Birdsell/Osborne: What's Driving High Property Taxes In The Granite State? Local Spending

by Regina Birdsell and Jason Osborne

You already know the feeling.

You open your property tax bill, and the number is higher than last year’s. Again. You cut back on your own spending. You make trade-offs every month to stay on budget. And then your local government asks you to pay more, with no explanation that makes any sense.

You are not imagining it. Over the past four years, local government spending in New Hampshire has surged from $4.76 billion to $6.0 billion. That is a 28 percent increase. Your local tax bill went up because your local officials voted to spend more of your money.

Over that same period, student enrollment kept falling. New Hampshire schools have lost nearly 40,000 students since the peak two decades ago, dropping from 208,461 to roughly 168,900. Even with fewer kids in the classroom, the budget keeps growing. You are paying more for less, and nobody at town hall or on the school board seems to think that is a problem.

Democrats will tell you the state is to blame. They have spent years pushing a theory they call “down-shifting,” the idea that when the state does not spend enough, local taxes go up. They use this argument to make the case for a statewide income tax.

Here is why that argument is dead.

Over the past six years, New Hampshire Republicans have delivered more state funding to towns and schools than any legislature in state history. We increased total education aid from $599 million to more than $950 million, a 52 percent increase. That’s over 2.1 billion in state education funding for local schools in this 2-year state budget. Per-pupil funding climbed from $5,900 to over $7,100. In the FY22-23 budget, Republicans pushed $200 million into the statewide education property tax, sending relief directly to local taxpayers. Combined with meals and rooms distributions, total state support to municipalities has grown 74 percent, outpacing inflation by 29 points.

The state sent more money than ever. Your property taxes still went up 20 percent. If “down-shifting” were real, that would be impossible. The truth is simpler, yet harder to accept: your local government got a record check from Concord and spent even more on top of it.

And here is the part that should make you angry. The budgets that set your property tax rate are approved at local elections, where less than 20 percent of voters show up. Compare that to 70 percent, or more, in a general election. The spending decisions that hit your wallet the hardest are made by the smallest number of people, at meetings most taxpayers do not even know are happening.

That is why Republicans are promising you a real option with HB 1300, the Property Tax Protection Act. This bill puts a tax cap question on the general election ballot every two years. You would decide whether school budgets can grow beyond the prior year’s level adjusted for inflation and new construction. Bonded capital projects are excluded. If voters approve the cap, budgets stay disciplined. If voters choose to override it, spending goes up with the full consent of the electorate. No more budget increases decided by a handful of insiders late on a Tuesday night in an empty auditorium in March.

At the state level, we have grown the economy, doubled revenues, and balanced the budget. We delivered tax relief to the employers who create jobs, to retirees living on fixed incomes, and to you every time you go out to eat. We sent record funding to your towns and schools, and your property taxes still went up. Now, with HB 1300, we are going to put a tool on your ballot to finally rein in out-of-control local spending, without sacrificing an ounce of local control.

State Sen. Regina Birdsell (R-Hampstead) is the Majority Leader in the New Hampshire State Senate. She also represents Windham. State Rep. Jason Osborne (R-Auburn) is New Hampshire House Majority Leader.

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.