Larry Davis gets to keep his home after all.
He can stay and carefully weed, water and harvest his vegetable garden out front. He can still wake up in the bed in the garage he converted to a house, grab his rifles and head out for his hunting trips. He can continue tinkering on his 2 acres and, occasionally get out to do odd jobs around the city he’s spent decades in.
And now, perhaps, Davis can get his wish granted someday: to die on the property he’s loved since he was 10 years old.
In recent weeks, the 63-year-old was on the precipice of losing his home to unpaid property taxes. On Tuesday, however, Davis got a call to visit friend and lawyer Christopher Seufert’s office. There, he met a couple who handed him an envelope filled with thousands of dollars in cash.
“I slithered right down the chair – it was all I could do to keep in the chair,” Davis said Wednesday. “Rivers of tears came out of my eyes.”
He added: “They didn’t want to be known. They told me not to say anything – I was speechless anyway.”
After reading about Davis in Tuesday’s Monitor, the couple, a husband and wife, gave him $7,750. Using most of that money, along with credit for payments he made to the city in the past, all of his back taxes were paid.
The couple spoke with the Monitor by phone but refused to reveal their names.
“The important thing is he’s helped in a very difficult situation,” the husband said. “We’re neighbors here in New Hampshire.”
The husband said he and his wife were retired and understood the challenges some Granite Staters find themselves in this time of year.
“We recognize the tax structure in New Hampshire unfairly impacts retired people who are living on fixed incomes,” he said.
Davis, who had to retire unexpectedly early due to the intense physical labor he did as a mason, is living on $265 in monthly Social Security benefits after child support payments. Acknowledging he hadn’t planned as well as he could have, Davis found himself with three years of unpaid property taxes, which made his property eligible to be seized by Franklin this summer.
His was one of 80 properties that initially had a tax lien placed on it this spring, though 65 had worked out repayment plans by the June Franklin city council meeting. Davis had made just over $2,000 in back tax payments in various amounts since April 2015 – and visited city hall three times recently to try to work out a plan – but was unable to come up with enough resources on his own or from family members.
City Manager Elizabeth Dragon said several of the remaining 15 property owners have come up with buy-back plans in the last week, now including Davis.
“We’re very happy for him,” Dragon said.
Dragon confirmed that a bill totaling $8,599.03, the amount for Davis’s 2013, 2014, 2015 taxes, plus 18 percent interest, as well as a $64.49 fee to put the property deed back in Davis’s name, was paid Wednesday morning with the help of $6,750 in donated cash.
The donors also contributed an extra $1,000 to Davis, who, in discussion with lawyer Seufert, decided to put it toward his 2016 tax bill.
“That was unbelievably generous,” Seufert said. “There’s an angel out there.”
To help Davis stay on top of his bill moving forward – his property is assessed at $73,500, according to officials, which calculates to about an $1,800 annual tax bill – Seufert said he has sent an application for low- and moderate-income tax relief on Davis’s behalf. This would exempt Davis from paying the state education portion, or the smallest portion, of his 2016 tax bill.
Seufert also said he would help Davis, who is not only a client but a friend, make a budget and keep up with his accounting.
Davis, for his part, celebrated with a meal at KFC on Tuesday night and then had a visit scheduled Wednesday for a job rehabilitating a mobile home. Though he generally doesn’t charge for the jobs he does, Davis said he planned to find some more work.
“Things are going to get better,” he said. His income should increase almost $500 when his child support payments are over next winter, Davis said, and now, he’s not stuck under a mound of property tax debt and interest.
“I’m real good,” he said.
While Davis was a unique recipient of generosity, his struggle to pay his taxes is not uncommon. As Granite Staters retire and rely on pensions, investment accounts or government benefits for income, their ability to pay consistently rising property taxes can diminish.
Two other Franklin residents, Judith and Ken Ackerson, said that challenge can be headed off for a lot of people with advance planning and downsizing.
“Ken and I moved a mile away,” Judith said. “We lived on Dearborn Street, very nice house. We just knew if we stayed there through our declining years, it would eat us alive.”
Instead, Judith, a 70-year-old retired Franklin High School registrar, and Ken, a 71-year-old retired AutoZone delivery driver, moved. They bought a smaller, more energy-efficient home in Mountain View Estates, a 55-plus suburban community on a hill. They got rid of one of their two cars, and they began paying fewer property taxes, since they don’t own the property their house sits on.
“We really didn’t want to leave,” Ken said. “But this one makes so much more sense and it allows us to have a better life.”
He estimated they were saving “thousands” of dollars due to their downsizing decisions.
And at this time of year, when Franklin may receive criticism for seizing properties with three years of unpaid taxes, the Ackersons – who both volunteer in many capacities in the city – said Franklin shouldn’t be vilified.
“People have life decisions to make,” Judith said. “A city or town is dependent on its tax base to be able to afford services and when anyone without the money can just stop paying taxes, it puts a burden on other people. I don’t think it’s fair to the other people who plan for their retirement.”
That being said, both Ackersons said what is commonly referred to as “the New Hampshire advantage,” or having no income or sales taxes, makes the property tax burden especially heavy for the state’s fixed income population.
“Extremely unfair,” Ken said. “No question about that.”
(Note: Earlier this week, the Monitor ran a three-part series on the growing property tax burden in New Hampshire. Those stories can be found here. )