Heard a transplant say 'NH is just trees and taxes' at the Littleton Diner last weekend and I almost choked on my eggs

I mean seriously, this guy was sitting two booths away talking about how he moved here from Massachusetts for the 'cheap living' and now he's mad that property taxes are high. Like yeah, we don't have income tax or sales tax but that money has to come from somewhere. Did you not do any research before buying a house in Franconia? I wanted to walk over and explain how the school funding works but my wife told me to finish my hash browns. Anyone else run into people who move here and then complain about the exact things that make NH what it is?

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finley_lane625d ago

My neighbor from Rhode Island did the same thing last fall, bought a camp in Tamworth and spent the whole winter complaining about the gravel roads. Well yeah, the town isnt going to pave your private road for free, thats what the taxes would cover. But heres the thing nobody talks about. Those high property taxes keep the school systems running without a sales tax, sure. But they also keep land values from skyrocketing like in Massachusetts. If we switched to a sales tax model, every empty lot in the North Country would get bought up by developers overnight. The trees and the quiet would disappear real fast. So when people complain about the taxes, theyre really complaining about the fact that NH still has affordable woods and small towns instead of strip malls. Maybe thats worth the bill every spring.