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 created 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 this 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.
Those against say: Those opposed take issue with taking the property of others in the first instance (as opposed to the annual procedure of withdrawing money from the fund); or have issues with how the funds are spent. Both of these issues are defined at the state-level and would not be affected one way or the other by the decision on this Article.
Fiscal impact: There is no tax impact because the money will be taken from a separate fund put aside for this purpose. This Article is allowing the withdrawal of the money from the fund.