Democrats Wage War On Property Tax Cap, One Town Meeting At A Time

By Leonard Robinson, NH Journal

The battle for control of the New Hampshire House is being waged in school board and town hall meetings as Republicans tout—and Democrats denounce—the property tax cap on November’s ballot.

Voters will have a chance to cap their local school property tax increases at the rate of inflation plus qualifying new taxable property growth. Republicans say it’s a way to stop out-of-control property tax increases that have grown far faster than inflation. Democrats and their teachers union allies say limiting growth will force cuts to education services.

That battle recently played out at an informational session hosted by the Chester School District, where Superintendent Christine Landwehrle made her opposition to capping property tax growth clear.

Landwehrle warned that the cap could leave the district with insufficient local tax revenue to meet its budget needs. If approved in November, the cap would first apply to the 2027-28 school year.

“If we have less money in our revenue sources, the only way to make up for that is more local sources of revenue.”

Or, Republicans say, the school system could do what families and businesses do and live within a budget. Most importantly, Rep. Mary Ford, R-Chester, said, voters get to have a say.

“Everyone who goes and votes in the general election can either vote yes, they can vote no, or they cannot vote at all, but I want to give them that opportunity,” Ford said. “I would prefer that the school budget is not determined by 8.5% of the registered voters in Chester.”

Opponents of the property tax cap like Landwehrle claim that state increases in funding haven’t kept pace with inflation, going back to 2004 to make that case. Chester Budget Committee member Greg Bobish pointed to declining local school enrollment.

That decline is happening statewide, says Drew Cline of the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy. He offered the big-picture perspective at a recent property tax roundtable hosted by Americans for Prosperity, citing the center’s inflation-adjusted spending figures.

“From 2001 to 2024, per pupil spending in New Hampshire rose by 96%,” Cline said. “Our total spending went up by $1.25 billion in that time, adjusted for inflation, while enrollment fell by 54,000 students.

“So total spending went up 45%, while enrollment fell by 26% and continues to fall.”

In Chester, Democratic state House candidate Pete Boudreau said he would vote against the cap on Nov. 3, arguing the state legislature is trying to restrict school district control.

“I don’t agree with this cap,” Boudreau said. “You people are elected by the people here in town. It’s interesting how people in Concord keep saying they want to help and that they want local control, but don’t trust you guys well enough so they have to have a safety belt.”

Boudreau’s claim that Question Two undermines local control of schools is made by many of its opponents. “New Hampshire has a proud tradition of town meetings and local control, and this undermines it,” Deb Howes, president of the American Federation of Teachers-New Hampshire, said when the proposal was being debated.

It’s also an argument supporters dismiss as nonsense.

“What’s more ‘local’ than letting local voters decide if they want to cap local taxes?” said Rep. Ross Berry, R-Weare.

Rep. Jess Edwards, who represents Auburn, Candia, Chester and Deerfield, supports the cap, but he went out of his way at the community hearing to praise Chester for its fiscal responsibility.

“If everyone was like Chester, we wouldn’t have done this,” Edwards said. “In your process, you looked at your programs and how they’re optimized around the kids. What’s not included is the realization that every time property taxes go up, there are people on the margin who can no longer afford their property taxes and they’re forced to move.”

Ron McKinnon, a Chester Budget Committee member who supports the cap, said the district should not assume no new properties would be built.

“There are plenty of houses going up around here,” McKinnon said.

State data show that Chester issued 19 new residential permits in 2024.

While a majority of the crowd at the Chester meeting opposed the property tax cap, a new St. Anselm College Survey Center poll found that most voters support it.

In the poll, 57% of voters said they support the cap, while 32% oppose it. Among swing voters, support is 52%, while opposition is 31%. State law requires a 60% majority for adoption.

Republicans make no secret of their belief that the property tax cap is a winning issue for them, and they’re urging voters to ask Democratic state House candidates whether they’ll vote to cap their neighbors’ taxes at the polls.

Republican candidates have publicly backed the property tax cap. Democratic candidate for governor Cinde Warmington has said she’s voting no. The three Democratic federal nominees — U.S. Reps. Maggie Goodlander and Chris Pappas, and NH-01 candidate Stefany Shaheen — all declined to answer when asked by NHJournal.

House Majority Leader Jason Osborne told NHJournal that voters need to be reminded of efforts by Republicans to address rising property taxes.

“Republican candidates have guaranteed to move forward with capping local property taxes in the future while every single Democrat candidate on the ballot opposes even this simple temporary restriction on property tax growth,” Osborne said. “Voters need to remember that it was Republican legislators who put this question on the ballot in the face of universal Democrat opposition.”

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.