NH's property taxes: a new study says they're not really that high
By JOHN DISTASO
Senior Political Reporter
Wednesday, Mar. 5, 2008
A new study that “looks under the hood” of the property tax shows that New Hampshire’s burden is not as high in comparison to other states as often portrayed.
Dr. Daphne Kenyon of Windham, a public finance consultant, says the three-year study she co-authored takes several often-ignored factors into account to produce what she says is a more accurate comparison.
She said she hopes her work prompts a halt to “the casual demonizing of New Hampshire’s property tax” and was timed for release during town meeting and school budget season “when people would be thinking about property taxes.”
Kenyon today had no comment on resolutions sponsored by the Granite State Fair Tax Coalition appearing on ballots in 89 towns this year calling for a rejection of the traditional anti-broadbased tax political “pledge” and calling the property tax “unjust and unfair.” She said the pledge is “a strategy,” while, she said, her emphasis is providing “more and better information.”
The study, entitled “Not as High as You Think: New Hampshire’s Property Tax Burden” and released this morning, says:
-- When property taxes are compared to property market values, “at least a dozen states have property tax burdens higher than New Hampshire” and in some categories of property, the New Hampshire burden is among the lowest in the nation. She said depending on the property type, New Hampshire’s property tax burden ranks between 13th and 45th in the nation.
-- Traditional measures of property tax burdens -- taxes per capita and taxes as a percentage of personal income -- “ignore that the property tax base includes a number of components beyond residential property” and are often paid by out-of-staters. She says conventional measures of the property tax burden are “skewed because they include property taxes paid by commercial and industrial entities, utilities and owners of second homes, many of whom are out-of-state residents.
Kenyon does not dispute that the state’s property tax burden is “above average compared to the rest of the U.S. by some measures.” Even so, she says, it’s a good deal because it buys a “well above average” K-12 public education system, at least based on recent results of the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) test.
Kenyon wrote the report with Michael E. Bell, Ph.D., of Maryland, executive director of the non-profit Coalition for Effective Local Democracy, whose stated goal is to help to build strong and responsive governments.
They argue that the two “commonly reported measures” of property tax burdens from state to state “have serious flaws” because they do not take into account the volume of second homes owned by citizens of other states and wide variations from state to state in the amount of commercial and industrial properties.
Kenyon said in an interview she hopes policy-makers and residents “look under the hood” and realize that homeowners are not the only ones paying property taxes, and, “You have to pay attention to exactly who is paying it.”
Kenyon said she hopes the study, funded by Paul Montrone, chairman of the investment firm Latona Associates, is taken into account by those considering attempts to change New Hampshire’s tax system. At the very least, she said, she hopes it gives some solace to frustrated taxpayers.
“I’d like people to look more carefully at it and to refrain from casually saying that we in New Hampshire have the highest property taxes in the country. I don’t think we do,” she said.
“They should not feel that the grass is so much greener elsewhere.”
A full story will appear tomorrow in the New Hampshire Union Leader and on UnionLeader.com.
By JOHN DISTASO
Senior Political Reporter
Wednesday, Mar. 5, 2008
A new study that “looks under the hood” of the property tax shows that New Hampshire’s burden is not as high in comparison to other states as often portrayed.
Dr. Daphne Kenyon of Windham, a public finance consultant, says the three-year study she co-authored takes several often-ignored factors into account to produce what she says is a more accurate comparison.
She said she hopes her work prompts a halt to “the casual demonizing of New Hampshire’s property tax” and was timed for release during town meeting and school budget season “when people would be thinking about property taxes.”
Kenyon today had no comment on resolutions sponsored by the Granite State Fair Tax Coalition appearing on ballots in 89 towns this year calling for a rejection of the traditional anti-broadbased tax political “pledge” and calling the property tax “unjust and unfair.” She said the pledge is “a strategy,” while, she said, her emphasis is providing “more and better information.”
The study, entitled “Not as High as You Think: New Hampshire’s Property Tax Burden” and released this morning, says:
-- When property taxes are compared to property market values, “at least a dozen states have property tax burdens higher than New Hampshire” and in some categories of property, the New Hampshire burden is among the lowest in the nation. She said depending on the property type, New Hampshire’s property tax burden ranks between 13th and 45th in the nation.
-- Traditional measures of property tax burdens -- taxes per capita and taxes as a percentage of personal income -- “ignore that the property tax base includes a number of components beyond residential property” and are often paid by out-of-staters. She says conventional measures of the property tax burden are “skewed because they include property taxes paid by commercial and industrial entities, utilities and owners of second homes, many of whom are out-of-state residents.
Kenyon does not dispute that the state’s property tax burden is “above average compared to the rest of the U.S. by some measures.” Even so, she says, it’s a good deal because it buys a “well above average” K-12 public education system, at least based on recent results of the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) test.
Kenyon wrote the report with Michael E. Bell, Ph.D., of Maryland, executive director of the non-profit Coalition for Effective Local Democracy, whose stated goal is to help to build strong and responsive governments.
They argue that the two “commonly reported measures” of property tax burdens from state to state “have serious flaws” because they do not take into account the volume of second homes owned by citizens of other states and wide variations from state to state in the amount of commercial and industrial properties.
Kenyon said in an interview she hopes policy-makers and residents “look under the hood” and realize that homeowners are not the only ones paying property taxes, and, “You have to pay attention to exactly who is paying it.”
Kenyon said she hopes the study, funded by Paul Montrone, chairman of the investment firm Latona Associates, is taken into account by those considering attempts to change New Hampshire’s tax system. At the very least, she said, she hopes it gives some solace to frustrated taxpayers.
“I’d like people to look more carefully at it and to refrain from casually saying that we in New Hampshire have the highest property taxes in the country. I don’t think we do,” she said.
“They should not feel that the grass is so much greener elsewhere.”
A full story will appear tomorrow in the New Hampshire Union Leader and on UnionLeader.com.