SB 30-FN - AS INTRODUCED
2003 SESSION
03/09
SENATE BILL SB 30-FN
This bill makes any person who publishes a statement about a candidate knowing the statement to be false guilty of a class A misdemeanor.
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Explanation: Matter added to current law appears in bold italics.
Matter removed from current law appears [in brackets and struckthrough.]
Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.
03-0502
03/09
STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Three
AN ACT relative to dissemination of false statements about candidates.
Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:
1 New Section; Illegal Influence; Publication of False Statement. Amend RSA 666 by inserting after section 7 the following new section:
666:7-a Publication of False Statement. Any person who publishes a statement about a candidate knowing the statement to be false shall be guilty of a class A misdemeanor.
2 Effective Date. This act shall take effect January 1, 2004.
LBAO
03-0502
1/9/03
SB 30-FN - FISCAL NOTE
AN ACT relative to dissemination of false statements about candidates.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The Judicial Branch, Judicial Council, Association of Counties, and Department of Justice state this bill may increase state and county expenditures by an indeterminable amount in FY 2004 and each year thereafter. There will be no fiscal impact on state, county, and local revenue or local expenditures.
METHODOLOGY:
The Judicial Branch states this bill makes publishing a statement about a candidate, knowing the statement to be false, a class A misdemeanor. Each prosecution has the potential to be expensive for the judicial branch since a class A misdemeanor can involve a bench trial in the District Court, a de novo jury trial in the Superior Court, as well as an appeal to the Supreme Court. The fiscal impact of this bill depends on how many prosecutions are brought which cannot be determined at this time.
The Judicial Council assumes that any cases arising from the enactment of this law for which the Indigent Defense Fund may be liable, will in the first instance, be handled by the public defender or contract attorneys who accept these cases on a fixed fee basis of $250 for each misdemeanor charge. If an assigned counsel attorney must be used, the hourly rate of $60, with a fee cap of $1,000 for misdemeanor cases will apply. If a motion to exceed the fee cap is approved and/or "services other than counsel" are approved, these will also be chargeable to the Indigent Defense Fund. The Council is unable to predict the number of cases that may result from the passage of this legislation, therefore, they are unable to estimate the dollar amount of the anticipated costs of such representation.
The Association of Counties states the fiscal impact of this bill depends on the number of individuals who are sentenced to a county house of corrections as a result of this bill. The Association has estimated the average annual cost to incarcerate an individual in a county house of corrections to be $21,634.
LBAO
03-0502
1/9/03
Page 2
The Department of Justice states this bill will involve the agency in additional litigation. Costs would include the production of documents, research, travel, overtime for support staff, and additional caseloads for attorneys. Exclusive of staff time, the cost of litigation averages $2,388 for civil cases and $1,351 for criminal cases. In addition, any increase in the number of complaints to the agency will increase both workload and the priority in which they are handled.
The Department of State states this bill will have no fiscal impact on their Department.