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HB 564 Changes how SAU budgets appear on warrants and restricts amendments.

Education In Senate

Changes how SAU budgets appear on warrants and restricts amendments.

Impact Score — How Does This Bill Affect You?

4

Overall Impact Score

Concerning

Scale: 1 (harmful) to 10 (beneficial)

5
💰

Your Wallet

No direct financial impact on taxpayers

4
🏘️

Your Community

Limits voter ability to amend and adjust budgets at school district meetings

3
⚖️

Your Freedom

Prohibits floor amendments to SAU budgets, reducing direct democratic participation

Status

Engrossed Feb 2026. In Senate.

Sponsor

Rep. Vose (R-Rockingham)

The Short Version

Moves the SAU budget warrant article to the front of the warrant (right after bonds), locks in the previous year's adjusted budget as the baseline, and prohibits any amendments before the vote. The "no amendments" provision is the concerning part — it limits democratic deliberation at school meetings. Communities can't adjust the budget on the floor; it's take-it-or-leave-it. Reduces voter agency.

Who's Behind This Bill?

Who Benefits

  • ▲ Those seeking less deliberation on school budgets

Who Pays the Price

  • ▼ Voters (lose ability to amend budgets at town meeting)
  • ▼ Democratic participation in education funding

Roll Call Detail (2 votes)

Every recorded floor vote on this bill, with each legislator's individual vote. Click a name to see that rep's full record.

Who actually supports this bill?

Across the 2 recorded votes on this bill — counting each legislator's net direction and treating kill motions as opposing the bill — Republicans supported it ( 184 for , 1 against ) , and Democrats opposed it ( 7 for , 147 against ) .

"Supporting" means voting for passage OR voting against a kill motion. "Opposing" is the inverse. Concurs and amendment-only votes don't count.

Concur with other chamber's amendments 2026-05-07
Passed

YES = Accept the other chamber's amendments. NO = Reject the other chamber's amendments.

183R + 1D
Voted to Concur (184)
0R + 140D
Voted to Not Concur (140)
28
Absent
41
Not voting
Show all 393 individual votes

Voted Yea (184)

Republicans (183)
Democrats (1)

Voted Nay (140)

Democrats (140)
Absent (28)

Alicia Gregg (D) , Amy Malone (D) , Arnold Davis (R) , Buzz Scherr (D) , Catherine Sofikitis (D) , Christal Lloyd (D) , Cindy Bennett (R) , Donald McFarlane (R) , Ellen Read (D) , Gregory Hill (R) , Jim Fedolfi (R) , John Janigian (R) , John Leavitt (R) , John MacDonald (R) , John Sellers (R) , Juliet Harvey-Bolia (R) , Kevin Scully (R) , Kimberly Rice (R) , Mark MacKenzie (D) , Mark Vallone (D) , Matthew Wilhelm (D) , Merryl Gibbs (D) , Ned Raynolds (D) , Paul Berch (D) , Peter Varney (R) , Sanjeev Manohar (D) , Thomas Buco (D) , Vanessa Sheehan (R)

Did not vote (41)

Aidan Ankarberg (I) , Alissandra Murray (D) , Beth Richards (D) , Billie Butler (D) , Bryan Morse (R) , Christine Seibert (D) , Dan Bergeron (D) , David Nagel (R) , Donald Selby (R) , Douglas Trottier (R) , Eric Turer (D) , Ernesto Gonzalez (R) , Gaby Grossman (D) , Gary Gilmore (D) , Glen Aldrich (R) , Gregory Sargent (D) , Jaci Grote (D) , James MacKay (D) , James Summers (R) , Jessica LaMontagne (D) , John Stone (D) , Jonah Wheeler (D) , Karel Crawford (R) , Linda DiSilvestro (D) , Linda Harriott-Gathright (D) , Melissa Litchfield (R) , Nicole Leapley (D) , Paige Beauchemin (D) , Patrick Long (D) , Peter Leishman (D) , Peter Lovett (D) , Phyllis Katsakiores (R) , Raymond Peeples (R) , Richard Tripp (R) , Robley Hall (R) , Samantha Jacobs (D) , Seth King (R) , Sherman Packard (R) , Terry Roy (R) , Tim Mannion (R) , Travis Corcoran (R)

Ought to Pass (passage vote) 2026-01-07
Passed

YES = Pass the bill. NO = Reject the bill.

184R + 7D
Voted to Pass (191)
1R + 147D
Voted Against (148)
39
Absent
17
Not voting
Show all 395 individual votes

Voted Yea (191)

Republicans (184)
Democrats (7)

Voted Nay (148)

Republicans (1)
Democrats (147)
Absent (39)

Adam Presa (R) , Allison Knab (D) , Bill Boyd (R) , Cassandra Levesque (D) , Charles Foote (R) , Charlie St. Clair (D) , David Lundgren (R) , David Luneau (D) , David Nagel (R) , Deborah Aylward (R) , Denise DeDe-Poulin (R) , Douglas Trottier (R) , Efstathia Booras (D) , Fred Davis (D) , Gaby Grossman (D) , Gary Daniels (R) , Heath Howard (D) , Jeffrey Tenczar (R) , Jim Creighton (R) , Jodi Nelson (R) , Karel Crawford (R) , Larry Gagne (R) , Laurence Miner (R) , Louise Andrus (R) , Mary Ford (R) , Mary Murphy (R) , Merryl Gibbs (D) , Michael Cahill (D) , Michael Harrington (R) , Michael Murphy (R) , Mike Bordes (R) , Myles England (D) , Peter Varney (R) , Sandra Panek (R) , Sayra Devito (R) , Shane Sirois (R) , Tim Mannion (R) , Tom Dolan (R) , Travis Toner (R)

Full Analysis

On its surface, HB 564 is about administrative housekeeping — changing the order of warrant articles and standardizing how SAU (School Administrative Unit) budgets are presented. But the "no amendments" provision is the poison pill.

Under current law, voters at school district meetings can amend budget warrant articles on the floor. This is a fundamental part of NH's town meeting democracy — the community deliberates, proposes changes, and votes. HB 564 eliminates this for SAU budgets, making the vote a binary yes-or-no on the proposed amount with no room for adjustment.

This takes away one of the few remaining mechanisms for community input on school spending. If voters think the proposed budget is too high, their only option is to vote it down entirely (triggering a default budget). If they think it's too low, they can't add funding on the floor. It's a take-it-or-leave-it approach that reduces democratic participation in education funding decisions.

Read the Actual Bill → See All Bills

Bill statuses as of May 2026. Check LegiScan or NH General Court for the latest.