SB2 at 5: Bonds, Ballots, and the Deliberative Session

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Brief Description

This paper reviews the first five years of experience with RSA 40:13, the official-ballot-meeting form of town government known popularly as “SB2,” which is short for Senate Bill 2, the legislation that authorized it. The paper compares SB2 and traditional-meeting jurisdictions’ approval of bond articles and voter participation rates, updating information contained in the papers the Center published on this topic in 2000 and 2001. The paper identifies problems with the “deliberative session” as defined by SB2 and recommends that communities considering moving to an official-ballot form of government use the state’s charter provisions to avoid those problems. The report recommends that the legislature amend SB2 to provide more options to communities.