Legislative Session Ends
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The work of this legislative session is finally done, except for Veto Day, which would be in the fall. It has been a long legislative session with dozens of attacks on public education but also a session where strong bi-partisan support for our students, our educators, and our public schools was shown. The last day of legislation was a mixed bag for us. HB 751, the school open enrollment scheme was tabled in the Senate and is done for the year. Thank you to all who reached out to their Representatives and Senators to remind them that this plan would hurt most students as well as further strain local property taxpayers.
However, HB 1300, a bill that would put a school district school tax cap on the November ballot in every city and town, was passed. As we have said, tax caps are blunt instruments that do not allow districts flexibility to meet rising or unexpected costs and still provide students with all they need to learn and thrive. Proponents of this bill claim this is necessary to help with the property tax burden we all face. However, the reason local property taxes are so high is because New Hampshire is 50th in state funding towards education and 48th in state municipal funding, leaving local taxpayers to foot most of the bill for the services residents expect. Communities can already adopt a school district tax cap if they want to, and many communities have considered tax caps and voted against them in the past two years. This bill says the state knows better than those voters.
As this bill moves to the Governor’s desk, we will have more actions for you to take—thank you all for your work so far.
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