HB 688-FN-LOCAL - AS INTRODUCED
2003 SESSION
08/10
HOUSE BILL 688-FN-LOCAL
COMMITTEE: Municipal and County Government
This bill requires that a tax for services on a property within a village district exclude that property from that portion of town tax attributable to and duplicative of any of the same services provided by the town.
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Explanation: Matter added to current law appears in bold italics.
Matter removed from current law appears [in brackets and struckthrough.]
Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.
03-0846
08/10
STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Three
AN ACT relative to taxation of property within village districts by municipalities.
Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:
1 New Paragraph; Taxation; Procedure. Amend RSA 52:16 by inserting after paragraph II the following new paragraph:
III. The selectman or town council of any town shall exclude from property taxation for town services any property within a village district provided services by the village district from that portion of town tax attributable to and duplicative of any of the same services provided by the town.
2 Effective Date. This act shall take effect April 1, 2003.
LBAO
03-0846
Revised 2/13/03
HB 688 FISCAL NOTE
AN ACT relative to taxation of property within village districts by municipalities.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The New Hampshire Municipal Association and Department of Revenue Administration state this bill will have an indeterminable fiscal impact on state and local expenditures in FY 2003 and each year thereafter. This bill will have no fiscal impact on state, county, and local revenue or county expenditures.
METHODOLOGY:
The New Hampshire Municipal Association states this bill would require that in any case where the village district and the town in which the village district is situated provide the same services to residents of the village district, the town shall not assess a property tax against the village district residents for the provision of those services. The Association does not possess specific information regarding overlapping services that may be provided by the towns in which the State's approximately 90 village districts are situated. The Association states if there is an overlap of services, a town may discontinue those services to a village district, which could result in a reduction in costs to remaining town taxpayers. If the town does not discontinue services, but must change their assessment procedures for such services, administrative costs for the town could be higher and the remaining taxpayers in the town would pay for the village district's share of the services.
The Department of Revenue Administration states this bill creates an additional taxation district and requires adjustments to be made to the Department's database, and a municipality's tax rate papers at tax rate setting time. This bill could slow down the tax rate setting process resulting from the need to explain and calculate the offset for village districts throughout the State. Town assessors would need to determine the value of a particular district of the town that would be assessed for services. Software for creating the tax collector's warrant and the bills would need to incorporate the new district. In addition, the Department states that valuations for village districts within a town are mostly unknown, and a municipality's assessing and billing software packages would have to be updated.