Every spring nearly all of us grow frustrated with increases in our property taxes. In some communities the seeming “culprit” is a major capital expense but most often it’s the cost of our schools that causes people to say they can’t afford the increase. And every other November we elect a majority of state reps. and senators, and a governor who do nothing about either the unconstitutional way NH funds education or the impact of relying on property taxes to fund services. Maybe it’s the six months between passing municipal and school budgets and the bi-annual elections; but the majority of us vote for our state leaders because of party affiliation or a hot-button social issue. We never even ask candidates what they will do to reduce property taxes and change a system that causes property poor towns to pay much higher taxes for the school and town budgets that, each year, are further strapped.

The property taxes we complain about every spring aren’t the fault of Biden or Trump and, finally, even our local officials. We have no one to blame but ourselves if we continue to elect state leaders who don’t grapple with the basic unfairness of relying almost exclusively on the property tax to fund our schools and municipal government. Those of us who are complaining about our property taxes today need to remember that complaint when we vote in November.

David Cawley

Concord