Democrats’ latest twist: Republicans cut taxes for business, so you make up the difference on your property-tax bill. The numbers say the opposite — businesses fund a bigger share of the state than a decade ago.
When Republicans passed HB 155, which raises the Business Enterprise Tax filing threshold and trims the 0.55% rate by 0.05% whenever business-tax receipts beat estimates by $100 million, Democrats reached for the downshifting script. InDepthNH summed up Sen. Cindy Rosenwald’s floor speech against it:
The claim: lower business taxes mean less money for schools, so your town raises property taxes to fill the gap. It sounds plausible. It falls apart on the numbers.
New Hampshire cut its business taxes over the last decade — the Business Profits Tax from 8.5% to 7.5% and the Business Enterprise Tax from 0.75% to 0.55% (and set to step down further when receipts beat estimates). If cutting rates “starved” the state and forced costs onto your property taxes, revenue would have collapsed. It did the opposite:
Businesses aren’t paying less. They’re paying a bigger share of the state’s bills than they did a decade ago — even at lower rates.
Democrats brand the Business Enterprise Tax cut a giveaway to big corporations (“Jeff Bezos does not need another tax cut,” Sen. Rosenwald said). It’s the reverse. The BET is a tax on payroll, interest, and dividends — but a business can credit the BET it pays against its Business Profits Tax. Large, profitable companies have more than enough BPT liability to absorb that credit, so for them the BET is effectively a wash. The businesses that actually feel the BET are the small shops, startups, and low-margin employers — the ones with payroll but little profit to write it off against. Cutting the BET helps them most — the small businesses and the workers they employ, not big corporations.
Here’s the deeper problem with the attack: a state business-tax rate does not set your local property-tax rate. Your rate is set by your town meeting and your school-district budget. Business taxes flow into the state Education Trust Fund — and the state has kept increasing education aid to towns, by $169.1 million in the last budget alone. There is no automatic pipe that turns a five-hundredths-of-a-percent BET change into a higher line on your property-tax bill.
“Republicans cut business taxes, so you pay more in property taxes.”
No mechanism connects the two — your town and school district set your property taxes. And business-tax revenue rose as rates fell, funding record state education aid (+$169.1M).1
“Big business got a break and left you the bill.”
Business taxes now supply about 35% of General and Education Trust Fund receipts — up from ~24% a decade ago. The share shifted onto business, not off it.1
“The BET cut is a handout to big corporations.”
Backwards. Big, profitable firms already credit the BET against their profits tax, so it’s a wash for them. The BET falls hardest on small businesses and startups — payroll but little profit. Cutting it is a small-business tax cut.
“The rate cuts drained the budget.”
Business taxes are still the state’s largest source (~$1.1B) and ~37% above 2019. The recent dip is a cyclical drop off a record 2023 peak — not a hole blown by tax policy.1
Democrats voted against the cut, and they “argue these tax cuts jeopardize funding for public services and put the onus on property owners to make up the difference.”4 But higher business taxes get passed straight through to the workers and customers who fund those businesses — and they chase employers to lower-tax states. The New Hampshire Advantage — no income tax, no sales tax, competitive business taxes — is exactly what keeps jobs and revenue here. “Downshifting” is the story they tell to chip away at it.
Do “vouchers” drain schools and raise your taxes? No — they’re state-funded and cost a fraction of public per-pupil spending.
Get the facts →The biggest cost-shift in NH history began in the 2009 budget — under full Democratic control.
See the receipts →When the House voted on keeping New Hampshire income tax free, every one of the 158 “no” votes was a Democrat.
Read more →We’ll send you the numbers and the rebuttals as the tax fight heats up.