The New Hampshire House and Senate have agreed on a plan that will require voters in every city and town to consider capping local property taxes spent on schools and district administrative costs.
Slowing the growth in local property taxes and school spending has been a big focus for Republicans in Concord this year, and at the legislature’s final session before campaign season kicks off, GOP leaders cast the tax cap as a way to protect citizens.
“Someone must act, our voters are being taxed out of their homes,” said Rep. Ross Berry, R-Weare.
The final version of the bill, which won adoption largely along party lines in both the House and the Senate, would require voters across the state to consider capping school taxes at the rate of inflation this November and in 2028. The bill would also cap school administrative spending, but wouldn’t apply to school building projects, bond payments, federal grants or private donations to public schools.
Critics of the plan said its backers might sell it as a way to limit local property taxes, but it could easily have the effect of crippling local schools.
“It does not eliminate regulation of public schools, but it does prevent budgeting for changes to special education, health insurance premiums, teacher pay and reductions to state spending,” said Rep. David Luneau, a D-Hopkinton.
Gov. Kelly Ayotte avoided direct involvement in the debate over this bill, but recently told reporters she saw having local voters weigh in on the policy during state elections as “a positive.”
To take effect, three-fifths of local voters would need to support the cap, and any local cap could be overridden by that same margin. The policy also calls for any cap adopted under the bill to expire by 2032.
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