Most New Hampshire Democrats Represent Towns That Passed Tax Cap. Will They Kill It, Anyway?

By by Michael Graham, NH Journal

Look at the maps, not just the math.

That’s what Republicans who passed the property tax cap are telling Democrats who are preparing to take control of the state House and Senate. The Granite Staters who voted to cap local property taxes are your voters, too.

Final tallies from the New Hampshire Secretary of State’s Office show that 58.9% of voters said yes to Question 2, which would limit local school spending increases to the rate of inflation plus growth in the local tax base, and also limit administrative expenses to 6% of the overall school budget. Overall, 356,374 voters backed the tax cap—more than supporters of either Gov. Kelly Ayotte or U.S. Sen.-elect Chris Pappas.

A majority of voters in all 10 New Hampshire counties backed the tax cap. The same was true in 21 of the state’s 24 Senate districts. The college towns of Durham, Keene, and Hanover strongly opposed the tax cap, but 12 of the 15 incoming Democratic state senators will serve voters who wanted to restrict property tax growth, even during a Democratic high tide.

Interestingly, all three of the Senate’s new leaders — incoming President Rebecca Perkins Kwoka, Majority Leader Donovan Fenton, and President Pro Tem Suzanne Prentiss — represent districts where voters rejected the tax cap. Will that make them more open to supporting a repeal?

Sen. Daryl Abbas, a Salem Republican, says the leaders don’t need an excuse. He believes Democrats are determined to prevent the question from appearing on the 2028 ballot as the current law requires.

“For a bunch of people who campaigned that they want to reduce property taxes, they want to get rid of the opportunity to have it on the ballot,” Abbas told the NHJournal podcast. “This is what I’m talking about: What they campaigned on, they’re not even going to try to deliver on it. It’s sad.”

Support for Question 2 varied across the state, with a high of 67% of voters in favor in Coos County, with a low of 52% of Grafton County voters in favor.

Question 2 received more than 60% in favor in 125 cities and towns. A majority of voters in 77 other communities backed the tax cap but fell below the required 60% threshold. And just 36 municipalities saw most voters oppose Question 2.

Because the tax cap needs 60% approval across each school district it covers, some towns that backed the cap will have to try again in 2028 as their neighbors kept the question under the 60% threshold.

For instance, 61.5% of Weare voters said yes to Question 2, but just 50.9% of Henniker voters did likewise, which will keep the cap from going into effect in the shared John Stark Regional School District.

Democrats in the Senate unanimously opposed the legislation that put the tax cap question on the ballot this year, and again in 2028. Rep. Karen Ebel (D-New London) was the only House Democrat to support it. Democratic activists went to court to try to block Question 2 from appearing on the ballot. Democratic candidates up and down the ballot, including the entire federal delegation, urged voters to reject tax caps, aided by an all-out ad blitz from teachers unions, which argued that capping local education spending would hurt students.

Republicans point to data from Drew Cline at the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy showing that New Hampshire’s combined state, local and federal spending averages approximately $26,000 per public school student. Some districts spend more than $40,000 per pupil.

According to data from House Republicans, 91 local school districts, three cooperative school districts, and nine SAUs will have to cap spending, or get a supermajority of voters to approve going over the cap. In another 77 local districts, six co-ops, and 43 SAUs fell short of the 60% needed for passage. Democrats in Concord have already filed legislation to repeal the tax cap question for 2028, which would take away New Hampshire voters’ ability to vote again in two years.

Republicans are already pledging to defend the property tax cap.

“The first order of business for the new (Democratic) majority seems to be ripping away the property tax cap their voters themselves enacted,” Rep. Jason Osborne, R-Auburn, said in a statement. “Bold strategy, Cotton. Let’s see if this pays off for them.”

And given that Ayotte signed the original legislation and voted for the tax cap on Tuesday, Democrats face an all-but-certain veto. They can overturn it in the House with their 292-107 majority, but they’re one vote short of the 16 needed to override it in the Senate.

NHJournal reached out to Sens. Perkins-Kwoka, Fenton, and Prentiss about the caucus’s plans for the property tax cap. They all declined to respond, as did the two House Democrats seeking the speakership, Reps. Jim Maggiore and Alexis Simpson.

This story was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair, unbiased reporting on, and analysis of, political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more stories from the NH Journal, visit NHJournal.com.