CHELSI CHRISTENSEN

Hi, I am writing in opposition to the following bills HB1580, HB1707 and HB1068. I wanted to outline my situation and story as to why these bills are a problem for small business owners like myself and how this puts me in jeopardy as a property owner. I understand and completely agree with the fact that NH is having an *Affordable housing crisis. The key to this is affordable. NH is becoming too expensive to live because the mean housing price is $1 million and the property taxes are way too high. Going after short term rentals is not the answer. The argument for bill HB1707 is to make short term rental property owners pay a surcharge tax or open it up to the rental pool. It sounds simple but we are trying to help add affordable housing for people who cant get a home and these homes are vacant at times. This is not a logical method of offering more homes to people who don't have them. Most of the rentals are in resort areas like the ski resorts or coast and these homes would be thousands to rent to be put into the rental pool as the mortgages need to be covered and these mortgages are for multi million dollar homes and there are other expenses such as utilities, maintenance, etc. Most people rent out their vacation homes to short term rentals because they can't afford the home otherwise. Someone such as myself, I made the investment into a 2nd home that I love so I would have an investment for retirement, and I cannot affords this home without renting it to short term rentals. I already pay a huge property tax, (it went from $20k to $26K per year in North Hampton), I pay a 9% meals and rooms tax which is almost $15k per year and I pay the state a tax for having and running a business. This is about $46 to $50k per year to the state. And now they want to impose an additional tax? I can barely afford the property as it is now because home owners insurance has gone up, it has doubles from 5k per year to 10k per year, and it is hard even finding home owners insurance that will even insure short term rentals anymore. And my utilities keep going up, I can't raise my rates because of all the competition in the area. My prices are pretty high as it is because my expenses are so high. I have landscaping expenses, external laundry service, mortgage, taxes, utilities, repairs and maintenance and supplies. everything keeps going up. I am a mom who owns this property as a business that allows me to be with my children more after school. These tax proposals act like because we have 2nd homes that we have all this extra money laying around. If any of these bills go through it will jeopardize my ability to own and pay for the home and I will be forced to sell which will take away the meals and rooms tax and business tax revenue for the state, So would you rather recieve some tax money or lose it entirely? I heard one of the sponsors for the bill 1707 say to someone as we were walking out of the hearing (I attended Monday) "We need to punish people for having vacant homes". I was appalled by this. Why would it be okay to "punish" people for having a second home? We have the right to own real estate and shouldn't be penalized for this. This bill is being out forward to literally "punish" home owners and business owners. I got to know Sununu during his time as Governor and his objective was to help create more NH business and help them flourish and these bills will help destroy business owners. Home ownership is so expensive and adding more taxes will cripple the ability to own these homes. The answer to affordable homes is to change the laws on density (Allow more homes on less than 2 acres) incentivize builders to build small homes that can be sold for less than $400k. There isn't a lot of profit in these homes, but give grants and work with towns on eliminating their red table to help create affordable home developments, You can build a starter 2 bedroom home within a 1,000 square foot footprint. You can find land still in rural areas like Brentwood, Epping, etc and build 10 or 15 of these homes on 1/2 acre each. This would solve the housing crises. Going after short term rentals will only complicate things. These homes will be sold and taken out of the rental pool and vacation homes in resort areas are not affordable homes and don't fit into this profile at all. I heard another sponsor of the bill say during the testimony that these vacation home owners "need to pay their fair share" we are paying more than our fair share and contributing to the community. We pay property taxes like everyone else which pays for the communities expenses. These vacation homes that are over $1 mil are paying a higher amount in taxes. This is a ridiculous statement that we don't pay our fair share. Between the property tax, meals and rooms tax and business tax, we pay more than anyone else. This is my argument against HB1707, and HB1580. As for HB1068 - this is why this is a bad idea, for one, the label "Hotel" falls under another large set of regulations and safety that isn't necessary for single family homes. Single family homes are not zoned for hotel use which is commercial and we could be subject to forcing us to either stop renting or selling the property. Some short term rentals are used by the home owner for the times it isn't rented, it is used as a short term rental part time for if the home owner lives in two places. This changes the use of the single family house and puts it subject to completely different set of rules which are unnecessary for home ownership. If the property operated like a hotel, maybe, but most of the single family homes are exactly that, homes that we let people use when it isn't being used. Single family home owners should not be forced to fall under a commercial category such a hotels and have to be forced into the same guidelines as a commercially run operation. Most times short term rentals are not rented all the time are used as a short term rental to help pay expenses and fill in the gaps of when it is unoccupied. Being labeled a hotel and being forced to meet the guidelines and expectations of a hotel are extreme for home ownership and it doesn't make practical sense.