Education funding in NH
-
NH is weird in some ways (maybe a lot of ways). Firstly, there is no state or local income tax, and no sales tax. Everything is paid for via property taxes, sin taxes, room & meal etc.
School funding. The NH constitution requires the state to guarantee an adequate education to every student, and adequate funding. Being a matter of consitutions and laws, there is a whole history of litigation surrounding the state's obligations.
For example, the town of Claremont sued the state in the '90s...
"In 1993, the New Hampshire Supreme Court understood Part II, Article 83 as a guarantee to students a right to a public education. Four years later, the NH school funding system was found to be unconstitutional and the governor and legislature were ordered to define the sections of a constitutionally adequate education, figure out the cost of such and pay for them with taxes that were equal across the state. Four governors and their legislatures refused to comply with the Court's orders leading the Supreme Court to again find the school funding system unconstitutional in 2006.""... taxes that were equal across the state" is noteworthy.
So that's just a little background.
In 1999 the legislature passed and Shaheen (the governor then) signed a bill known as SWEPT (Statewide Education Property Tax). I can't for the life of me understand why it has to be so convoluted as it is. The state levies a tax on all properties at a uniform rate to raise $363m (10% of education funding). The tax is collected by each municipality but does not get sent to the state, it stays with the municipalities. The state also calculates each district's cost to educate by multiplying a ridiculously low figure (the state does not contribute all that much to education) by the number of pupils in the district. If a municipality's revenue from SWEPT exceeds the amount required for an adequate education (as determined by the state), the original law stipulated that they must send the excess to the state which would distribute it to areas with lower property wealth.
The bit about remitting excess SWEPT money was done away with at some point and municipalities were then allowed to keep the excess revenue (raised by property rich areas, typically) and spend it on whatever they wanted.
Is this convoluted or what?
Last year the state Supreme Court heard arguments about why this system goes against our state constitution and now we're waiting to hear what happens.
If SWEPT excess revenue must be submitted to the state as the original law required, our town will have to return about $30k yearly (I'm not sure why, it must be a combination of property values AND number of students (low)).
Personally, I do think it's unconstitutional. As with lunatic Sununu's law that allows taxpayer money to be spent at religious institutions.
NH constitution on the matter:
“. . . that no money raised by taxation shall ever be granted or applied for the use of the schools of institutions of any religious sect or denomination.”
That seems pretty clear to me.
Does it really need to be this difficult?