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New Hampshire
Rising property taxes can overwhelm aging NH residents. A state rep wants to change that
Mike Belcher turned on his ringer and apologized as he sat down to testify. His wife was due to go into labor and he didn’t want to miss a call.
The lawmaker, a Wakefield Republican, has a strong concern that doesn’t affect his young family just yet – older New Hampshire residents losing their houses due to rising property tax bills.
“I do not want to see our seniors being evicted from modest homes they already own because they can’t afford outrageous taxes being levied,” he said.
With that, Belcher proposed a solution: a broad sweeping property tax exemption for homeowners over the age of 72.
House Bill 101, which Belcher sponsored with Loudon Republican representative Mike Moffett as a cosponsor, introduces an elderly home exemption that local communities could vote to adopt.
It would deduct $530,000 from a property’s assessed value – the current median home price in New Hampshire – for homeowners 72 or older. In other words, anyone with a home below this amount in communities that enact the exemption would not pay local property taxes.
Unlike other tax exemptions or credits where income is a factor for eligibility, the only two qualifying requirements for Belcher’s plan are that a resident has lived in New Hampshire for at least 10 consecutive years and owned the property for at least two years.
“This bill is designed to create a light at the end of the tunnel,” he said. “It is an effort to create a set of circumstances tied to advanced age under which you would no longer have to pay a yearly rent check to the government just to keep the home that you probably already own outright.”
Belcher knows the proposition is generous and would prove costly to local coffers. Yet he sees a clear trade-off: older family members would be incentivized to age in place at home, as opposed to a county nursing home facility or more expensive private retirement community.
The average life expectancy in New Hampshire is 78.5 years old, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention based on 2021 data, the most recent available.
With that, the age requirement of 72 years old was intentional, said Belcher.
“It almost seems arbitrary, except there was an awful lot of research in order to try to balance the desire to limit the tax of an elderly person so they can stay in their home versus the immediate impact to local revenues,” he said.
New Hampshire already offers a senior exemption – with different deductions available for residents who qualify beginning at 65 years old. Residents over the age of 65 – or those receiving Social Security disability – who have owned a home for at least five years can also defer payment of their tax bill for an annual rate of 5 percent with one caveat – the deferred taxes can not exceed 85 percent of the property value.
With exemptions, though, it’s up to local communities to adopt how much should be forgiven and set income guidelines beyond the state’s suggested metric of $13,400 for a single person and $20,400 for a married couple.
Bow offers one of the most generous elderly exemptions statewide – with deductions starting at $122,000 for homeowners over the age of 65. Income eligibility also exceeds the state baseline with residents needing to make no more than $38,500 if single and $50,000 if married.
In 2023, the town of Bow exempted $4.78 million in taxes through the elderly option. As a whole, communities around the state reduced assessments by $1.13 billion for qualifying homeowners, according to data from the Department of Revenue Administration.
Rep. Eleana Colby, a Bow Democrat and vice chair of the town select board, questioned Belcher how his proposal would add to the billion dollars of property already exempt.
That estimate is hard to predict, due to the numerous hypothetical factors at play, said Belcher. First, a town has to vote – either by a city council or by warrant at Town Meeting – to adopt the exemption. After that, homeowners must apply and be approved to receive the benefit.
“I have no doubt that it would increase it,” he said. “By exactly how much, I don’t know.”
To Brodie Deshaies, a legislative advocate for the New Hampshire Municipal Association, said giving towns like Bow the power to adopt or refuse these exemptions is the type of local control the association typically supports. But that doesn’t mean they support every local option.
With Belcher’s proposal, the inevitable shift in local tax distribution for towns that chose to adopt the exemption is cause for concern.
“There would be a large tax burden shift from those who would now be exempted from paying property taxes to those who will have to continue to pay property taxes,” Deshaies said.
State law in New Hampshire allows for homeowners to lose ownership of their properties if they don’t pay their taxes for three years. A Monitor analysis of 10 years of tax deed transfers – where municipalities claimed ownership of a property – found that nearly 4,000 properties were impacted from 2013 to 2023.
But homeowners impacted were often in the same circumstance – they had retired, paid off their mortgage and were living on a fixed income. After a medical incident or family death, their income shifted and they fell behind, risking ownership of their property, which was often their only asset of value.
This is the scenario that Belcher is trying to avoid with his bill, guaranteeing the right for aging New Hampshire residents to retain ownership of their property regardless of their income in retirement.
But to Deshaies, the trade-off of paying taxes is an inherent part of life.
“Tax exemptions are popular. No one likes paying taxes,” he said. “But we recognize we have to pay taxes for basic services that society needs to function.”
Property tax deferrals: Applications for tax deferrals are due February 28 and application materials can be found online at: https://www.revenue.nh.gov/sites/g/files/ehbemt736/files/documents/pa-30_pro.pdf or requested by calling the Department of Revenue Administration at 603-230-5001. Town and city offices may also have copies available upon request.
Property tax abatements based on hardship or poverty: Property taxes may be reduced or waived (“abated”) by a town or city if the taxpayer is able to show an inability to pay taxes.
The deadline for applying for an abatement with the assessors or Selectmen is March 1 following the final tax bill for the year. The assessors or Selectmen may also abate prior year’s taxes for good cause.
Applications are available through the Board of Land and Tax Appeals: https://www.btla.nh.gov/sites/g/files/ehbemt601/files/inline-documents/sonh/abatement.pdf or by calling the Board of Tax and Land Appeals at 603-271-2578. Town or city offices may have copies available upon request and some municipalities mail to and require taxpayers to complete an inventory form by April 15 of the preceding year as a precondition to an abatement request.
Tax exemptions and credits: The deadline for applying for tax exemptions or credits (including exemptions for older homeowners and credits for veterans, and optional exemptions for people who are legally blind, deaf/hearing impaired, or who have other disabilities) for 2025 property taxes is April 15, 2025.
Applications can be found through the Department of Revenue and Administration: https://www.revenue.nh.gov/resource-center/current-year-forms-and-instructions under property or by emailing Forms@dra.nh.gov or calling the Forms Line at (603) 230-5001.
Homeowners who need advice about property tax relief can contact 603 Legal Aid by submitting an online application at www.603LegalAid.org or by calling (603) 224-3333 between the hours of 9 a.m. and 2 p.m., Monday through Thursday.
New Hampshire
Possible 2028 Democratic White House contenders weigh in on Iran with New Hampshire voters
As the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran overtakes the foreign policy debate in Washington, two Democratic governors with potential 2028 presidential aspirations — Gavin Newsom and Andy Beshear — recently traveled to New Hampshire, introducing themselves to the state’s famously engaged voters. The two weighed in on the war and both criticized and questioned President Trump’s strategy and endgame.
“If a president is going to take a country into war, and risk the lives of American troops and Americans in the region, he has to have a real justification and not one that seems to change every five to 10 hours,” Beshear told CBS News after a Democratic fundraiser in Keene.
“This President seems to use force before ever trying diplomacy, and he has a duty to sell it to the American people and to address Congress with it,” Beshear continued. “He hasn’t done any of that. In fact, it appears there isn’t even a plan for what success looks like. He’s gone from regime change to strategic objectives and now is talking about unconditional surrender, which isn’t realistic where he is.”
Beshear also said he thought that Congress should have reined in Mr. Trump’s war powers.
“He is trying to ignore Congress. He’s trying to even ignore the American people,” Beshear said.
He went on to note that the president’s State of the Union address took place “three — four days before he launched this attack,” and Mr. Trump “didn’t even have the respect to tell the American people the threat that he thought Iran posed to us.”
Last week, both the House and the Senate failed to pass resolutions to limit Mr. Trump’s war powers and stop him from taking further military action against Iran without congressional support.
For Newsom, the war with Iran constitutes part of a broader criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
At an event last Tuesday in Los Angeles, Newsom had compared Israel to an “apartheid state.” Later, in New Hampshire, he sought to clarify his comment.
“I was specifically referring to a Tom Friedman [New York Times] column last week, where Tom used that word of apartheid as it relates to the direction Bibi is going, particularly on the annexation of the West Bank,” Newsom explained during a book tour event Thursday night in Portsmouth. “I’m very angry, with what he is doing and why he’s doing it, what he’s going to ultimately try to do to the Supreme Court there, what he’s trying to do to save his own political career.”
Friedman wrote that at the same time that the U.S. and Israel are prosecuting a war in Iran, within Israel, Netanyahu’s government has undertaken efforts to annex the West Bank, driving Palestinians from their homes; fire the attorney general who is leading the prosecution against Netanyahu for corruption; and block the government’s attempt to establish a commission to examine the failures that led up to the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre of Jews by Hamas.
CBS News has reached out to the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., for comment.
On Iran, Newsom said, “I’m very angry about this war, with all due respect, you know, not because I’m angry the supreme leader is dead. Quite the contrary. I’m not naive about the last 37 years of his reign. Forty-seven years since ’79 — the revolution,” Newsom said. “But I’m also mindful that you have a president who still is inarticulate and incapable of giving us the rationale of why? Why now? What’s the endgame?”
Many attendees at Newsom’s book event said that the situation in Iran is a top-of-mind issue for them, too. Some said they’re “horrified” by what is happening.
29-year-old Alicia Marr told CBS News she decided to attend Newsom’s event because of his social media response to the war with Iran.
“There was one spot left, and I decided to pick it up, and it was due to his response to the war, that it is just unacceptable, and I would agree with that,” Marr said.
While some voters like Marr are eager to hear about where potential candidates stand on foreign policy, many at Newsom’s event said they care most about how potential candidates plan to address domestic issues.
“I’m more focused on getting the middle class back on track and fighting the oligarchy, and I’m less invested in international issues,” said Anita Alden, who also attended Newsom’s event,
“I wouldn’t call myself America first, but we have so many problems at home that are my priority,” she told CBS News.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who may also be weighing another White House bid, told Fox 2 Detroit last week that she “unequivocally opposes” the Trump administration’s military action in Iran and urged Congress to take action.
“If we want to stop Donald Trump with this random decision that he has arrived at, then Congress must act, and Congress must act immediately. The American people do not want our sons and daughters to go into this unauthorized war of choice,” Harris said.
Mr. Trump has lashed out against Democrats who have pushed back on his Iran strategy, calling them “losers” last week and arguing that they would criticize any decision he made on Iran.
“If I did it, it’s no good. If I didn’t do it, they would have said the opposite, that you should have done this,” the president said.
Local News
Police say the Attleboro man was driving 104 mph in a 55 mph zone on Route 202 near in Rindge, New Hampshire.
A Massachusetts man was arrested late Wednesday night after police say he was driving more than 100 mph on a New Hampshire roadway.
Officers with the Rindge Police Department stopped a vehicle shortly after 11 p.m. on Route 202 near Sears Drive in Rindge following a report of a car traveling at excessive speed, according to a statement from Chief Rachel Malynowski.
The vehicle, a 2020 Kia Stinger, was spotted traveling at 104 mph in a posted 55 mph zone, Malynowski said.
The driver, a 21-year-old man from Attleboro, was arrested and charged with reckless operation of a motor vehicle, according to police.
He is scheduled to be arraigned April 5. If convicted, the man faces a fine of at least $750, in addition to the court’s penalty assessment, and a 90-day license suspension, Malynowski said.
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