Latest news with #RockinghamCountySuperiorCourt
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
NH high court upholds education property tax scheme as constitutional
The New Hampshire Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the state's education aid law, upholding a plan that lets property-rich towns keep excess money raised under a statewide property tax that supports public schools. The high court's 3-1 decision overturned the 2023 ruling of Rockingham County Superior Court Judge David Ruoff, who had said that letting richer towns keep some of that tax violated Part II, Article 5 that holds all taxes must be 'proportional and reasonable.' In the majority opinion, Supreme Court Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald wrote that the statewide property tax passes legal muster because it's imposed at the same rate on all cities and towns. 'We hold that the SWEPT (Statewide Education Property Tax) scheme is constitutional under Part II, Article 5 because it is 'administered in a manner that is equal in valuation and uniform in rate throughout the state,'" MacDonald said. Joining MacDonald in the majority decision were Associate Justices Patrick Donovan and Melissa Countway. Associate Justice James Bassett was the lone dissenter. He maintained that the SWEPT clearly gave a financial benefit to property-rich towns not available to other communities. 'The impact of the SWEPT scheme on taxpayers in excess SWEPT communities is anything but 'theoretical' or 'indirect': the effective SWEPT rate reduction those taxpayers enjoy is real and direct. The impact of the SWEPT scheme on taxpayers in other communities that do not generate excess SWEPT is also real and direct: those taxpayers enjoy no comparable reduction in their effective SWEPT rate,' Bassett said. In its lawsuit, the plaintiffs noted that the property-rich Lakes Region town of Moultonborough has an effective SWEPT tax rate of $0.44 per $1,000 of property value while the poorer town of Plymouth has an effective rate of $1.56. 'This disparity in effective tax rates violates Part II, Article 5 and 'is precisely the kind of taxation and fiscal mischief from which the framers of our state Constitution took strong steps to protect our citizens,'' Bassett wrote. An ongoing fight When lawmakers first created SWEPT in the 1990s, it compelled rich towns to send to the state all it had collected under the tax. This plan sparked a movement by these 'donor' towns that banded together as the Coalition Communities. For many years they lobbied the Legislature to change the statute so that they didn't have to send more than $20 million to the state for distribution to other communities as part of state aid to education. In the Tea Party-dominated election of 2010, voters gave Republicans a 3-1, veto-proof majority in both chambers of the State House. The Legislature in 2011, over the objection of then-Democratic Gov. John Lynch, got rid of donor towns, passing a law that let them keep their excess amounts. Zach Sheehan, executive director of the NH School Funding Fairness Project, said the decision allows a 'two-tiered' system of public schools to exist. 'For far too long the state has allowed this two-tiered system to operate, and this order will allow it to continue at the expense of funding for schools in the districts that need it the most,' Sheehan said in a statement. He urged lawmakers to remedy the matter by changing the SWEPT law. 'This is a major step backwards for our state, but it doesn't have to be forever,' Sheehan said. 'Just because this SWEPT loophole is allowed does not mean that the Legislature cannot act to close it. ' The Supreme Court still has another education funding case, and another appealed ruling by Ruoff, on its plate. The Ruoff ruling under appeal is the case in which the ConVal regional school district and nearly 20 others sued the state, alleging that the level of state aid to public schools wasn't enough to meet the requirement that the state support the cost of an adequate education for all students. In that matter, Ruoff concluded that the state's definition of an adequate education cost was 'woefully' short and ordered the Legislature to increase state spending to public schools by more than $500 million a year. klandrigan@
Boston Globe
4 days ago
- Business
- Boston Globe
Wealthy N.H. communities can keep their share of statewide education property tax revenues, top court rules
'Allowing some taxpayers in this state to continue to get special treatment and avoid paying their fair share of taxes to support the education of all students in the state is beyond disappointing,' he said. Advertisement New Hampshire Attorney General John M. Formella said his team is pleased with the court's decision, which he said reaffirms the Legislature's constitutional authority to spend tax revenues on the public's behalf. Without an income tax or broad-based sales tax, New Hampshire relies more heavily Under the SWEPT system, which was established Advertisement As a result, some cities and towns — such as Portsmouth, Moultonborough, and Waterville Valley — raise significantly more in SWEPT revenues than they need to fund an adequate education for their local students, while other municipalities must supplement their local SWEPT revenues with additional property taxes. Rockingham County Superior Court Judge David Ruoff 'The plaintiffs do not dispute that under the SWEPT, as administered, taxpayers are actually assessed at a uniform rate,' Chief Justice Gordon J. MacDonald wrote for the majority. 'That concludes the constitutional inquiry.' In his dissent, however, Senior Associate Justice 'To be sure, I agree with the majority that the SWEPT rate is facially uniform and that the SWEPT is assessed and collected from the taxpayers in full. But, as in our earlier school funding cases, that does not end the inquiry,' he wrote. 'The majority looks past the fundamental economic reality that money is fungible, and that when communities retain excess SWEPT revenue, the local education tax rate is reduced — and the overall property tax burden for the taxpayers in those communities is likewise reduced,' he added. Jason Sorens, a senior research fellow with the Advertisement 'Property values in high-capacity towns already reflect any advantages accruing to them from the ability to retain excess SWEPT funds,' he wrote Tuesday's ruling also addressed a separate but related question about how the state should handle SWEPT in unincorporated places. Ruoff had ruled the state's practice of setting a negative local education tax rate for those areas was unconstitutional, and all four Supreme Court justices agreed. The ruling didn't address another big-ticket dispute over public school funding in New Hampshire. In a separate case, Ruoff said in 2023 that state-level funding was so low that it violated a state constitutional obligation to provide for an 'adequate' education. He ruled the state would need to increase its education funding by Steven Porter can be reached at
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Yahoo
NH man indicted for forgery, financial exploitation of older adult
Mar. 18—A Kensington man has been indicted on charges of forgery and exploitation of an elderly adult for allegedly signing a man's name to transfer ownership of vehicles without the man's consent. The Attorney General's Office and Kensington Police Chief Scott Cain said Tuesday a Rockingham County Grand Jury has returned indictments charging David Pandelena, 67, of Kensington, with two Class A felony counts of financial exploitation of an elderly adult and three Class B felony counts of forgery. The financial exploitation indictments claim that between June 15 and Aug. 2, 2024, Pandelena acquired possession of vehicles — a Chevy Silverado and Toyota Camry — belonging to an elderly man's trust "under circumstances where Mr. Pandelena knew or disregarded the risk that the elderly man lacked the capacity to consent to the transaction," prosecutors said in a statement. If convicted, Pandelena faces up to 7 1/2 -15 years in the New Hampshire State Prison and a $4,000 fine on each indictment. The forgery indictments claim Pandelena signed the elderly man's name on documents that transferred ownership of his vehicles from his trust, then presented the documents to the Kensington Town Clerk's office. Each forgery indictment alleges an enhanced penalty in that in committing the crimes, Pandelena looked to take advantage of the elderly man's "age or physical or mental disability," the Attorney General's Office said. If convicted, Pandelena faces up to 10-30 years in state prison and a $4,000 fine on each indictment. Pandelena is scheduled to be arraigned on the indictment in the Rockingham County Superior Court on April 18, 2025, at 10 a.m.
