3-3 Tax Savings Plan to cut New Hampshire property taxes
Want a property tax cut?
Use this calculator to see how your taxes can change. Give the Tax Savings Calculator a shot and find out how the 3-3 Tax Savings Plan compares to what we in NH have now.
To use this calculator, you will need to input your city or town, your 2024 adjusted gross income (or estimate), and your home’s 2024 assessed value.
Most users can find 2024 assessed values by entering their address, while residents in some communities may need to check their 2024 tax bill, or check with their town.
The tax plan has a provision for renters, so if you rent, click that box first.
We do not collect or keep the information you use in the Tax Savings Calculator. The Tax Savings Calculator is solely for you to see how the 3-3 Tax Savings Plan will work.
School Tax Calculator
Compare: 2024 property taxes vs. 3-3 Tax Savings Plan
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School Tax Comparison
It's an Affordability Crisis.
Our property taxes are too damned high!New Hampshire relies too heavily on local property taxes to fund public education.Despite very high taxes, some communities still can't afford to reliably fund their schools.
New Hampshire relies more heavily on local property taxes to pay for K-12 public schools than any other state in America. The 3-3 Tax Savings Plan lowers local property taxes by combining a 3 percent flat rate income tax with a $3.00 statewide property tax. The income tax has deductions to protect working and middle class taxpayers. The statewide property tax has a $250,000 homestead exemption credit. Renters also receive an equivalent credit.
Take Action.
Let's make this real.
Use the Tax Savings Calculator to understand your personal taxes and the benefits of the 3-3 Tax Savings Plan
Share the Tax Savings Calculator with your friends
Write letters to your local newspapers encouraging people to see for themselves.
Do the same with social media posts (Everyone loves a good meme!)
Ask candidates for office what they'll do to adopt the 3-3 Tax Savings Plan
Petition your school board and select board to pass resolutions supporting the 3- 3 Tax Savings Plan
Ask your civic, social, business, or professional organization to invite us to speak and then lend their support to the 3-3 Tax Savings Plan
Understand the Bottom Line! The better we educate ourselves the more likely we are to achieve real reform.
Stay Informed
Use this contact form for questions, to keep updated and to suggest speaking opportunities. Your information will not be shared with anyone other than the NH authors of the 3-3 Tax Savings Plan and will not be used for any purpose other than the stated purpose.
Why This Works
We all pay property taxes in NH.
Homeowners and businesses that own property pay property taxes directly. Our tax calculator focuses on individuals. Businesses are not subject to the proposed 3 percent NH Education Income Tax. Renters pay property taxes indirectly through rent paid to their landlords. No state in America relies more heavily on property taxes to pay for K-12 public education than NH, and school taxes make up a large portion of our local property tax bills.
New Hampshire's antiquated means of funding our schools is a major factor in our housing affordability crisis. It's not that schools cost too much. New Hampshire's school costs are in line with costs in the other New England states. The problem is how we pay for them.
Property Taxes are paid from your income (which fluctuates).
Here's the thing with property taxes, a little is ok, maybe even good, but a lot of property taxes are a problem because we pay property taxes with our incomes. If our incomes fluctuate or don't keep up, we still have property tax bills to pay. The tax man doesn't care if our income is down because we lost a job, went through a divorce or suffered an injury or illness that affected our income. Property tax bills come due every summer and every winter (fall and spring too in some places).
Additionally, New Hampshire's reliance is on local property taxes. Local property taxes vary dramatically community to community placing higher burdens on working class and middle class communities. The local equalized school tax rate in Allenstown, a working class community, is $11.10. In Alton, on Lake Winnipesaukee, it's $3.32 (and Alton spends $2,200 more per child on its students than Allenstown).
Finally, relying almost exclusively on property taxes means we have too narrow of a base of taxpayers paying for schools. Workers who commute into New Hampshire, and who don’t own property in our state, don’t currently help pay for our schools. A NH Education Income Tax will have the approximately 65,000 inbound commuters contribute because state income taxes are paid to the state where the income is earned.
Commuters who leave New Hampshire for work, already pay income taxes to the states where they work—and New Hampshire gets none of that tax revenue. These 100,000 outbound commuters will receive a credit for the income taxes they already pay to neighboring states against the NH Education Income Tax and will benefit from lower property taxes on their New Hampshire homes.
The 3-3 Tax Savings Plan spreads the burden.
The 3-3 Tax Savings Plan spreads the burden of paying for important local and state services as broadly as possible and in a fashion that reflects each of our abilities to pay. The 3-3 Tax Savings Plan includes a 3 percent flat rate income tax with generous deductions. It fluctuates as your income fluctuates. Commuters who travel into the state for work contribute to our economy.
The 3-3 Tax Savings Plan also includes a $3.00 statewide property tax with a $250,000 homestead exemption credit worth $750 for New Hampshire residents on their primary homes. The rate of the statewide property tax is determined by the value of real estate across the state, not just the value of property in your small town. The rate of $3.00 is the same for all real estate in the state. No one gets a break and no one bears a burden that puts them out of their homes.
Here's how it will work.
A middle income family earning $125,000 (Adjusted Gross Income) will experience a sharp decline in their tax burden under the 3-3 Tax Savings Plan. Assuming the family has two dependent children, they won't pay any income taxes on the first $100,000 of their taxable income. There's a $35,000 deduction for each taxpayer and a $15,000 deduction for each dependent child.
At 3 percent, the tax on their income in excess of their $100,000 deduction will be $750. In the vast majority of towns, this family will be better off financially under the 3-3 Tax Savings Plan than they are now because their local property taxes for schools will be cut dramatically and that cut more than offsets the new income tax.
Assuming a primary residence locally assessed in 2024 at $400,000, here are some examples for a family earning $125,000 (AGI) based on 2024 taxes:
School Tax Comparison by Town
2024 school taxes for a family of four with a property assessed at $400,000 and $125,000/year in income.
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Click a town to add it. Use ↑/↓ to reorder. Maximum 8 towns.
In Peterborough, school taxes in 2024 were $7,644. Under the 3-3 Tax Savings Plan, school taxes would have been $5,634, and with a $750 homestead exemption offsetting a $750 education income tax, our middle income family would have saved $2,010 and the family is protected should their income fall.
In Claremont, if the 3-3 Tax Savings Plan had been in place in 2024, school taxes would have dropped from $6,448 to $2,981. Their tax savings, including the homestead exemption and income tax, would have been $3,467.
In Keene, school taxes would have dropped from $6,676 to $3,707. Their tax savings, including the homestead exemption and income tax, would have been $2,969.
In Nashua, school taxes would have dropped from $3,348 to $1,593. The savings, including the homestead exemption and income tax would have been $1,755.
In Canaan, school taxes would have dropped from $7,996 to $6,103. The savings, including the homestead exemption and income tax would have been $1,893.
Savings vary because the revenue generated by the 3-3 Tax Savings Plan is distributed to school districts with the nature of the student populations in mind, just as New Hampshire's current school funding plan does. Claremont has more children living in poverty than Keene and Keene has more kids living in poverty than Canaan. It cost more to educate children living in poverty.
An older couple who earns $70,000 a year in their retirement won't pay any income tax.
The same is true for a single renter earning $35,000 per year.
A single mom with two kids won't pay income taxes unless her income exceeds $80,000 because there is an additional deduction of $15,000 for a single taxpayer who is also head of household.
All of these families also will benefit from dramatically lowered property taxes which reduces the cost of homeownership or renting.
Inbound commuters will pay a 3 percent tax on the wages they earn in New Hampshire.
Outbound commuters already pay an income tax to other states and they will receive a full credit against the proposed New Hampshire Education Income tax. Their income tax burden won't change, but their property taxes will go down.
Businesses that own real estate will pay more consistent taxes across the state because school taxes more proportionate. This will promote broader economic development and avoid limiting business growth to a few favored communities.
Want to Know More?
The 3-3 Tax Savings Plan flips the script of how we pay for public education in New Hampshire. Rather than local taxes paying the lion's share of school costs, that burden shifts to the state where multiple court rulings say it belongs.
According to the Institute for Tax and Economic Policy (ITEP), the 3-3 Tax Savings Plan raises about $2 billion for local, K-12 education. (That’s about $1 billion from a flat 3 percent income tax and another $1 billion from a statewide property tax with a $250,000 homestead exemption and renters credit.) Add this to the current amount contributed by the state of $700 million in adequacy funding and the $400 million contributed by the federal government and we have accounted for $3 billion of the $4 billion spent on public education in New Hampshire each year. If it had been in effect in 2024, the 3-3 Tax Savings Plan would have reduced school revenue derived from local property taxes to $1 billion rather than the $2.64 billion collected under the current funding scheme.
The NH Constitution (Part 2, Article 5) prohibits an income tax with progressively higher marginal rates. That's why we use a flat income tax rate but to make it more progressive, we allow deductions of $35,000 per taxpayer and $15,000 for each dependent with a $15,000 deduction for a single person who is head of their household.
These amounts are based on MIT’s calculation of the basic costs of living. See the Living Wage Calculator hosted by MIT. https://livingwage.mit.edu/
Why include a statewide property tax?
While an income tax is fairer than a property tax because it relies on the taxpayer’s ability to pay, it also misses the opportunity to fully spread the tax burden among all the people who enjoy New Hampshire. New Hampshire has a significant number of second homes. Some of these properties are very valuable. Second homeowners who don’t work in New Hampshire won’t pay an income tax. We can’t spread the state’s tax burden to include them without a property tax.
A statewide property tax is fairer than a local property tax because the rate for the tax depends upon the value of properties across the entire state, not just the value of property in one town. Some of our town boundaries were established in the 1700s by King George.
What did King George know about tax fairness?
What’s the impact on commuters?
100,000 commuters leave New Hampshire each day to work in another state that has its own state income tax. These commuters receive a credit for the income taxes they pay to the states where they work. This offsets the NH Education Income Tax. Massachusetts, Maine and Vermont all have income taxes imposed at higher rates than proposed in the 3-3 Tax Savings Plan. Out-bound commuters will not pay the new flat income tax and will be aided in paying their property taxes by a new $250,000 homestead exemption that is funded by the income tax.
65,000 inbound commuters will start to pay a 3 percent flat rate income tax on the income they earn in our state.
Here's how revenue will be distributed.
The 3-3 Tax Savings Plan also has a funding distribution model that sends money to school districts across the state to supplant most of our local school taxes. The funding model follows the same format as New Hampshire currently uses to fund adequacy but with realistic funding levels that approximate actual costs.
The state of New Hampshire currently contributes $4,300 to defray the cost of every student in public schools. In 2024 the average cost per pupil funded by adequacy grants and school property taxes was about $24,000, with the state funding only 19% of that total. The New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled last summer in the ConVal case that this base level contribution should be at least $7,356. Under the 3-3 Tax Savings Plan the state’s base-level contribution increases to $10,000 per student.
New Hampshire also provides an extra increment of funding for students that qualify in certain categories because it costs more to educate these students. The Rockingham County Superior Court in the Rand case found these increments, called “differentiated aid,” must also increase. Differentiated aid distributed under the 3-3 Tax Savings Plan increases as follows:
Aid for kids who live in poverty will increase from $2,300 to $5,000;
Children who are learning English will see their state aid increase from $900 to $3,000; and
Finally, children who qualify for special ed will see their state payments increase from $2,100 to $25,000, which is more in line with the $32,000 per child average additional cost of special education services. Special education costs account for a quarter of public school spending in New Hampshire.
The 3-3 Tax Savings Plan also includes a $1000 transportation stipend for each regular education student
The purpose of the extra funding sent to school districts under the 3-3 Tax Savings Plan is to replace local funding to the extent possible, not to increase overall funding. Most communities will be able to maintain current funding levels with either no local school taxes or a very low local school tax. A few municipalities (9 total) that struggle to provide an adequate education to many students, will experience a modest increase in overall funding such that they could zeroe out their local school tax rate (e.g., Manchester and Franklin).
For information about what your community currently receives in state adequacy funding, go here.
Do you want to learn more?
The proponents of the 3-3 Tax Savings Plan will hold talks and seminars across the state in coming months. Invite us to speak in your community. Hopefully, candidates for state office in November 2026 will debate the plan and the plan will be introduced as a bill in the 2027-28 session of the NH legislature.
Invite us to speak in your community. Please make the effort to learn more.
Authors of the 3-3 Tax Savings Plan:
The 3-3 Tax Savings Plan was created and designed by the following New Hampshire citizens to a create a more inviting and affordable New Hampshire. The 3-3 Tax Savings Plan builds on the experience of the Hager-Below-Fernald school funding plan that was considered by the legislature in the late 1990s (with versions passing the House and the Senate). The Institute for Tax and Economic Policy provided technical expertise.
