On the evening of April 21, I attended a presentation at the Keene Public Library put on by the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute, a nonpartisan research organization based in Concord. The room held about 60 people, including three or four state legislators and our Executive Councilor, and the conversation was lively. The topic was the state’s current two-year budget: where the money comes from, where it goes and what the choices made in Concord mean for communities like ours. Since that evening, the budget has been signed into law. Now we know exactly what it does.
I can tell you what it means for mine. My spouse Kim and I run Hillside Springs Farm in Westmoreland, a horse-powered market garden we have built over 24 years using organic practices. We ran our numbers through the 3-3 Tax Savings Plan calculator: the plan would save our farm $3,767 a year in school taxes, nearly 46%.
We sell at the Keene Farmers Market, where nearly a third of our income comes from EBT customers, people whose financial stress is our financial stress. Our family gets our health insurance through Medicaid. Under the work requirements now written into law, I would be required to document and certify Kim’s hours each month, counting only paid work. Twenty-four years of building a farm together, and suddenly the state wants a time sheet.
This is the nanny state Republicans are always warning us about, just pointed at the wrong people. And the new “premiums” the state now charges Medicaid enrollees? That money goes into the general fund, not into health care. It is, in plain terms, a low-income tax on people who are sick. New Hampshire’s “no income tax” pledge is intact. The burden just lands somewhere else.
Which brings us to the most striking moment of that April evening. NHFPI presented data showing who actually bears New Hampshire’s tax burden. Because we fund public services primarily through property taxes, consumption taxes and fees, the burden falls hardest on those least able to pay. Granite Staters earning under $35,000 pay 8.9% of their income in combined state and local taxes. The middle quintile pays 6.7%. The top 1% of earners, those making more than $721,000, pay just 2.8%. The lowest-income families pay more than three times the effective rate of the wealthiest. This is the hidden reality behind our “no income tax” reputation: the burden doesn’t disappear, it just shifts onto those with the least.
The signed biennial budget totals roughly $16 billion. It was assembled under real fiscal strain: declining corporate tax revenues and the 2025 elimination of the Interest and Dividends Tax — a windfall for investors and those living on dividends — meant harder choices. The choices Concord made were to cut funding for substance use programs, eliminate the Prescription Drug Affordability Board and impose new monthly costs on Medicaid enrollees. Senate Bill 484 would have repealed the premiums entirely. Republicans voted it down along strict party lines.
There is one more thing worth knowing. Nearly a third of the state budget — $5.26 billion — comes from federal funds. Medicaid, education, housing and environmental programs all depend on Washington. This budget was written before the full scope of federal cuts under the current administration was known. Whatever fiscal stress it is already under could get significantly worse, and the people least able to absorb that stress are the same ones already being asked to pay more.
The numbers in a state budget tell us what we value, who we ask to contribute and who we leave behind. New Hampshire has made its answers clear. Affordability, it turns out, is a talking point — not a governing principle.
The full NHFPI presentation is at nhfpi.org. Learn about the 3-3 Tax Savings Plan at NHTaxSavingsCalculator.com.
Frank Hunter is a farmer in Westmoreland.