Both local New Hampshire House Republican candidates talk about lowering taxes. This is an old Republican mantra. It goes along with the pledge to avoid new broad-based taxes.

But what happens to existing taxes while this talk goes on? My Andover taxes, for unchanged property, have gone up 119% since 2000. That’s a lot of old tax.

Some of the increase is the result of the state not living up to its responsibilities to the towns and cities. What will those lower-tax cheerleaders do about this?