Merrimack County Superior Court Judge Dan St. Hilaire will decide whether a local school tax cap question stays on the November ballot.
With the printing of state ballots set to begin late next week, St. Hillaire is expected to rule quickly on a lawsuit brought by a Campton school board member and a Warner taxpayer that alleges the ballot question’s wording is unconstitutionally confusing.
The plaintiffs allege the wording misleads voters to believe they could vote yes on the tax cap without limiting funding for children’s instruction.
The ballot question reads:
“If adopted for a two-year period: (1) the local property tax levy may not grow beyond the prior year’s amount, adjusted for inflation and new construction; (2) SAU central office spending may not exceed 6 percent of total school district appropriations.”
The question goes on to say that the tax cap would apply only to district administrative costs and “not affect classroom instruction, school-based services, or other municipal expenditures.”
“There is a promise in the question that you can vote for this without impacting instruction and services at your schools and that’s misleading, Ned Sackman, the plaintiffs' lawyer, told St. Hilaire during a 75-minute hearing Friday.
The state’s lawyers defended the tax cap ballot question, which cleared the legislature with near unanimous Republican support and all Democrats opposed, as duly enacted. They also argued that plaintiffs lack the standing to have the court strike the question from the November ballot on constitutional grounds.
‘There are some questions that the courts have recognized are political questions that need to be resolved in the political process,” said Attorney Sam Garland of the New Hampshire Department of Justice.
In July, when Gov. Kelly Ayotte signed the legislation requiring voters to consider the tax cap question in November and again in 2026, she said it would “protect local taxpayers.”
Republican politicians from the top of the ticket on down see the cap as a way to galvanize right-leaning voters this November.
“Don’t forget, we are going to have a tax cap on the ballot,” U.S. Senate candidate John E. Sununu said on a Binnie Media radio show Thursday,
In their lawsuit, Kelly Wieser of Campton, and David Bates of Warner, say the ballot question fails to make clear whether voters are being asked to limit school taxes, cap administrative costs, or both, and that the question’s “ambiguities and omissions will deprive voters of the opportunity to fairly express their will.”
But the state argued that citizens are expected to exercise their judgement when they vote, including when it comes to ballot questions.
“Voters constantly have to go to the polls having to rely on their independent research, whether it be a constitutional amendment, a zoning amendment, or what a particular person’s policy positions are,” Garland said.
Garland also invited St. Hilaire to rule from the bench, or to issue an opinion by early next week, so the state could turn to printing ballots to send overseas voters, and to give the New Hampshire Supreme Court time to weigh in on the case if need be.
St. Hilaire said he would take the case under advisement, and issue “a decision in writing at a later time.”
