Chart shows the loss for fiscal 2022 and 2023 of state aid grants to 13 cities

CONCORD – Over the past decade, Nashua has lost to the state some $33 million in rooms and meals tax revenue, and another $29 million in shared revenue, according to Mayor Jim Donchess.

Donchess, an outspoken critic of the state’s practice in recent years of diverting revenue away from municipalities and into state coffers, is one of 13 mayors statewide who signed their names to a letter expressing their collective frustrations over the continued loss of revenue – while also appealing to the Senate Finance Committee “to take into account the impact that this loss of revenue has on municipal governments and local property taxpayers.”

The letter is addressed to the committee chairman, state Sen. Gary Daniels, Republican of Milford, and is signed by Donchess and 12 other mayors.

They include Joyce Craig of Manchester, Rick Becksted of Portsmouth, Jim Bouley of Concord, Bob Carrier of Dover, George Hansel of Keene, Dana Hilliard of Somersworth, Andrew Hosmer of Laconia, Tim McNamara of Lebanon, Caroline McCarley of Rochester, Paul Grenier of Berlin, Charlene Lovett of Claremont, and interim Mayor Olivia Zink of Franklin.

Rising property tax rates and the need to put off necessary infrastructure improvements are at the top of the list of problems the mayors have encountered in their respective cities, according to the letter.

Chart shows the estimated lost revenue from rooms and meals tax for 13 cities

The resulting burden on the cities “is unsustainable,” they wrote, noting that the revenue losses are “putting a particular strain on retired Granite Staters on a fixed income, young people purchasing their first homes, and the municipalities’ ability to invest in infrastructure.”

One of the more glaring examples of significant losses the cities have faced over the past decade involves the so-called rooms and meals tax, which was introduced in 1967 with the agreement that the state would receive 60% of the revenue generated by the tax and cities would get 40%.

While the 60-40 split fluctuated over the years, the cities’ share has been trending downward every year since 2011, according to the mayors.

In another instance of lost revenue for cities involves a revenue-sharing plan that the Legislature signed into law in 1970.

Its intent, according to the mayors, was for cities and towns to receive a portion of general state revenues “for their unrestricted use.

Chart shows the estimated revenue sharing loss for 13 New Hampshire cities since 2010

“The last time any cities or towns received revenue from that source was in 2009,” the mayors wrote.

Accompanying this story are three charts showing the loss in revenue for 13 cities, which are included in the letter the 13 mayors sent to the Senate Finance Committee.

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.