Advocate for amendment
By Michelle Sanborn - Alexandria, President of New Hampshire Community Rights Network | Jan 30, 2021
Do we govern from our Town Meetings, or no? The state considers it beyond our legal authority when we attempt to use our local governing process to protect our communities from state-issued permits that allow any number of harmful activities such as water extraction, landfill expansions, waste to energy incinerators, sludge application, mining, fossil fuel pipeline infrastructure, even unsustainable “renewable” energy projects; or when our communities attempt to create sanctuary and equity for all inhabitants, including rights for Nature.
Why are we denied the right to protect our health and safety, and not able to create the kind of communities we envision at the local level? New Hampshire’s state governing structure follows the Dillon’s Rule doctrine; which is to say that the legal relationship between the state and any municipality (town, village, city, district) is as a parent to a child. A municipality may exercise only the authority the state determines it should have. This is why municipalities are referred to as merely, “an administrative arm of the state.” We need to alter this present framework of our state government and establish a new framework for community self-governance where the state is an administrative arm of the municipality. What we need is for government to serve the people, not the other way around.
How can we change the status of our municipalities from that of servitude to empowered, self-governing communities? Demand state constitutional change that recognizes our right to locally self-govern in matters of health and safety, and ecosystem rights. Advocate for an amendment to the New Hampshire Bill of Rights that establishes state law as a floor upon which people can use the Town Meeting process to locally increase, but not decrease protections. Support and join the New Hampshire Community Rights Network in the effort to reintroduce the Community Self-Government Amendment. Contact the NHCRN at info@nhcommunityrights.org and visit our website at www.nhcommunityrights.org to learn more.