CONCORD, NH – Today, the New Hampshire House voted 190-185 in support of HB 675. As amended, this bill would place an arbitrary cap on school district budgets based on inflation and enrollment trends—regardless of real costs like teacher salaries, special education services, or rising utility bills. The vote on HB 675 comes just after School District Election and Meeting Day in which communities overwhelmingly rejected petition warrant articles to institute local per pupil spending caps. After Kearsarge Regional voters defeated the first spending cap initiative in January, House Majority Leader Jason Osborne stated: “Perhaps, if they are unwilling to cap themselves, the State will step in and cap local taxes for them.”
Megan Tuttle, President of NEA-New Hampshire, provided the following statement after the votes:
“In every single community where spending caps have been considered this year, voters have overwhelmingly rejected them. Today’s House vote is an offense to the will of voters and completely disregards the majority of Granite Staters who support their local public schools and believe every student deserves access to a quality education, regardless of their zip code.
As taxpayers, educators understand the frustration with the rise in property taxes—and we feel it, too. But putting arbitrary spending caps on our local school budgets is not the way to address a funding crisis created by the State’s failure to fully fund an adequate education. While New Hampshire ranks in the Top 10 for public education funding overall, nationwide we are 50th—dead last—when it comes to state funding. That means property taxpayers are forced to cover the balance because the State will not pay its fair share.
Make no mistake about it, instead of fixing our state’s broken public education funding system, HB 675 will lock in the existing disparities around our state and make it very difficult for districts that are already underfunded to make up ground.”
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About NEA-New Hampshire
NEA-New Hampshire is the largest union of public employees in the state. Founded in 1854, the New Hampshire State Teachers Association became one of the “founding ten” state education associations that formed the National Education Association in 1857. Known today as NEA-NH, and comprised of more than 17,000 members, our mission to advocate for the children of New Hampshire and public-school employees, and to promote lifelong learning, remains true after more than 165 years. Our members are public school employees in all stages of their careers, including classroom teachers and other certified professionals, staff and instructors at public higher education institutions, students preparing for a teaching career, education support personnel and those retired from the profession.
