in the future.

Therefore, a successful budget process should begin with city leaders articulating a clear vision, identifying community and department goals, and undertaking a strategic plan that will help mitigate conflicting goals. While it is important for leaders to push the vision forward, it is also important for citizen input to inform and guide that vision as it develops.

3. Prioritize. Choose to focus on addressing key challenges in a given budget year. Attempting to tackle everything at once is not only inefficient, but it also commonly leads to staff burnout. Identify a focus area, and come up with a clear strategy to address it, taking care to report the results back to the community.

4. E mpower and foster collaboration among internal departments. In creating a budget, it is important for all department staff to understand the vision and goals underlying it, as well as how their departments factor into achieving those goals. Garnering buy-in across

departments occurs when staff at all levels are engaged from the outset of the budget planning process and when they can collaborate easily on budget requests and revisions.

5. M eaningfully engage citizens and elected officials. Budgets are more credible and receive the broadest support when citizens and elected officials have provided input throughout the planning process, are aware of major developments, and understand budget tradeoffs. Providing them with a genuine voice in the municipality’s choices further strengthens trust and buy-in. To open input and feedback channels, municipalities may solicit feedback in person or online through public hearings, open houses, citizen academies, focused discussion sessions, and needs surveys.

To reach a more representative cross-section of citizens, municipalities should use technology solutions whenever possible to make it more convenient for stakeholders to access information and participate on demand. Consider asking citizens the following: • What core service areas are most important to you?

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BEST PRACTICES from page 35 • What should the city/county/ district’s top priorities be this year, and in the future?

• What do you want to see more of from your local government?

• What are you willing to pay more for?

6. C ommunicate the budget broadly, simply, and clearly.

Once teams have collaborated to plan and develop the budget, it is important to communicate it to all key stakeholders, including elected officials, department heads, staff, and citizens. Successful local government leaders communicate the same information multiple times, in multiple formats.

These formats include formal budget books, press releases, public presentations, summary sheets, and social media.

When possible, publish information electronically and in formats beyond PDFs, such as web-based data visualizations, infographics, and FAQ web pages. These electronic formats make it easier to find relevant data, gain high-level takeaways, and receive quick answers to common questions. se technology to reduce time 7. U spent developing the budget and to power insights. While the time spent budgeting varies from organization to organization, it typically takes local public sector organizations between six and nine months to complete the process from initial planning to final approval. Though even the best technology solutions are not substitutes for strategic planning and decision-making, they can help streamline budgeting 36

by automating calculations, centralizing communications into collaborative environments, and increasing access to budget data on demand.

Building Trust with Effective Processes Securing the support, buy-in, and trust of all key stakeholders helps municipal leaders successfully implement their plans. Because budgets are complex and detailed, achieving understanding and trust requires effectively translating large amounts of data and complex policy into simple, clear information. The following communications tips can help local governments successfully communicate their decisions and build trust: 1. B e as transparent as possible.

Transparency helps build trust.

Share as much as you can, as often as you can. Sharing information proactively helps governments correct and counteract misinformation.

5. Make data dynamic. Create a dynamic web page that grants users as much flexibility as possible for interacting with information. Enable them to see multiple views of the same information.

6. P romote feedback and engagement. In addition to making budget information transparent and easily accessible, build trust by fostering frequent dialog with citizens.

7. C hoose technology solutions that make trusted communication easy. Leverage userfriendly technology platforms that make internal collaboration, internal communications, and external engagement easy.

Source: Best Practices in Local Government Budgeting, White Paper, OpenGov. Learn more at www.opengov.com.

2. K eep it simple. Do not assume your audience knows what you know or has the same level of expertise. Consider having nonfinance staff proofread written communications.

3. U se compelling visuals. Pictures, infographics, and interactive charts help convey complex information. rovide consistent, repeat4. P ed messages. Deliver the same messages over and over through different channels.

Consistency helps build trust, and utilizing a variety of means – not just speaking to those who come out for public meetings – will engage a broader, more representative constituency. Repetition is good.

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?

?

NAME

THAT

TOWN OR

CITY

?

? ?

Name the town in which this (former) town hall is located?

This Old Town Hall is the oldest townmaintained building built in 1850 and is now the home of a local historical society.

Although it is no longer used for annual town meetings or elections, which are now held at a local elementary school, the building is still used for town hearings and other civic functions. It is said that this town took its name from an early surveyor’s camp in the region. The town celebrates its 250th anniversary with a big gala celebration at this building on September 30th.

When you have figured out the answer, email it to tfortier@nhmunicipal.org. The answer will appear in the November/December issue.

ANSWER TO PHOTO IN JULY/AUGUST, 2017 ISSUE: The photo on page 32 in the last issue of Town and City magazine was the town hall in the Town of Canterbury. Thanks to Scott Wiggin (Bedford); Bill Herman (Auburn), Michael Capone (Holderness), Jenne Holmes (Somersworth), Dianne Bottari-Richtmyer (New London), Sharon Teel (Sandwich) and Susette Remson (Moultonborough) who all responded with the correct answer.

— This Moment in NHMA History — 33 years ago….President Ronald Reagan signed

57 years ago….The

battle over establishing NHMA as a voluntary organization deepened when Governor Powell met with over 100 municipal officials to consider formation of a Department of Local Government in New Hampshire. An editorial in Town and City reported, “The Governor, who last year vetoed legislation permitting towns to join an organization of their own liking, apparently decided that he can do more for New Hampshire towns and cities than they will be permitted by him to do for themselves.”

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a third extension of the General Revenue Sharing Program into law on November 30, 1983. The bill reauthorized the program, first passed in 1972, through September 30, 1986. New Hampshire local governments received over $15 million in 1984 and these funds could be used for virtually any legal purpose under state and local laws.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE ASSOCIATION OF REGIONAL PLANNING COMMISSIONS

This segment is the first in a series highlighting NHARPC’s efforts to provide education on planning-related topics.

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UP CLOSE & In the Field

PERSONAL W

elcome to Up Close and Personal-In the Field, a regular column in New Hampshire Town and City dedicated to giving readers a closer look at staff from New Hampshire municipalities. In this issue, we hope you enjoy meeting Cheryl Lord, Financial Administrator with the Town of Errol.

TC: What are your duties and responsibilities as financial administrator?

CL: As the financial administrator, my duties are varied: accounts payable, payroll, fund accounting, preparing the town budget, preparing all MS forms for the state, and maintaining the assessing software, sales data, and timber and excavation intents—and the list goes on.

TC: What is your biggest challenge in performing your duties?

CL: Time. My duties are so varied and many have deadlines, and when they overlap things can become a little stressed, to say the least. There are some duties that seem to always be on the back burner!

Cheryl Lord

Do you know someone who deserves to be profiled in a future edition of New Hampshire Town and City magazine?

If so, please contact the New Hampshire Municipal Association at 800.852.3358 ext. 3408 or townandcity@nhmunicipal.org.

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TC: How has NHMA helped you to do your job?

CL: NHMA is a wealth of information, and we have used their legal guidance on many occasions to our advantage. Their publications, such as The Handbook for Town and School Meeting, are very helpful. I have also taken advantage of many webinars that are available which I have found very informative. These webinars save the town on travel expenses, as we are far north in the state.

TC: Has your public position changed you personally?

CL: It has. It has given me a sense of accomplishment and pride in what I do. Over the years I have developed a sense of loyalty to the town and the taxpayers that pay my salary.

TC: Has your job changed the way you look at the role of government?

CL: Yes, I would say that it has. Having held several different town positions, I have seen the role of government from many different aspects so, I have a good understanding of how the town works and what the jobs entail. I have a great respect for the people that hold those positions.

TC: What advice would you give someone who would like to follow in your footsteps into this job?

CL: Be ready to learn! It is never ending and there is not a day that goes by that I don’t learn something new. A general knowledge of how town government works is definitely an asset to anyone taking on this position.

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UP CLOSE & In the Field

PERSONAL W

elcome to Up Close and Personal-In the Field, a regular column in New Hampshire Town and City dedicated to giving readers a closer look at staff from New Hampshire municipalities. In this issue, we hope you enjoy meeting Rick Hiland, Chairman of the Town of Albany Select Board.

TC: What are your duties and responsibilities as chair of the select board?

RH: As an Albany Selectman and current chair, my job is to manage the prudential affairs of a town of 735 citizens, plus many more seasonal residents, perform all the duties prescribed by law, and provide leadership and transparency with my fellow select board members.

TC: What is your biggest challenge in performing your duties?

RH: My biggest challenge is acting within the law and doing what is right for the town, while maintaining transparency and civil discourse at our meetings. As a small town that depends on and contracts with other communities for fire, rescue, police, and schools, and with 87% of the town being U.S. Forest Service land, our tax base suffers and budgeting is difficult at times.

Rick Hiland Rick Hiland stands behind (left to right) Select Board member Cathy Ryan, Albany Town Administrator Kathy Golding, and Select Board member Joe Ferris.

Do you know someone who deserves to be profiled in a future edition of New Hampshire Town and City magazine?

If so, please contact the New Hampshire Municipal Association at 800.852.3358 ext. 3408 or townandcity@nhmunicipal.org.

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TC: How has NHMA helped you to do your job?

RH: All departments of NHMA have been an invaluable asset to our success the past two years in Albany. We have utilized their legal consultation often to make sure we are operating within the law or to get a second opinion on an issue. We regularly read NewsLink and the Legislative Bulletin and attend webinars and workshops. We are all volunteers and have only so much time to devote to our individual duties within the Town, and these resources help to make our jobs easier.

We definitely get our money’s worth from their services and owe them a debt of gratitude!

TC: Has your job changed the way you look at the role of government?

RH: Yes. As a businessman, I have always thought that running government is no different than running a business. The things that are the same are the nuts and bolts of running a good business: good, loyal employees and effective management, budgeting and watching for waste, keeping your customer base happy, and paying your bills. However, in government, because a municipality’s authority to act comes from the state, we must comply with numerous statutes that govern the manner in which the town operates.

TC: What lessons about human nature have you learned in your role?

RH: When dealing with other volunteers in government, you need to work with their strengths and work past their faults, and lead them by example to get the best out of them and to succeed. You get better results with sugar than you do with vinegar! Volunteers appreciate being acknowledged and thanked for their help. If you make your volunteers unhappy and they quit, you end up doing a lot more work yourself!

TC: What advice would you give someone who would like to follow in your footsteps into this job?

RH: I would recommend being a good listener and possess the somewhat rare commodity known as “common sense.” Listen to fellow selectmen, officials, employees, taxpayers, citizens, and the public; then search out the statutes and facts before you speak. And, as always, be transparent with a smile.

TC: Anything else you would like to discuss about your job?

RH: I could not have done my job well without the combined efforts of my fellow selectmen, Cathy Ryan and Joe Ferris, as well as our Town Administrator, Kathy Golding. We have provided the needed leadership, leading by example and have encouraged our town officers, commissions, boards and committee members to attend workshops, seminars and webinars put on by the NHMA, PRIMEX, and NH OEP.

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Legal

Q and A

By Stephen C. Buckley, Legal Services Counsel with the New Hampshire Municipal Association

The Default Budget in SB2 Towns

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ince its introduction by the Legislature in 1995, 70 New Hampshire municipalities have adopted SB 2, the official ballot form of town meeting. Since 1995, the principal SB 2 statute, RSA 40:13, has been amended thirteen times. Among these amendments, the rules governing the creation and implementation of the default budget were crystallized by the Legislature in 2004 with the adoption of SB 219. That amendment brought more clarity and definition to default budget calculation. This FAQ will seek to simplify your understanding of the default budget: how it is created, presented, adopted, and implemented.

Q. We are an SB 2 Official Ballot Town Meeting and the voters just rejected the operating budget warrant article. Now what?

A. If the operating budget warrant article fails in an official ballot referendum (SB 2) municipality, the governing body has two options. One is to do nothing and allow the default budget to take effect as the new operating budget. The other is for the governing body to call a special meeting to consider a revised operating budget. RSA 40:13, X. This meeting does not require superior court permission but may not be used to address any issue other than a failed operating budget.

Q. What is the statutory definition of “default budget”?

A. “Default budget’’ means the amount of the same appropriations as contained in the operating budget authorized for the previous year, reduced and increased, as the case may be, by debt service, contracts, and other obligations previously incurred or mandated by law, and reduced by one-time expenditures contained in the operating budget. “One-time expenditures” are appropriations not likely to recur in the succeeding budget.

Q. How does this statutory definition for “default budget” work as applied to our municipal budget?

A. The default budget freezes the budget at the previous year’s level except for amounts which the town is legally 42

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obligated to pay or which were one-time expenses. This means that employee raises should not be included unless they are required by a legally binding and previously ratified contract obligating the municipality to fill particular positions or employ particular people at certain wages.

Q. What about the increased costs the town must pay for such things as electricity or bituminous concrete for fixing town roads?

A. While the per-unit cost for certain commodities may increase from one year to the next (such as the cost per kilowatthour of electricity or the cost per ton of asphalt), the default budget includes the “amount” of the money appropriated for that purpose the previous year, not the amount that will be required for the same number of units in the coming year.

What would be an example of a “one-time expenditure” that would not be included in the default budget calculation?

A. If the town had to buy a piece of equipment that was not likely to be needing replacement on a regular basis, that would be a “one-time expenditure” not likely to recur in a succeeding budget. For instance, police cruisers must be replaced on a regular basis and the scheduled purchase of new police cruiser in any municipal budget would not be a one-time expenditure. On the other hand, the purchase of a new backup electrical power generator for town hall would not likely be a recurring capital expense and would be categorized as a one-time expenditure. The same would be true about a one-time exterior improvement to town hall, such as installing handicap access ramps.

Q. What are “contracts, and other obligations previously incurred or mandated by law” that are included in the default budget?

A. The annual cost of any multi-year contracts that had been approved by a prior town meeting would be included in the default budget, such as a collective bargaining agreement. The same would be true of any other multi-year www.nhmunicipal.org

contracts where the full, multi-year cost of the agreement was discussed and disclosed at the town meeting where the agreement was approved.

Other obligations mandated by law that would be included in the default budget would be such things as workers’ compensation insurance which is mandated by RSA Chapter 281-A, or payments to the New Hampshire Retirement System for town employees.

at the time the official ballot referendum system is adopted, or, if the town or district already operates under the official ballot referendum system, the delegation of default budget authority can occur by an article in the warrant: “Shall we adopt the provisions of RSA 40:14-b to delegate the determination of the default budget to the municipal budget committee which has been adopted under RSA 32:14?”

Q. Are there any appropriations that must be included in the default budget?

Q. When and how is the default budget presented to the town meeting?

A. If an SB 2 town approves a multiyear appropriation for a capital project under RSA 32:7-a, for each year after the first year, the amount designated for that year as provided in the original warrant article is included in the default budget and deemed appropriated without further vote by the legislative body. In other words, once town meeting has authorized a capital project multi-year appropriation, no warrant article is needed in any other year of the term. Each year’s amount will be treated as appropriated automatically in future years of the term whether the proposed operating budget is passed.

Q. What town body or official determines what goes into the default budget?

A. The determination of the default budget, including one-time expenditures and capital project appropriations, rests exclusively with the governing body and cannot be altered by the town meeting, unless it has been delegated to the budget committee.

A. The default budget must be disclosed at the first public hearing on the budget held under RSA 32:5 (towns) or RSA 197:6 (school districts). Unless determination of the default budget has been delegated to the budget committee, the governing body must complete the default budget form created by DRA. The purpose of the default budget form is to demonstrate how the default budget amount was calculated. The calculations must include appropriations contained in the previous year’s operating budget; reductions and increases to the previous year’s operating budget due to changes in debt service, contracts or other obligations; one-time expenditures as defined in RSA 40:13, IX(b); and capital project default amounts. The governing body must post certified copies of the default budget form or any amended default budget form with the proposed operating budget and warrant. RSA 32:5, VII(b).

Q. When does the default budget go into effect?

A. If the proposed operating budget does not pass, and if the governing body does not choose to call a special meeting to consider a revised operating budget (or if such a vote fails), then the default budget is deemed to have been adopted.

Q. What line item transfer authority does the governing body have over a default budget?

A. As clarified by the New Hampshire Supreme Court, the governing body may exercise the same discretionary transfer authority under RSA 32:10, I with respect to a default budget as it may exercise with respect to an ordinary operating budget. Sullivan v. Hampton Board of Selectmen, 153 N.H. 690 (2006). The Court noted that RSA 40:13, IX(b) defines the default budget simply as an amount and prescribes how to calculate that amount. The Court also noted that the default budget appears in a warrant article only as a dollar amount and, as such, creates a bottom line figure within which the select board must stay. The failure to pass the operating budget is a sufficient change in circumstances within the requirements of RSA 32:10, I to justify the governing body’s use of the transfer authority.

Stephen C. Buckley is Legal Services Counsel with the New Hampshire Municipal Association. He may be reached at 800.852.3358 or legalinquiries@nhmunicipal.org.

Q. How is determination of the default budget delegated to the budget committee?

A. The town or district meeting voters may vote to delegate determination of the default budget to the budget committee, if one exists, instead of the governing body. RSA 40:14- b. This delegation of authority can be voted on www.nhmunicipal.org

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Court

Update

By Stephen C. Buckley, Legal Services Counsel and Margaret M.L. Byrnes, Staff Attorney

Court Update, previously a regular column in New Hampshire Town and City magazine, has moved to the New Hampshire Municipal Association web site to provide more timely information to NHMA members. Opinions will be posted after they are released, and a reminder will be included here and sent in Newslink. To read previous Court Update columns, please visit www.nhmunicipal.org.

Now available online: Road Excavation Fees Constitute Valid and Reasonable Municipal Fees Liberty Utilities Corp./Energy North v. City of Concord and Liberty Utilities/Energy North v. City of Manchester, New Hampshire Supreme Court Case No. 2015-0510, 6/16/2017 No Agreement, No Authority to Tax Cable Network Using Utility Poles Segtel Inc. v. City of Nashua, New Hampshire Supreme Court No. 2016-0305, 6/9/2017 Towns Retain Assessing Discretion Over Utilities; the Unit Method is not Mandatory Appeal of Public Service Company of NH d/b/a Eversource Energy, New Hampshire Supreme Court No. 2015-0499, 6/2/2017 DirecTV Facility Antennas and Batteries Not Taxable Real Estate DirecTV, Inc. v. Town of New Hampton, New Hampshire Supreme Court No. 2016-0151, 5/26/2017

Providing Legal Services to New Hampshire Municipalities

Planning, Zoning and Enforcement Tax Abatement Appeals · Ordinance Drafting and Review Employment and Labor · Water and Sewer Issues Bond Counsel · Litigation General Legal Advice

Contact Person: Mark H. Puffer 57 North Main Street | Concord, NH 03301 603.410.1500 | mpuffer@preti.com

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2017 Municipal Law Lecture Series FULL DAY WORKSHOPS LECTURES Cost is $100 Includes lecture materials, continental breakfast and lunch.

Pre-registration is required.

Workshops run from 9:00 am—4:30 pm.

These lectures are intended for municipal officials with an interest in or responsibility for any aspect of municipal land use regulation, including members of planning and zoning boards, planners, land use administrators, select boards, town and city councilors, building inspectors, code enforcement officers, and public works personnel.

Saturday, September 23 Medallion Opera House 20 Park Street, Gorham

Lecture 1

Saturday, October 14

NHMA Offices 25 Triangle Park Drive, concord

Lecture 2

Lecture 3

Procedural Basics for Planning and Zoning Boards

Wireless Facilities: Managing the Approval Process

Water Quality, Water Protection, and Water Management

You’ve been asked to run for or sit on your local planning board or zoning board of adjustment. You’ve said yes. Now what?

Learn the composition, procedures, powers and responsibilities of each of the boards. Discover practical tips for reviewing complicated applications and making defendable decisions. This presentation will cover the basics of both the planning board and zoning board and will serve as both a starting point for those just joining the board and a refresher for those who have served for years.

Does state or federal law trump local zoning for cell towers? How can Planning Boards and ZBAs protect municipal interests and comply with state and federal law when permitting wireless facilities? With all the changes in state and federal law over the past 8 years, it is hard to keep up! And mistakes can be expensive.

This presentation will present an overview of the evolving law on permitting wireless facilities, plus provide specific recommendations for procedures your land use boards, municipal staff and regional planners can implement to ensure this tricky process is done right.

All recurrent buzzwords in today's land planning world. Municipal zoning and planning boards need a basic understanding of how the State of New Hampshire regulates shoreland construction, stormwater management and water-based activities, as well as an understanding of how municipal regulations are permitted to supplement such standards. This presentation will introduce the different State programs and permits, discuss the legal landscape for supplementary municipal codes, and explain the role of the planner or land use board member in evaluating and acting upon an applicant’s technical submissions.

Presented by:

Laura Spector-Morgan, Esquire, Mitchell Municipal Group, P.A. Steven Whitley, Esquire, Mitchell Municipal Group, P.A.

Presented by:

Katherine B. Miller, Esquire, Donahue, Tucker & Ciandella, PLLC Justin L. Pasay, Esquire, Donahue, Tucker & Ciandella, PLLC

Presented by:

Ari B. Pollock, Esquire, Gallagher, Callahan & Gartrell, P.C Robert J. Dietel, Esquire, Gallagher, Callahan & Gartrell, P.C.

Questions? Call 800.852.3358, ext 3350, or email NHMAregistrations@nhmunicipal.org Register online at www.nhmunicipal.org under Calendar of Events

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25 Triangle Park Drive Concord, NH 03301

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ime and good health are priceless assets. Our Member Groups know our outstanding services can reduce their administrative burden, save them time, and help to ensure they are providing the best plans and programs for their employees.

Contact your HealthTrust Benefits Advisor today for more information.

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