§ 32:5 — Budget Preparation

I. The governing body, or the budget committee if there is one, shall hold at least one public hearing on each budget, not later than 25 days before each annual or special meeting, public notice of which shall be given at least 7 days in advance, and after the conclusion of public testimony shall finalize the budget to be submitted to the legislative body. If a town or district uses sub-accounts to budget or track financial data it shall make that data available for public inspection at the public hearing. One or more supplemental public hearings may be held at any time before the annual or special meeting, subject to the 7-day notice requirement. If the first hearing or any supplemental hearing is recessed to a later date or time, additional notice shall not be required for a supplemental session if the date, time, and place of the supplemental session are made known at the original hearing. Public hearings on bonds and notes in excess of $100,000 shall be held in accordance with RSA 33:8-a, I. Days shall be counted in accordance with RSA 21:35.
II. All purposes and amounts of appropriations to be included in the budget or special warrant articles shall be disclosed or discussed at the final hearing. The governing body or budget committee shall not thereafter insert, in any budget column or special warrant article, an additional amount or purpose of appropriation which was not disclosed or discussed at that hearing, without first holding one or more public hearings on supplemental budget requests for town or district expenditures.
III. All appropriations recommended shall be stipulated on a "gross" basis, showing anticipated revenues from all sources, including grants, gifts, bequests, and bond issues, which shall be shown as offsetting revenues to appropriations affected. The budget shall be prepared according to rules adopted by the commissioner of revenue administration under RSA 541-A, relative to the required forms and information to be submitted for recommended appropriations and anticipated revenues for each town or district.
IV. Budget forms for the annual meeting shall include, in the section showing recommended appropriations, comparative columns indicating at least the following information:
(a) Appropriations voted by the previous annual meeting.
(b) Actual expenditures made pursuant to those appropriations, or in those towns and districts which hold annual meetings prior to the close of the current fiscal year, actual expenditures for the most recently completed fiscal year.
(c) All appropriations, including appropriations contained in special warrant articles, recommended by the governing body.
(d) If there is a budget committee, all the appropriations, including appropriations contained in special warrant articles, recommended by the budget committee.
V. When any purpose of appropriation, submitted by a governing body or by petition, appears in the warrant as part of a special warrant article:
(a) The article shall contain a notation of whether or not that appropriation is recommended by the governing body, and, if there is a budget committee, a notation of whether or not it is recommended by the budget committee;
(b) If the article is amended at the first session of the meeting in an official ballot referendum municipality, the governing body and the budget committee, if one exists, may revise its recommendation on the amended version of the special warrant article and the revised recommendation shall appear on the ballot for the second session of the meeting provided, however, that the 10 percent limitation on expenditures provided for in RSA 32:18 shall be calculated based upon the initial recommendations of the budget committee;
(c) Defects or deficiencies in these notations shall not affect the legal validity of any appropriation otherwise lawfully made; and
(d) All appropriations made under special warrant articles shall be subject to the hearing requirements of paragraphs I and II of this section.
V-a. The legislative body of any town, school district, or village district may vote to require that all votes by an advisory budget committee, a town, school district, or village district budget committee, and the governing body or, in towns, school districts, or village districts without a budget committee, all votes of the governing body relative to budget items or any warrant articles shall be recorded votes and the numerical tally of any such vote shall be printed in the town, school district, or village district warrant next to the affected warrant article. Unless the legislative body has voted otherwise, if a town or school district has not voted to require such tallies to be printed in the town or school district warrant next to the affected warrant article, the governing body or the budget committee adopted under RSA 32:14 may, on its own initiative, require that the tallies of its votes be printed next to the affected article.
V-b. Any town may vote to require that the annual budget and all special warrant articles having a tax impact, as determined by the governing body, shall contain a notation stating the estimated tax impact of the article. The determination of the estimated tax impact shall be subject to approval by the governing body. Any special warrant articles voted on pursuant to this paragraph with multi-year tax impacts, or containing lease agreements with or without non-appropriation clauses, shall contain a notation stating the estimated tax impact each year for the first 5 years, or each year if the tax impact is less than 5 years.
VI. Upon completion of the budgets, an original of each budget and of each recommendation upon special warrant articles, signed by a quorum of the governing body, or of the budget committee, if any, shall be placed on file with the town or district clerk. A certified copy shall be forwarded by the chair of the budget committee, if any, or otherwise by the chair of the governing body, to the commissioner of revenue administration pursuant to RSA 21-J:34.
VII. (a) The governing body shall post certified copies of the budget with the warrant for the meeting. The operating budget warrant article shall contain the amount as recommended by the budget committee if there is one. In the case of towns, the budget shall also be printed in the town report made available to the legislative body at least one week before the date of the annual meeting. A school district or village district may vote, under an article inserted in the warrant, to require the district to print its budget in an annual report made available to the district's voters at least one week before the date of the annual meeting. Such district report may be separate or may be combined with the annual report of the town or towns within which the district is located.
(b) The governing body in official ballot referenda jurisdictions operating under RSA 40:13 shall post certified copies of the default budget form or any amended default budget form with the proposed operating budget and the warrant.
(c) If the operating budget warrant article is amended at the first session of the meeting in an official ballot referendum jurisdiction operating under RSA 40:13, the governing body and the budget committee, if one exists, may each vote on whether to recommend the amended article, and the recommendation or recommendations shall appear on the ballot for the second session of the meeting.
VIII. The procedural requirements of this section shall apply to any special meeting called to raise or appropriate funds, or to reduce or rescind any appropriation previously made, provided, however, that any budget form used may be prepared locally. Such a form or the applicable warrant article shall, at a minimum, show the request by the governing body or petitioners, the recommendation of the budget committee, if any, and the sources of anticipated offsetting revenue, other than taxes, if any.
IX. If the budget committee fails to deliver a budget prepared in accordance with this section, the governing body shall post its proposed budget with a notarized statement indicating that the budget is being posted pursuant to this paragraph in lieu of the budget committee's proposed budget. This alternative budget shall then be the basis for the application of the provisions of this chapter.
X. If a town or district uses sub-accounts to budget or track financial data, it shall ensure the budget data at the account and sub-account levels is available for public inspection prior to and at the annual or special meeting, at which the budget or any appropriation is to be considered.

Legislative History

1993, 332:1, eff. Aug. 28, 1993. 1996, 214:2, eff. Aug. 9, 1996. 1997, 41:1, eff. July 11, 1997. 2001, 71:2, eff. July 1, 2001. 2002, 61:1, eff. June 25, 2002. 2004, 68:1, eff. July 6, 2004; 219:2, eff. Aug. 10, 2004; 238:5, eff. June 15, 2004; 238:12, eff. Aug. 10, 2004 at 12:01 a.m. 2007, 305:1, eff. Sept. 11, 2007. 2009, 2:1, eff. Feb. 20, 2009. 2010, 90:1, eff. July 24, 2010. 2012, 6:1, eff. May 21, 2012; 217:1, eff. July 1, 2013. 2014, 190:7, eff. Sept. 9, 2014. 2018, 246:1, eff. Aug. 11, 2018. 2021, 134:3, 4, eff. Sept. 21, 2021. 2025, 144:1, eff. Aug. 30, 2025.