Shall the Town of Hampton vote to raise and appropriate the sum of $90,000 to carry out all lawful functions allowed under federal, state, and local criminal justice forfeiture programs and to authorize the withdrawal of said sum of $90,000 from the Police Forfeiture Special Revenue Fund established for that purpose under Article 55 of the 2003 Town Meeting? (Majority vote required)
What it means: During normal police operations, items of value may be forfeited by individuals. There are expenses associated with the management of such property, including storage, auctioning, returning items where appropriate, etc. NH law permits the auctioning of abandoned property where appropriate, and the monies so received are put into a fund. This Article seeks approval to use the funds to cover the cost of managing the forfeiture process and other activities approved via the RSA’s.
Those in favor say: This is a standard, annual procedure to allow money to be withdrawn from the fund.
Those against say: Those opposed take issue with taking the property of others in the first place (as opposed to the withdrawing of money from the fund); or have issues with how the funds are spent. Both of these issues are defined at the state level and are not affected by the voters’ approval of this Article.
Fiscal impact: There is no tax impact because the money will be taken from a separate fund. This Article is allowing the withdrawal of the money from the fund.