ANDOVER – First, it says in Part II, Article 5 that taxes must be “fair and proportional.” That means the tax rate (that is, percent of assessed value) paid by property owners must be equal across the state, regardless which town they live in. (For comparison, in 2018 the median state and local tax rate across New Hampshire was about $15 / $1000, while Andover’s rate was about $23.) To pick easy numbers for an example: if the state-wide rate were $15 tax per each thousand dollars assessed value, a $100k property would owe $1500 in taxes annually. But that isn’t what’s happening today. Towns with a lot of high-value real estate, such as upscale waterfront, ski resorts or mid-state “hot” tech jobs pay as low as $5 per thousand, while towns with lower-value properties, few good jobs and sub-par housing may be taxed as high as $42 per thousand. This is blatantly unconstitutional, since the unequal rates are not proportional to the value being taxed. Moreover, the state provides very little financial help, but demands that the towns raise virtually all the funds themselves, label a portion of the town’s own revenue as “State-Wide Education Property Tax” (SWEPT), and then returns nearly the full amount as if it were a gift from the state. A portion is placed in the state’s “Education Trust Fund” (ETF), but it often sits there as an unspent surplus, which does our schools no good!

Second, New Hampshire’s Constitution demands that the State pay for “an adequate education” which meets society’s needs for graduates who have the knowledge and skills to be economically competitive in the current US economy. Some New Hampshire towns are fortunate enough to raise enough money to have great local schools, while other towns without high-value real estate struggle to keep their schools open. In either case, it is not the town’s constitutional responsibility to do so – it is the responsibility of the state!