Council approves increase to veterans tax credits following state reduction

LACONIA — Just days before the 24th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, city councilors approved an increase to a tax credit available to around 100 military veterans with a 100% disability rating. 

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, 19 al-Qaeda terrorist hijackers commandeered four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, the third into the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, and the fourth into a field in rural Pennsylvania after passengers revolted against the attackers.

The attack claimed the lives of 2,977 Americans, including 72 police officers and 343 firefighters who made haste into the wreckage to search for and recover the dead and wounded. Thousands more were injured as a result. 

In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, thousands of Americans volunteered for service in the military, eventually fighting in faraway places like Iraq and Afghanistan. 

The cleanup of Ground Zero was completed in 2002, and today, in the footprint of the twin towers, the Freedom Tower is a permanent memorial to the lives lost in the atrocity.

During their meeting on Monday night, councilors approved unanimously a change to a property tax credit for disabled veterans for service-connected disability.

“Right now, veterans who are eligible for service-connected total disability tax credits receive, currently, the $700 plus $3,000. With the new House Bill that just passed, they can’t do both, so they’re going to get one or the other,” City Manager Kirk Beattie said Monday night. “What we’re looking to do is to increase their tax credit to $3,700 for ‘26 and $3,750 ‘27, so they’re still only getting one tax credit, but the total and permanent disability would get the full $3,700 and $3,750.

“They’re not gaining anything new, they’re just not losing anything,” Beattie said. 

The state maximum for that specific tax credit is $4,000. That tax credit can be used instead of other tax credits available to veterans, but no longer stacked with other tax credits — the state Legislature change occurred in 2024, and went into effect this year.

“I just want to point out that, once again, the city government has to pick up the slack for the state government and their financial irresponsibility,” Ward 3 Councilor Eric Hoffman said. “Honestly, how dare they pass a law that limits the tax break these people can get? I think it’s ridiculous, I’m glad that we can do something about it.”

“Sometimes you get what you pay for, and that’s all I have to say,” Mayor Charlie St. Clair said in reference to the $100 stipend state representatives earn each year. 

Councilors were in favor of amending the adjustment to allow eligible veterans to receive the maximum of $4,000 for the tax credit, and it will go into effect on April 1, 2026. 

“I think it’s a small price to pay for the service that they provided us, so that we can sit here today and have this discussion,” Ward 5 Councilor Steven Bogert said Monday night.

“I would reiterate, for those who are concerned about what we do, that it’s for the totally, permanently disabled service veterans of this country and I think it’s a short amount of money for those folks and the sacrifice they made,” Ward 1 Councilor Bruce Cheney said.