Republican lawmakers are looking to take another crack at requiring New Hampshire cities and towns to limit their spending. While the House earlier this month rejected a plan to impose budget caps on local school districts, a new plan rolled out last week would require cities and towns to vote every two years on whether to cap their local property tax growth.
Rep. Ross Berry of Weare is the bill’s lead author, and he says his proposal, which gets its first hearing Tuesday, remains a work in progress that he’s willing to tailor to win support from the handful of fellow Republicans who scuttled the original tax cap bill earlier this month.
“They are very concerned about maintaining local control, and New Hampshire prides itself on local control," Berry said. "This is local control on steroids.”
Berry’s bill would compel any city and town that adopts the cap to limit growth in local taxes to inflation, plus new taxable property. It would also require a three-fifths majority vote to override. Berry says requiring more than a simple majority to allow towns to break the cap is critical. He thinks forcing cities and towns to vote on the cap every two years will make voters think harder about local spending and taxes.
“Voters will basically have to continually decide if they want this or not,” Berry said.
Tension between Republicans in Concord and local leaders is rising. Leaders in the GOP-led New Hampshire Senate have also highlighted their support for curbing local spending but have yet to weigh on any specific plan to impose a cap or to induce towns and school districts to adopt them voluntarily.
‘It’s an interesting idea that we need to discuss,” Senate President Sharon Carson told reporters recently. “Local municipalities have to start taking accountability for how they are spending money.”
