Our New Hampshire property tax bill has four different items; town, school, state school, and county.
All four items are on the increase and all four items are being litigated, petitioned, warranted, and cost-shifted in an effort to lower the tax bill, and at the same time the next Meredith property tax bill should be about 4%, or more, larger than the last one due December 2007.
Governor Lynch wants a constitutional amendment to control the state school costs. A number of towns including Meredith are pooling town money to pay the lawyers to sue the state to keep the state from shifting its' county expenses onto the towns. SB-2, which requires a 60% majority vote at a town meeting, has been passed by about 60 different NH towns since SB-2 was created in 1996.
SB-2 will not do all that much to control the town and school costs as most expenses are contractual and do not come up for a warrant vote. Typically, warrant votes are for big capital items like community centers, police stations, fire stations, and football fields.
What SB-2 really is, is an expression of anger by property tax payers who have seen their taxes go up, big-time.
People grow old, pay off their mortgages, and get annoyed and frustrated as their six month, semi-annual property tax bill grows and grows. You can pay off a mortgage, but that property tax bill, it never gets paid off, and it just keeps on a-grow'n, and a-grow'n, and a-grow'n!
