— This Moment in NHMA History — 34 years ago… NHMA created its first and initial website, http://www.nhmunicipal.org, for the benefit of New Hampshire municipal officials and the world to be able to find NHMA and a host of other municipal resources. The site went live in February and received an average of 1,800 monthly hits. The decline of state and federal aid to cities and towns and the increased pressure to reduce property taxes caused many to begin looking at user fees to support certain government services. A survey of public attitude toward government done by the US Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations showed that the idea of supporting municipal services through user fees rather than taxation grew more popular over the past decade.
NHMA released A Hard Road to Travel Handbook, a comprehensive publication on the laws of local highways, streets, and trails, in 1997. At the time, NHMA’s Legal Counsel, Bernie Waugh, proclaimed this manual was “something no municipality should be without.” This Handbook remains one of NHMA’s most popular member publications today.
www.nhmunicipal.org
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