Lisa Horne

Thank you for taking my written testimony. I strongly oppose HB314. Many of these agencies that municipal organizations use have far outreaching benefits and lobbying activities are only a small portion of where membership fees are spent. Should these membership fees be cut from a local budget, legal expenses and fees would need to be substantially increased causing an additional burden of local fiscal budgets. These memberships allow for free legal advice that face many municipalities that without membership would triple the cost to attorneys who have an expertise in those particular areas. A simple and mundane task of writing a new or updating a current board policy would require each individual town or school to seek feedback from a legal budget individually and would cause a fragmented and confusing interpretation of different policies in neighboring towns - there would be no consistency pitting one community against another. Because this language goes well beyond prohibiting “lobbying” as defined in RSA chapter 15, the bill would prevent any local official, whether a paid employee or an elected official receiving a stipend, from any form of advocacy or speech on legislation on behalf of a city, town, or school district. HB 314 affects every organization of municipal officials, every state agency and department; and every nonprofit organization that receives state or local funds. If the ban itself isn’t enough, the bill makes the prohibited speech a Class A misdemeanor, establishes personal liability “equal to 3 times the amount wrongfully paid or expended,” and makes a “knowing violation grounds for discharge of an employee." I strongly oppose this bill- this attempts to create fragmented institutions, pits communities against one another, and will cause an increased burden to the local tax payer to increase local budgets in legal expenses that are unnecessary. I urge you to consider these unintentional consequences to the structure of this bill for your local constituents. This bill attempts to censor voices - voices that elect you as the representatives for the great state of NH. Thank you for letting me share my voice.