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Committee hears testimony on bill allowing municipalities to offer volunteer property tax credit for elderly, veterans
Summary
Sponsors and witnesses described a local-option property tax credit of up to $1,500 for qualifying volunteer hours by elderly residents and veterans; assessors warned the credit’s hour-by-hour structure could create administrative and software problems and shift tax burden if widely used.
The New Hampshire House Municipal and County Government Committee heard public testimony on Feb. 4 on House Bill 689, an enabling measure that would let municipalities adopt a property tax credit of up to $1,500 for volunteers who provide municipal services, targeted in the bill at elderly residents and veterans.
The bill’s sponsor, Representative Marilyn Hemingway, introduced HB 689 as a local option aimed at helping municipalities with volunteer-run services while offering older adults and veterans an opportunity for community engagement and modest property-tax relief. "This bill benefits both the municipality, and the volunteer," Representative Hemingway said, adding the credit is an "enabling bill so the communities can choose to adopt or not to adopt."
Proponents said the credit would recognize unpaid work in community centers, area beautification and event planning and could help volunteers remain socially engaged. Representative Hemingway described the proposed credit as a maximum $1,500 abatement and said the measure is meant to be applied in an overlay similar to existing veterans’ credits.
Opponents and questioning committee members raised administrative and fiscal concerns. Representative Thomas Walker asked who would bear the recordkeeping burden and whether smaller towns could handle tracking volunteer hours. Representative Hemingway replied that recordkeeping should be done at the volunteer’s work location and suggested assessors, finance, or municipal administration would maintain records.
Jim Michaud, chief assessor for Hudson, told the committee the bill’s current structure — which ties credits to an hour-by-hour calculation and allows fractionalization of hours — could create thousands of unique credit combinations that municipal mass-appraisal and tax collection software cannot easily handle. "If this was structured so it was more finite, something we can more easily have in a bucket," Michaud said, warning the current design risks significant implementation headaches. He also noted the proposal could shift substantial tax burden to other taxpayers if many eligible residents claimed the full credit.
Committee members pressed on other details: whether the credit stacks with existing veterans’ or elderly exemptions (Representative Frocht asked; Representative Hemingway said it would be "in addition"), how the measure defines volunteers versus elected or appointed officials, and whether volunteers would be treated as "employees" for liability or insurance purposes. Representative Hemingway said the language treating qualifying volunteers as municipal employees for RSA 31 purposes was not her drafting and suggested the provision was intended to address recognition and liability concerns.
The committee received written and online testimony and closed the public hearing with the clerk reporting one in-person representation listed as neutral and online testimony showing three in support and seven opposed.
The committee did not take a vote during the public hearing. If advanced, committee members signaled they would want tighter drafting on recordkeeping, software compatibility and the interaction with existing exemptions before recommending passage.
