KEEP PROPERTY TAXES FAIR, SUSTAINABLE

Every year, families and business owners in Conway open their tax bills and wonder how they’re supposed to keep up. The answer starts in Concord. The Legislature chose to cut the Business Profit Tax (BPT) and the Business Enterprise Tax (BET), two taxes that were already historically low. That decision took revenue away from the state, but it did not take away the costs. Those costs simply landed somewhere else.

That somewhere else is our town and our property taxes. As the state has stepped back from expenses it once covered, those bills have been shifted onto local budgets, and the property tax is how Conway pays for them. Neighbors on fixed incomes, young families trying to put down roots, and the small businesses that give our community its character are all feeling the squeeze. This isn’t a failure of local stewardship. It’s a funding decision made far from our kitchen tables.

As a former member of the Conway Budget Committee, I know how governing bodies should oversee how taxpayer money is being spent. But here is what I am seeing now: Republicans in the state legislature have diverted some $50 million away from the 160,000 children in public schools to underwrite the 12,500 voucher recipients, most of whom never attended public school. It is unfair that our local property taxpayers must pay for these new costs.

Let’s do the sensible thing: cut vouchers going to the super rich, return the Business Enterprise Tax and Business Profit Tax to their previous levels, so the state pays its fair share and stops passing the bill to local taxpayers. I will fight for property taxes that are fair and sustainable for the people and businesses of Conway, and I’ll always be straightforward about how our tax dollars are spent. I would be honored to have your support.