William Marvel: In the House of Lords

Just over a month ago, several carloads of Conway citizens trundled down to Concord and testified for Rep. David Paige's bill to enable New Hampshire towns to adopt homestead exemptions. I went with them, and we tried to explain the plight of Conway citizens as they face a massive migration of well-heeled urban refugees into the countryside. Those refugees' willingness to pay any price to escape oppressive blue-state government and dangerous cities has driven Conway's residential assessments to twice normal values, thereby sticking it to homeowners while giving commercial property a massive tax break. Conway suffers worse than most towns from that imbalance, thanks to our retail glut and our unfortunate, undeserved reputation as a desirable destination, but the problem runs statewide (and nationwide) in varying degrees. 

If New Hampshire allowed homestead exemptions, and Conway adopted one, legitimate year-round residents of the town would be eligible for an exemption from taxes on a portion of their primary homes. Maine has such a law, and towns that adopt it deduct $25,000 from the assessed value of eligible houses before applying property taxes. With the artificially high assessments that were recently applied to Conway homes, $25,000 would only yield token relief of barely $250 a year — while this year's proposed Conway School District budget will add double or triple that much all by itself, if it's allowed to pass.