Vanessa Saunders: What the Belknap County budget means for taxpayers

To The Daily Sun,

Saturday’s Page 5 article in The Daily Sun on the Belknap County budget did what county budget articles do best: it tried to be helpful, and my eyes promptly glazed over.

Then I checked the forecast. “Weather warning” is the only phrase in New Hampshire that can outrank “property taxes” in a conversation without anyone filing an appeal.

Credit where it’s due. The headline is not wrong. Several community agency lines are flat or reduced, and the overall increase is not as bad as it could have been.

Here’s the homeowner translation. The estimated county tax rate is about $1.07 per $1,000 of assessed value, up $0.05 from last year. That $0.05 equals $5 per $100,000 of assessed value per year.

So a $300,000 home is about $15 more a year on the county portion. A $400,000 home is about $20 more. (Higher values scale up from there.)

That is the county slice only. Not the city or town budget. Not the school taxes.

And one practical note: if a taxpayer's bill feels wrong because their assessment feels wrong, they don’t argue the rate, they argue the value. Pull the property record card, compare it to recent similar sales, request an informal review, then file for abatement by the deadline if needed. Evidence beats outrage.

Vanessa Saunders

Laconia