Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Tax Incentives topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Planning board backs EDAC push to renew expiring tax incentives
Summary
Hooksett planners signaled support for EDAC’s recommendation to renew two business tax incentives set to lapse in 2026 and to conduct outreach explaining TIF and exemption programs to residents and businesses.
The Hooksett Planning Board on Sept. 22 agreed to support the Economic Development Advisory Committee’s (EDAC) effort to renew tax incentives that will otherwise expire in 2026.
Staff briefed the board that one concern involves an Enterprise Revitalization Zone (ERZ) flagged by the state’s Business & Economic Affairs office (BEA) and a commercial-industrial construction exemption established under RSA 7280–7283 that auto-expires five years after adoption. “There are two tax incentives that will be expiring early in 2026,” the staff member told the board, noting the commercial-industrial exemption was adopted in March 2021 and is therefore nearing automatic expiration.
EDAC recommended reauthorizing or extending those incentives and suggested options including lengthening the exemption period and modestly increasing the town-level share of a state-authorized exemption. Staff explained that the state allows up to a 50% exemption while the town’s current program authorizes 25% and that EDAC has suggested raising the town cap toward 30% to make the program more attractive to developers.
Board members pressed staff to refresh the list of parcels eligible for incentives so the council and EDAC do not renew incentives for lots that have already been developed. A member said, in part, that only “one exemption’s been issued under commercial industrial,” and asked staff to verify state records with BEA before formal action.
The board then took a motion to indicate support for EDAC’s approach. The motion to back EDAC’s work on renewing expiring incentives was made and seconded; a voice vote followed with members responding “Aye.” No individual roll-call votes were recorded in the transcript. The planning board also requested EDAC produce a short, reviewed list of candidate parcels and a brief presentation for the town’s upcoming outreach events.
Looking ahead, staff said EDAC will present a short “Hooksett 101” and a more detailed TIF 101 in October intended to explain captured-value financing to residents and local businesses and to clarify that the TIF would be funded through captured increment, not a direct property-tax increase.
