HB0072 public hearing held today: Not one speaker spoke in favor
The MCA was there....
A hearing was held today @ 11:30am in
You will recall that HB0072 would increase by ten fold to 50 the amount of people required to sign a petition and also be present at Town Meeting to request a secret ballot. The rule that requires the current five persons necessary to request a secret ballot was put in place way back in 1971 and amended in 2006 to requiring them to be present.
Since this would effect Town Meetings throughout NH including SB2 Towns, the public including the MCA showed up to voice opposition.
There were so many speakers in opposition, the hearing ran longer than scheduled.
ALL SPEAKERS WERE OPPOSED. NOT A SINGLE SPEAKER SPOKE IN FAVOR OF HB0072!
Who spoke? Well, two citizens from Moultonboro, but many more from around the state who are adamantly opposed to this bill including:....
a State Senator, a State Rep not on the committee , a former Selectmen , a Town Moderator, a School Board member and other members of the public who took the time to show up and be heard.
Some comments:
- “no reason for this”
- “fixing something that isn’t broken”
- “people want their private vote”
- “ this is a disgrace”
- “will restrict voters rights”
There were many comments about the intimidation factor that occurs at Town Meeting. The School Board member ( from Monadnock) spoke of how teachers in his district feel afraid to speak and vote at the School meeting in front of the Superintendent and Principal. Many spoke of people being yelled at by other particpants for voting " the wrong way". All felt that the issue of special interests delaying Town Meeting with "secret ballot" does not really occur.
Betsey began her presentation of the bill very strangely with comments such as “being unbalanced” meaning that perhaps going from 5 persons to 50 was a bit much. ( You think?). She stated that she has received a lot of opposition at the local level and negative letters in the newspapers about this bill. She ended her presentation with a comment about "decline in civil debate" in her town.
She also said the Selectmen voted unanimously in support. Not true......
No motion was made and no vote was taken.The following is verbatim from the Selectmen meeting of 01/08/2009 in a brief 2:00 minute exchange:
Betsey Patten (8:00-8:02PM)
“What I was asked to do was up the amount of people ask to vote and to be present..
As we understand it, the Municipal and County Committee will meet tomorrow to decide this and other bills heard at hearings today. They can create a subcommittee to further study or vote on it. We expect that the bill we be voted Inexpedient to Legislate (ITL) and effectively killed.
MCA
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This is great thank you. I hope there will be video of the testimony as this is a powerful thing.