Most area towns were in favor of resolution against property taxes
David P. Greisman
Sentinel Staff
Voters in dozens of New Hampshire communities feel their property taxes are too high – and they’ve chosen to say the buck stops in Concord.
Residents in 53 towns, including 11 in the Monadnock Region, voted at town meetings this year to support a resolution calling property taxes in New Hampshire “unjust and unfair” and called on politicians to find a way to lower property-tax payments. The article was defeated in at least 24 towns.
Thirteen of the 14 towns to vote on the resolution last year passed it, including five in the Monadnock Region.
“Close to 100 communities have voted on it. And two out of three, basically, have passed it. We take that as a very positive statement by the people of New Hampshire that they want this property-tax crisis addressed by the state,” said Paul J. Henle, executive director of the Granite State Fair Tax Coalition.
The Concord-based group, which drove the resolution’s placement on town-meeting warrants in all 10 counties, is in the process of deciding how it will lobby state lawmakers.
In the early 1970s, Republican governor Meldrim Thompson ran on an anti-income tax platform and won three consecutive terms. Since then, many Granite State politicians have taken a pledge not to support an income or sales tax.
But the recent round of voting should tell the lawmakers in Concord that “The Pledge” is a thing of the past, Henle said. Read the rest of this entry »
