Kathleen Soule

1/10/26 My name is Kathleen Soule and I am a homeowner and short term rental property owner. My husband and I live in Carroll, NH with one of our vacation rentals located right next door to our primary residence. We also own another property in Pittsburg, NH that we use as a vacation getaway, also renting it out to help defray the costs of maintaining the property and other associated costs. Although neither of our non primary properties would be affected if this law should happen to pass, I am writing in opposition to this bill. The main reason is that this bill creates an unfair surcharge based upon where the owner resides and since that is selective, it seems to me it is not equal protection under the law and would probably not pass constitutional muster. This would be a significant shift to how NH has approached property taxes. Many 2nd homeowners like ourselves rent out their properties to help pay the bills and are already paying local property taxes and rooms and meals tax. In the White Mountain and other tourist areas, property values are higher because of the their locations. Additional taxes will make it prohibitive for some to continue renting as there are other bills looking to add surcharges to non primary residences as well in the session. As a STR owner, I am well aware that STRs in addition to providing housing for tourists, also provide short term housing for workforce housing. Northern NH especially relies on travelling and contract based health care workers and many STRs cater strictly to this market. NH is in the top 3 states that utilize these travelling professionals along with Alaska and Vermont. The statistics show that there are 82 per 100000 in these three states while the national average is 30-40 per 100000. Thank you for accepting my testimony on this bill and urge you to table it. Kathleen Soule Carroll NH Another