I just can’t understand why the citizenry of NH (or anywhere else, for that matter) hasn’t figured out that when politicians start talking about “downshifting” of costs from a higher level of government to a lower one is nothing but HOGWASH!!!!
The skirmishes, the debates, the heated words – it really doesn’t matter. All they are doing is putting on a show for voters that “they care about you” when those whose ox is getting gored start whispering/mumbling/talking/yelling /screaming about what other politicians are “doing to you!”.
If they really cared, they’d be lowering the cost of THEIR level of government so as to lessen the financial harm to taxpayers. Important Point: how often have they done so?
Yeah, I agree – almost never. In any case, it’s a sham and I let a Progressive in Nashua know it as that person is also trying to spin the horribly wrong meme that Republicans in Concord (State Level) have decided to raise your local property taxes.
Of course, that’s absolute nonsense. The NH Legislature has nothing to do with that (other than for when your elected officials, Gov. Sununu, and the State Legislature decided to go “Constitutional Rogue” as with SB142 “SB142: Legislators & Gov Sununu trashed their oaths to protect the NH Constitution over tampons” in defiance of the NH Constitution:
“[Art.] 28-a. [Mandated Programs.] The state shall not mandate or assign any new, expanded or modified programs or responsibilities to any political subdivision in such a way as to necessitate additional local expenditures by the political subdivision unless such programs or responsibilities are fully funded by the state or unless such programs or responsibilities are approved for funding by a vote of the local legislative body of the political subdivision.”).
But I digress from the main point – Republicans AREN’T (at least, not yet) deliberately going to raise your property taxes. A Nashuan made a comment that with the NH GOP now in charge of NH State Govt, she was looking forward to seeing School Choice come about. The Response:
Progressive Nashuan: all they will do is offload more costs on the cities, which will result in higher property taxes. https://patch.com/new-hampshire/nashua/amp/29100109/nashuas-tax-rate-rises-by-3-9-covid-19-brings-future-worries expect more of the same. This is called “New Hampshire advantage” ….
“The health care cost increases, which get worse year after year, a downshifting of more than $4 million in pension costs to the city by the state, and a drop in school aid of around $6 million next year, according to preliminary estimates by the state.
“The state is slamming us,” Donchess said.
Sorry, your tax rate is just a function of your town’s spending and the value (land, buildings) within your town. The latter isn’t controlled by anyone – it just “is” as property values go up and down (and the assessments made for each one).
What REALLY determines the tax rate is how much spending your elected representatives are doing (or in lucky towns, not doing).
Nashua is a very UNLUCKY town. Donchess is spitting out both sides of his mouth as he first decries the pension costs at the State level and the local contracts, and catching up on deferred city property maintenance (like THE ROADS!!!) even as shoving buckets of bucks into that failure-to-be Shoe-store-turned-performance-art-center that seems to have a never unending top line of costs associated with it.
But back to the “downshifting”
Me:: Heh! You’re funny. Here’s the REAL deal about taxes and the constant screaming of down- and up-shifting of costs. It’s a sham. As a taxpayer, I’m looking up at four levels of NH government: local, county, regional planning commissions (yes, that’s a thing) and finally the State. Regardless of WHICH level of govt is doing the spending, guess who it all comes down to?
Yep. Me. You. Everyone else. ALL levels of Govt are reaching into our pockets. If the cost is $1,000 (example) is $600, $100, $50, $250, does it really matter, if the entire hit to me is reshuffled to $700, $100, $10, $190? No, the same hit is there – $1,000. The REAL problem is not who is charging ME, it is that they all seem to want to keep charging me MORE.
And right on cue, here’s the deflection and total disregard of WHERE the cost is coming from – only on how to pay it.
Progressive Nashuan: if the state had income tax the tax burden would be spread more evenly. When the state downshifts costs on the cities, the city taxes only property owners. So even if the total may be the same, the property owners are taxed disproportionately.
The idea that everyone has to live somewhere (excluding the homeless for obvious reasons – but they “cost” as Manchester is finding out now).
Whether you own the property or rent the property is irrelevant – everyone pay property tax to one degree or not and it is proportional to the worth/assessment of the property you are at. As in:
Me: I bought “less” of a house than what I could afford when I moved here 36 years ago (came for a job and stayed for the Live Free or Die ethos) so I could control my taxes. I’ve been on the Selectmen/ School Board’s cases for a long time to see that taxes stay low. Let an income tax start up and we’ll never have a tight of a rein on these Spenders whose only mantra is that Government must solve everyone’s problems and to do that we need more and more money.
Sorry, I’ve watched what happened to States that, in promising to lower property taxes, instituted an income tax. Now they have even higher property taxes and a rising income tax as well (CA, NJ, IL) because the politicians love every problem that comes their way because it proves that they are “doing something”.
Right now, I can walk down the street and hold my Selectmen and School Board members accountable for what they are doing – they are LOCAL. They know who I am (and spent 9 years on our BudComm telling them EXACTLY what I think). My vote matters to them (my rants, a little less)
Putting in an income tax means I’d have to travel to Concord, find all of the Reps and Senators responsible – and that’s harder as they AREN’T LOCAL. While many know about me (via 16 years of GraniteGrok but few have that platform), my vote matters to literally just a handful (4 Reps and 1 Senator). The most won’t care and don’t care a whit what I say.
An example of once the slippery slope is triggered, it’s a done deal. And it will be, for practical purposes, no longer controllable by a regular non-elected person as what Local spending is.
I hate to have to keep harping on this – it’s not like I haven’t written about this before. But given that a certain former (and twice failed) candidate for the NH GOP nomination for Congress (CD-2) made it clear that the concept of who is really responsible for the amount of property taxes was WAY beyond her means a refresher is almost always needful (e.g., “what is Concord doing to reduce property taxes???”). Dumb as a rock on NH taxes. Heck, there’s a local guy, spent several years on our BudComm, and once off, decided to harangue the rest of us about the tax rate – I handed his butt to him on it and made him an example to the rest of the townfolk as to why he should be ignored.
They exist. So, I blog about it.
Summary: The amount of your property taxes is up to both your Selectmen / Alderman / Councilors and School Board members. Yes, there are the components of your property taxes from the County (nail your County Delegation and Commissioners!) and the State Education tax (go ahead, go nail Selfish Socialist Andru Volinsky for that one for whom only money counts in education and not actually student achievement levels).
However, the majority of your property taxes has nothing to do with Concord. ALL four levels of Government are and it doesn’t matter if the State “downshifts” to the County, doesn’t matter if the County “downshifts” to the towns.
For the sum stays the same, and the ENTIRE load falls upon you regardless of the level.
