HB 1224
Eliminates the default budget mechanism — if a warrant fails, the previous year's budget just rolls over.
Status
Killed in committee. ITL vote 18-0 on Feb 3, 2026.
Sponsor
Rep. Bill Ohm (R-Nashua)
TL;DR
Under current law, when a budget warrant fails, a "default budget" accounts for contractual obligations and adjustments. This bill would have eliminated that safety valve — if the warrant fails, schools simply get last year's exact budget with no adjustments for new contracts, cost increases, or enrollment changes. Killed unanimously in committee (18-0 ITL), but it reveals the intent: punish schools for any budget vote that doesn't go the way anti-education forces want.
Full Analysis
Rep. Bill Ohm (R-Nashua) — who also sponsors HB 1817 (the EFA unfunded mandate bill) — introduced HB 1224 to eliminate the default budget mechanism entirely. Under this bill, when a school budget warrant article fails, the district would simply receive the previous year's exact budget with zero adjustments.
No adjustment for new teacher contracts. No adjustment for increased special education costs. No adjustment for enrollment changes. No adjustment for legally mandated services. Just last year's number, frozen.
This would create a perverse incentive: organized groups could vote down budgets specifically to force a rollback, knowing that the resulting budget would be inadequate to meet the district's legal obligations. The district would then be forced to make mid-year cuts or violate contractual and legal requirements.
Like HB 1575, this was killed unanimously (18-0 ITL). But both bills came from the same playbook: manipulate the budget process to guarantee that school spending goes down, regardless of what voters or school boards want.
Bill statuses as of March 2026. Check LegiScan or NH General Court for the latest.