Daniel Hooberman: Property tax burden needs to be lifted for Granite Staters

To The Daily Sun,

Cody Pfaff’s letter to the editor, “What affordability means to a Republican candidate,” is highly misleading due to incomplete information.

The following statistics are from the non-partisan New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute.

Reductions of the business tax rate led to between $795 million and $1.17 billion in lost revenue for public services from 2015 to 2025. This tax change means less for bridges, roads, housing and education. The lost tax revenue leads to higher property taxes, which affects hardworking Granite State families. It’s not complicated. If business taxes are reduced, property taxes have to go up. This is downshifting from the state to the local governments.

Pfaff states that “93% of Business Profits Tax payers are small, domestic New Hampshire businesses.” This is highly misleading. These small businesses pay a small amount of money. Many small businesses pay nothing. Large out-of-state and multinational corporations pay the majority of the Business Profits Tax, about 60%. Overall, about 5% of business tax filers account for about 80% of the business tax collections. These are large businesses. Although small businesses make up the largest number of filings, they contribute a very small fraction of the total revenue. Reductions of the business taxes have saved typical businesses only about $47 a month, but have had a devastating effect by leading to an increase in property taxes.

Affordability to me means reducing the property tax burden on Granite State families, while supporting our infrastructure and schools. That will not happen unless we clearly understand that reducing taxes on wealthy corporations leads to more costs for ordinary taxpayers.

Daniel Hooberman

Laconia