In July, New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte signed HB 1300, a law that requires all ballots for the Nov. 3 general election have a ballot question that asks voters whether to cap property taxes for their local school districts.
To Republicans, tax caps are necessary to balance school district budgets that have ballooned out of control, while Democrats say that tax caps could hurt districts arbitrarily.
However, cities like Dover, Portsmouth and Rochester are saying the way the bill is written suggests the law doesn’t apply to them because of how their school districts operate and because some of them already have tax caps. Portsmouth, Berlin, Nashua and Rochester sent a letter to Secretary of State David Scanlan and Attorney General John Formella and Dover sent another letter to Scanlan asking for clarification.
Why do the cities say the law shouldn’t apply to them?
In Dover, Portsmouth and Rochester and other cities, public schools are operated as a department of the municipality and budgets are decided by an elected city council or board of alderman, rather than through an independent school district that adopts its own budget through a vote of the voters.
The letter from Portsmouth, Berlin, Nashua and Rochester to Scanlan and Formella says the law “is written towards independent school districts, school administrative units, annual (or special) school district meetings, school district clerks, and SAU boards.”
“These structures do not exist in our cities,” the letter continues.
For example, the law says that the question should be put on the ballot “for towns and wards with an annual school district meeting.” But those cities do not have an annual school district meeting, they said.
Sen. Dan Innis, R-Bradford, one of the bill sponsors, said the cities should not be exempt as the bill is about spending levels, not budget process. He pointed to the first section of the law, which says that “every town and ward in a city” should conduct a vote on the tax cap.
But another problem, city leaders say, is that some cities, including Dover and Rochester, already have tax caps.
“How would we even implement this, because we have a tax cap already, and what happens if the voters vote against it?” Rochester Mayor Chuck Grassie asked. “That means our school department doesn’t have a tax cap, and yet the city as a whole has a tax cap? Or if it gets voted on, the wording of the state tax cap is different than our tax cap, so now would they be under the state tax cap and not our tax cap? We feel that it just creates more confusion in having this state question on the ballot.”
Cities send concerns to secretary of state and attorney general
Because of the inconsistencies, the cities sent letters to the secretary of state and the attorney general to ask whether the question should be placed on their ballots. If so, they asked what the question should say and how should it be administered and certified, since the law only lays out a process for cities with independent school districts.
The cities asked the secretary of state and the attorney general for an answer by Aug. 28 in order to comply by the November election.
“We have received the correspondence, and we are working with the Department of Revenue Administration and the Secretary of State to develop an appropriate response,” the attorney general’s office said in an emailed response to Seacoastonline. “Suffice it to say, the ballot question set forth in HB 1300 will be placed on all ballots in towns and cities with school districts consistent with the forthcoming guidance.”
In another email to Seacoastonline, the secretary of state’s office stated it is reviewing the issue but is not prepared to comment at this time.
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald. Reporting by Margie Cullen, Portsmouth Herald.
