We just returned from the Yucatan, where we visited archaeological sites like the abandoned city of Uxmal and enjoyed several meals in the homes of Mayan families. Scholars are still debating the causes behind the collapse of the once great lowland Maya civilization. It was a sophisticated society of some 11 million people who abandoned their great cities more than a thousand years ago. Drought was a major factor, along with deforestation and wars over diminishing resources, but many people it seems, just got fed up and left.
Mayan society was hierarchical. Commoners’ goods, agricultural products and commerce were taxed. Residents also owed a share of their labor to the ruling classes and priests. Eventually, taxes became an increasingly onerous burden. When tribute to rulers and prayers failed to bring rain, residents voted with their feet, leaving the ruling class to fend for itself.
A similar phenomenon has begun to occur in New Hampshire and other places where the cost of living is high, income inequality large and taxes increasingly unaffordable.
New Hampshire gained population during the pandemic years. The lion’s share of the newcomers were migrants from Massachusetts. But New Hampshire lost population to Maine. More than 15,000 people made the move, according to census figures cited by the Portland Press Herald. We know some of them — retirees facing $1,000 per month property tax bills, young people who left in search of cheaper rent. You probably know some too.
According to UNH’s Carsey Institute, “Households migrating to New Hampshire during the pandemic earned an average of $111,000 in income compared to $87,000 for those leaving the state … In the three years prior to the pandemic, migrants to New Hampshire collectively earned $1.1 billion more than those who left. Between 2020 and 2022, this figure tripled to $3.3 billion as New Hampshire attracted higher-income migrants.”
Some of the migrants are displacing long term residents and changing the makeup of communities. In a growing number of cities, first responders, teachers, public servants, caregivers and others in service industries can no longer afford to live near where they work. High housing costs have made it difficult for employers to recruit for all but their highest-paying jobs.
The city of Concord is perched on the edge of a precipice. Costly municipal projects, and a citywide revaluation of property, promise to shift the lion’s share of the growing tax burden to those least able to pay, renters and the owners of manufactured housing and starter homes.
The problem is not Concord’s alone or the fault of New Hampshire’s cities and towns. It has its roots deep in New Hampshire’s State House.
For decades, legislators and governors of both parties have downshifted state costs to local taxpayers and ignored their constitutional mandate to adequately fund public education. New Hampshire remains last in the nation in that category.
Under Republicans, and free staters posing as Republicans, lawmakers have repeatedly reduced taxes paid largely by corporations and eliminated the interest and dividends tax paid by the wealthy, while cutting state services and sharing less revenue with cities and towns. That continues to drive up local property taxes.
A growing share of the state’s residents, especially those in property-poor towns with tax rates that are a multiple of those charged in wealthy communities, face a choice. Like the Mayans of a millennia ago, they can vote with their feet, maybe move to Maine.
Alternatively, they can vote for legislators who will fund public education, enact fair tax laws and reduce local property taxes enough that working folks can afford to remain in the Granite State.
Ralph Jimenez of Concord served on the Monitor editorial board.