The Property Tax Reckoning

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As the federal government shifts costs to states, and states shift more onto local governments, decades of tax gimmicks are coming home to roost. In New Hampshire, homeowners are left carrying too much of the burden. It is critical that we set partisan politics aside and ask a practical question: how do we continue to pay for the services we depend on without loading growing costs onto property owners?

Good tax policy, like good business, is the result of an honest conversation that ends with accountability, and accountability is the only thing that will lead to a real advantage for New Hampshire. We have lived too long in a buy-now-pay-later political culture, in which leaders have achieved temporary relief by kicking costs down the line. Underinvesting in the infrastructure and schools property owners already fund, and trying to blame one another for growing liabilities will not earn us the thanks and respect of future generations.

New Hampshire residents paid about $3,388 per person in property taxes in 2022, the second-highest level in the country. Local governments relied on property taxes for about 61% of their overall revenue, more than in any other state. (NHFPI)

That structure matters in rural towns like Deering and Francestown, the district I am running to represent as an independent candidate for State Representative. Communities with a limited commercial tax base have fewer ways to spread costs, so the burden falls more heavily on homeowners. For retirees on fixed incomes and working families facing rising costs, New Hampshire can stop feeling like a low-tax state very quickly.

Both spending and revenue deserve scrutiny, but revenue design has been treated as untouchable, even as the current approach grows less sustainable every year. For decades, the State has leaned on fees, sin taxes, and business taxes - narrow, volatile tools that are hardest hit during recessions - rather than building a more stable base. Sticking to the current plan means continuing to turn our back on the future. 

It is time to stop play-acting, claiming that we are cutting taxes, when, really, we are just raising them on the next generation. Let’s roll up our sleeves and act with the same respect and optimism that drove previous generations to build so much for us, and give the next generation nothing less than what we inherited.