Winnipesaukee Forum - View Single Post - luxury tax for out-of-staters

fatlazyless · 12-17-2006, 10:05 AM

I'm no expert on New Hampshire constitutional law, for sure, but a state-wide tax like the state school property tax has to be equally applied as required by the NH constitution. A sales or income tax that is set at one rate, like 3% or 4%, is equal by definition. A two tier property tax system on a state wide level would not pass the rules of the NH constitution.

In order to make the state school property tax equal, a few requirements have been set up by the state as a results of several law suits that went up to the NH Supreme Court. These include costly town-by-town reevaluations every five years, oversight by the state, and having assessed values fall between 90 & 100% of actual value. Recently, Sanborton was cited for not meeting these requirements and will probably have to redo their expensive assessment.

If people are not happy with their taxes, they can vote for someone else in the next election. It's safe to say that the NH Republicans would prefer to cut off their right hand before they would agree to a broad based tax, and everyone knows this.

12-17-2006, 10:05 AM	#21
fatlazyless Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 8,856 Blog Entries: 1 Thanks: 303 Thanked 1,039 Times in 758 Posts	...state wide tax must be equal! I'm no expert on New Hampshire constitutional law, for sure, but a state-wide tax like the state school property tax has to be equally applied as required by the NH constitution. A sales or income tax that is set at one rate, like 3% or 4%, is equal by definition. A two tier property tax system on a state wide level would not pass the rules of the NH constitution. In order to make the state school property tax equal, a few requirements have been set up by the state as a results of several law suits that went up to the NH Supreme Court. These include costly town-by-town reevaluations every five years, oversight by the state, and having assessed values fall between 90 & 100% of actual value. Recently, Sanborton was cited for not meeting these requirements and will probably have to redo their expensive assessment. If people are not happy with their taxes, they can vote for someone else in the next election. It's safe to say that the NH Republicans would prefer to cut off their right hand before they would agree to a broad based tax, and everyone knows this.