Bill Baber

Dear Chairman Vose and Members of the Committee, My name is Bill Baber, and I am the chair of Dover’s Energy Commission and a director of CPCNH’s board. I am writing in opposition to HB 1002 and respectfully urge the Committee to recommend the bill as Inexpedient to Legislate (ITL). HB 1002 would repeal New Hampshire’s long-standing property tax exemption for solar energy systems – a policy that has been in place for more than 50 years and has provided predictability for municipalities, developers, and customers. The bill would subject existing and future solar projects, including solar paired with storage, to local property taxation without grandfathering, increasing costs and uncertainty across the state. From a municipal perspective, this bill is problematic for three core reasons: • HB 1002 undermines local autonomy and predictability. The existing exemption has long functioned as a practical local planning and economic development tool. Repealing it removes an option that municipalities have relied on for decades and replaces it with uncertainty – without providing a clear alternative. • HB 1002 would increase costs and limit local energy options, including Community Power programs. Higher project costs make local solar and solar-plus-storage projects harder to finance, more expensive to contract with, and less attractive as tools to manage price volatility and reduce long-term costs for residents and businesses. • The lack of grandfathering harms existing projects and investor confidence, sending a negative signal to developers, lenders, and communities that New Hampshire is willing to change the rules after investments have already been made.