Aitken: Governor's Plan is NOT the NH Way

This is in response to the Feb 5, 2022, Union Leader article “Business Editor's Notebook: Housing affordability remains top focus for Stay Work Play.”

Few people are aware of the great housing takeover attempt at both the federal and state levels.

That's right, there is a bi-partisan effort (Republicans, including your governor) to impose upon New Hampshire what is basically the federal Obama/Biden Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing act (AFFH). It’s an attack on single-family zoning and imposes mandates of high-density housing by overriding the zoning and planning decisions made by the towns.

Part of the effort is being done to effect “economic integration” among owners/renters, especially where it doesn’t happen naturally, with the excuse that it’s to help the poor and the young.

What does this mean for local control? It means your vote at NH town meetings is basically worth nothing.

In addition to the Housing Appeals Board, an agency which was created by secreting the provision into the state budget after failing three times in the legislature, we saw the formation of a new Housing Caucus that seeks to "engage and educate other policymakers." By executive order, the governor has created a new NH bureaucracy: Council on Housing Stability. Add to this a number of bad bills that have failed repeatedly but keep showing up in the legislature. These bills propose to allow the state to completely control housing and "re-educate" planning boards, supported by various builders’ lobbies.

The NH Advantage seems doomed.

“Younger legislators need to educate the generation that came before them about the challenges young people face in New Hampshire, Kwoka said.”

Sen. Kowka is exploiting the myth that youth are not choosing to live in NH. The fact is, more youth are moving to NH than most any other state. The idea that homeless people would be helped by offering them apartments whose costs start at around $1,800 a month is ludicrous.

As for the challenges of those just starting out, it sounds like these "younger folk" want something they can’t yet quite afford, so they want the government to provide it.

NH used to be affordable. Now that every Tom, Dick, and Harry is moving here and wants everything given to them, from pre-school to college, cradle to grave, the seniors who helped build the landscape, character, soul, beauty, and attractiveness of NH are getting squeezed.

Even more horrifying are the words of our governor in his “State of the State” address where he doubles down on housing mandates:

“With that challenge I see opportunity. I created the Council for Housing Stability in November 2020. That council developed a three-year plan, that aims reduce homelessness and to increase housing options for our working families by 13,500 units in the next three years. These are achievable goals within our grasp.

I’ll also continue to ask the legislature to get SB 400 done — a bill to create regulatory incentives for workforce housing across this state.

But with the post-Covid economic boom hitting the Granite State, SB400 won’t be enough. I have repeatedly asked the Federal Government to give New Hampshire flexibility with our housing relief funds, but they keep refusing.”

Read his full remarks in the transcript of the address. Scroll down to page 9 for his “plan” to mandate housing.

Developers love these new housing partnerships with the state because they get government seed money, then get to collect rents with no taxes due on the buildings for the next nine years. I believe this is called “crony capitalism.” Even when taxes are finally being paid, I am told by town officials that it’s never a “fair share.”

The added tax burden of forcing towns to allow more high-density falls on the single-family homeowners as services get overloaded. Many don't want to be taxed out of the homes they worked for, nor squeezed out by all the costs and congestion that developments and forced zoning changes bring.

Businesses need to adopt their own policies to attract workers, and not expect the state to steal our tax dollars to provide housing to get those workers to move here. Single-family zoning should be a priority, not become a target for eradication. Homeownership should be encouraged. Local governments (towns) should be in charge of how they want to develop. Regionalism is not the answer, or the “NH Way.”

We enjoy a NH Advantage today because:

• NH is ranked as the freest state in the nation
• NH has the strongest economy and the fastest population growth in the northeast.
• NH is number one in America for public safety
• NH is first in economic freedom
• NH continues to have lowest poverty rate in in the country with some of the highest average wages for our citizens

Why destroy it with AFFH while bragging that you are stopping a sales and income tax?

SB 400 must be defeated. The HAB must be repealed.

If not, fighting a sales and/or income tax is a moot question.

As for complicit Republicans, someone ought to take them aside and teach them about how housing was handled during the Bolshevik Revolution… It’s getting to look a lot like that in NH.