Having served on the Hooksett Budget Committee for 4 years, William knows the burden raising property taxes place on families. Historically, the state of NH paid 35% of pensions for teachers, police and firefighters. In 2011, the Republican controlled legislature gutted this by completely eliminating the state’s contribution. As a result, towns are now forced to pay for all of the pensions for teachers, firefighters and police.

While there have been successes recently in restoring state funding for police and firefighters, we need leaders in Concord to step up and complete that work while also restoring pensions for teachers.

The state can raise the money to do this too.

The state has recently eliminated the Interest and Dividends tax and further reduced the Business Enterprise Tax, two taxes that are largely paid by the ultra-wealthy and large corporations. These reductions have cost NH citizens almost a BILLION dollars since 2016 and continue to cost taxpayers hundreds of millions each year. By rolling back these bad policy decisions, NH would have revenue to cover town needs, and only a small portion of that would be needed to restore funding for teachers, police and firefighters.