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Taxes, housing, abortion: What's on tap for NH Legislature in 2025?

New Hampshire lawmakers gathered for Organization Day, Dec. 4, 2024.
Zoey Knox
/
NHPR
New Hampshire lawmakers gathered for Organization Day, Dec. 4, 2024.

Republicans will control the levers of power in the State House in 2025 — with a Republican in the governor’s office and sizable majorities in the state Senate and House of Representatives, and as well as on the Executive Council.

That means GOP priorities will be front and center in policy debates at the start of the year. But it could also mean intraparty disagreements — over issues like abortion policy and taxes — rise to the fore.

Here’s an overview of some of the major issues on tap when lawmakers return to Concord in January.

Tax cuts on the horizon?

Top Republicans in the New Hampshire House plan to push for another cut to a key state business tax next year. The proposal comes as overall business tax collections are down. So far this fiscal year, collections on state business taxes have fallen short of projections by about 15 percent, which translates to about a $60 million shortfall.

Still, GOP leaders in the New Hampshire House — including Speaker Sherman Packard — want to trim another half a percentage point from the Business Enterprise Tax, or BET, the tax that hits most state businesses. Salem Republican Rep. Joe Sweeney, the bill's lead sponsor, says he remains confident that further tax cuts will yield economic benefits.

“The BET is such an engrossing tax on all business activity, so it’s just a good way across the board to lower the cost of doing business in New Hampshire,” he said.

Under the bill, the rate of the Business Enterprise Tax would fall from 0.55 percent to 0.5 percent.

A separate bill, backed by House Majority leader Jason Osborne, aims to repeal a tax on telephone communication that now collects $30 million every year. Debates over tax policy will be a key part of lawmakers work on the next state budget.

Addressing the housing crunch

New Hampshire lawmakers will also debate numerous bills aimed at easing the state's housing crunch.

That includes a proposal to establish clear rights for property owners to build more housing — particularly free standing structures known as accessory dwelling units, or ADUs. These include in-law style apartments where a family member or tenant might live.

Rep. Joe Alexander, a Republican from Goffstown and chairman of the legislature's Housing committee, favors this change.

"By and large, we want to make the ability to build a small ADU on your own property an inherent property right,” he said. “We want to make property rights one of the key solutions, and marketing it as, 'this is your property, you should have a right to build this.’ ”

Current law gives homeowners living on lots of a half acre or more the right to have an attached ADU. Alexander is shooting to expand that to allow people to build detached ADUs of up to 950 square feet.

Alexander is working on other bills to expand housing options, including a bill to make it easier for people to site manufactured houses, and a proposal aimed at getting more so-called starter homes built. That segment of the housing market has all but disappeared in many parts of the state.

Tenant rights on the table

New Hampshire lawmakers will consider changes to tenants' and landlords' eviction rights in the New Year.

One proposed bill would allow landlords to evict someone once the term of a lease is over. Right now, a landlord needs to show good cause to evict someone once a lease is up, such as a tenant not paying rent or not complying with the terms of their lease.

But under Republican Rep. Bob Lynn's proposal, the landlord wouldn't need to show good cause to proceed with an eviction.

Lynn says the bill is common sense, as a tenant can terminate a lease without good cause, but a landlord can't.

“If the lease is over, then it seems to me that's good cause to say the lease is over and if the landlord wants you to leave, you have to leave,” Lynn said.

Another bill would require landlords to give tenants who pay month to month more time when giving them an eviction notice. Right now, the law requires 30 days notice, but the proposal would extend that to 60 days.

Abortion policies

Lawmakers will revisit abortion policies, which could force Gov.-elect Kelly Ayotte to make good on her promise to oppose further limits on abortion in New Hampshire.

"If anything comes to my desk that's more restrictive — I was very clear on the campaign trail, and I think the legislators know — I will veto it,” Ayotte said recently on WMUR.

Several bills sponsored by Republican lawmakers in the next State House session touch on abortion policy. One would make it a crime to transport a minor to get an abortion without parental consent. Another would require that students learn about abortions and alternatives in sex ed classes.

There's also a proposal, whose language has yet to be released, that bears the title "relative to restriction on elective abortions."

State law currently permits abortions for any reason during the first six months of a pregnancy, and after that when a fetus has a fatal anomaly, or when the mother's health is at risk.

Gender-affirming care in spotlight — again

New Hampshire lawmakers will consider further restrictions on gender-affirming health care for transgender teens in the new year.

Access to puberty blockers, cross sex hormones, and gender-affirming chest surgeries could be restricted before age 18. That's under a pair of Republican-sponsored bill proposals likely to come before the House.

Lawmakers voted in 2024 to ban gender-affirming genital surgeries for minors, one in a series of recent legislative fights over the rights of trans youth in New Hampshire.

The country’s major medical organizations support access to gender-affirming care for trans youth. Some GOP lawmakers have questioned whether those treatments are appropriate for kids and teens.

Some of the proposed restrictions lawmakers will consider in 2025 are already worrying to people who rely on that care now, says Linds Jakows, founder of the LGBTQ advocacy group 603 Equality.

“I've heard from some folks that they're considering moving to states like Massachusetts or Maine,” Jakows said.

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