New bill would offer tax credits for local media advertising; hearing Wednesday afternoon

CONCORD — A bill introduced to the New Hampshire House of Representatives in December could create a temporary, refundable tax credit for small businesses that spend money on advertising in local media. 

HB 1420-FN, the Lift Our Communities Advertise Locally Act, introduced on Dec. 4, is scheduled for a public hearing at 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 21, by the Ways and Means Committee.

Rep. Kristine Perez (R-Londonderry) is the primary sponsor, along with another six Republicans and one Democrat.

If the bill is passed and eventually signed into law, eligible businesses may be able to claim a tax credit of 80% of that business’s expenditures toward qualified local media expenses, up to $3,000. Expenditures toward those expenses used to calculate the credit couldn’t exceed $500,000. Businesses could take advantage of the credit for the 2027, 2028 and 2029 tax years.

The tax credit, for use against the Business Profits Tax and the Business Enterprise Tax, is meant to create an incentive for small businesses to use local newspapers and broadcast media for their advertising services in tax years 2027-29, according to the methodology section attached to the bill.

According to the state Department of Revenue Administration, the passage of this bill would result in an undetermined decrease in General Fund and Education Trust Fund revenue beginning in fiscal year 2028.

That department included a note on concerns with the bill which limit its ability to project a fiscal impact, including: businesses would be entitled to the credit within capped amounts, but the way caps would be applied is not clear; the bill would allow the credit to used against both taxes but it would not be cascading, “meaning that if the credit is first used toward the BET, the credit would reduce the BET credit available for application to the BPT,” and suggested adding language to the BET portion of the bill to clarify that the credit applied to the BET is still considered taxes paid; the credit wouldn’t be carried forward, but credit amounts over the tax liability would be treated an overpayment, subject to refund. That department would be unable to process those refunds unless a source account containing funds available for that purpose were created and funded; and, as drafted with the prospective repeal, could be read to eliminate the use of credits in the year following the final program year.

Members of the public can submit testimony regarding the bill online at gc.nh.gov/house/committees/remotetestimony, which will prompt a user to provide their name, town and state of residence and email address; select date of hearing Jan. 21; select committee House Ways and Means; select bill “2:30 PM - HB1420”; indicate their support or opposition; add comments if desired; select "final review" and then "approve." 

The Laconia Daily Sun Publisher Adam Hirshan submitted testimony supporting the bill. 

“This bill recognizes a simple but increasingly urgent reality: local news organizations and local small businesses are interdependent, and both are under significant pressure. When small businesses advertise locally, they are not only promoting their own goods and services; they are helping sustain the reporting, editing, and publishing of local news that binds communities together, informs citizens, and strengthens civic life,” Hirshan wrote.

“HB 1420 is thoughtfully structured. It is temporary, capped, targeted to small businesses, and limited to bona fide local newspapers and local broadcast media that employ local journalists and provide consistent local coverage,” Hirshan continued. “It excludes large national platforms and programmatic digital advertising that do nothing to support New Hampshire journalism or New Hampshire communities. In short, it incentivizes exactly the kind of economic activity the state should want to encourage.”