Dick Campbell

To the editor:

There seems to have been some confusion lately about the function of the Budget Committee in New Hampshire, and particularly in Gilford. Is it an advisory body? If so, advisory to whom? What powers and duties does it have? How does it function?

New Hampshire town governments, and the governance of school districts located in towns, operate under the great American principle of separation of powers and checks and balances. We don’t have a judicial branch because that is a state function, but we do have both an executive branch, the “governing body,” selectmen or school board, and a legislative branch or “legislative body,” the town or district meeting and voters at the polls. The governing body has the responsibility and authority for most policy decisions, especially on a day-to-day basis. The legislative body has some policy-making power as spelled out in state statutes and especially the power to appropriate money or control the purse strings. And while it does not specifically have the power, the legislative body, as always in the American system, can influence the executive branch policy through its control of the purse strings.

It is extremely difficult for any legislative body, and especially one that meets only occasionally, to function well without the assistance and advice of committees that delve into issues in far more detail than the body as a whole, and that is where the New Hampshire budget committee comes in. State statute, RSA 32, gives towns the authority to establish and maintain such committees, and spells out their powers and duties. Most important, the budget committee has the power and duty to prepare budgets for submission to the legislative bodies, the people. The submitted budgets are, however, subject to such change as the legislative bodies, the people, see fit. Thus the budget committee is an advisory board to the legislative bodies, a part of the legislative branch of local governance.

In its preparation of budgets, the budget committee has the authority and the duty to confer with the governing bodies and other officials, to receive and consider their recommendations, and to obtain from them such information as the committee may require. It is reasonable and proper that in so doing the committee may make suggestions as to governing body policy as it affects costs, but such suggestions are unofficial and carry no obligation to comply.

Much has been made of the power of the budget committee under the so-called ten percent rule, the law that says the legislative body at any annual meeting may not appropriate a total amount more than ten percent above what the budget committee recommends. But this rule is largely meaningless because differences seldom amount to more than one or two percent. I’ve been a member or a follower of the Gilford Budget Committee for more than 40 years and I can remember no occasion where the ten percent rule applied. Formerly, there was a threat that it could apply in case of a proposed bond issue; if the bond issue amount were more then ten percent of the total budget the budget committee would have absolute veto power. However, the law has been changed so that now, in case of a bond issue, the governing body can permit the ten percent rule to be waived by the voters by simply putting some specified language in the warrant article.

In conclusion, the budget committee serves in an advisory capacity to the legislative body, the people, and not to the governing body. While its actual powers are strictly limited, its power to confer and to probe with the budget requesters assures more carefully prepared requests, and its ability to inform the people is invaluable.

Dick Campbell

Gilford