Editor’s Notebook: The great state of New Hampshire, with an asterisk

There are a lot of reasons to love New Hampshire. There's a growing list of reasons why it's difficult to live here. (Dana Wormald | New Hampshire Bulletin)

There are a lot of things that make New Hampshire a great place to live, for everybody*.

For starters, we have four well-defined seasons. Sure, there are some extremes in summer (!!!) and winter, but it’s pretty sweet that we get to experience the whole shebang every year. On top of that, our celebrated geography offers the perfect backdrop for the seasonal shifts, with every resident no more than a car ride away from deep forest, mountain peaks, impressive lakes, and a beautiful stretch of ocean.

And I like to think that for the most part we’re a welcoming state, for tourists and new residents alike.

While our state of 1.4 million people lacks diversity, it is trending in a positive direction. New Hampshire’s Diversity Index – “the chance that two people chosen at random will be from different race and ethnicity groups” – is at 24 percent, according to the 2020 U.S. Census. That’s still comparatively low – Hawaii is the nation’s most diverse state with a diversity index of 76 percent – but it represents an increase of 9 percent over 2010. Baby steps, New Hampshire, baby steps.

You’ll also typically find the Granite State at or near the top in “quality of life” lists, like this year’s “Best States Rankings” from U.S. News and World Report. New Hampshire is second, behind Utah, on the strength of its category rankings in crime, economy, education, and natural environment, among others.

As I said, it’s a great place to live – but the asterisk next to “for everybody” is hard to ignore.

In another ranking – this one for “Cost of Living” – U.S. News has New Hampshire ranked 45th, with only New Jersey, Massachusetts, Washington, Hawaii, and California considered more expensive. While such rankings can be a little bit squishy, these two tell a story that should be familiar to most residents here: New Hampshire is where it’s at, but it’s becoming increasingly difficult to stay.

Rightly or wrongly, I’ve long considered New Hampshire’s system of funding public education to be where the trouble starts. The burden on homeowners by way of high property taxes is too great, and it’s a recipe not only for haves and have nots among school districts, and consequently children, but for class division overall. 

While there have been duct-tape efforts to fix education funding in the wake of some major court decisions, the problem persists and political will to build consensus for a real solution seems to be in short supply. So property taxes keep rising, schools suffer, blame is assigned, and public anger and anxiety grow. Finally, local voters are forced into decisions made under present economic duress that unfairly burden countless tomorrows. That’s the way it always seems to go: We saddle our children with all we cannot bear – or are unwilling to bear.

But even with punishing property taxes, New Hampshire homeowners should consider themselves lucky to have a place at all. The median home price here is more than half a million dollars, and the ripple effect of that is enormous and already altering the state’s future. There is no such thing as a starter home anymore, and that’s not a good thing in a state with one of the oldest populations in the nation. As the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute reported in an October fact sheet, “New Hampshire had the largest percentage decline in its child population of any state between 2010 and 2020.”

The asterisk keeps growing.

For the sake of argument, though, let’s say a young New Hampshire family of four at the median household income of about $90,000 (and a net income of, say, $70,000) was able to find an “affordable” home here with a monthly mortgage payment, property taxes included, of $2,300. They’re a working couple, so they’ll have to find child care for their infant and 4-year-old for another $2,300 per month. After housing and child care alone, our young family is left with about $1,200. We haven’t talked about groceries, gas, or utilities yet, nor do we know if mom or dad is carrying college loans or health care bills. 

Our family is doing everything right, yet every month they will find themselves in the red. What happened to their American dream?

I mention these things not because I think we could all use a little more gloom in our days. There is no such thing as a perfect society, never was, and if you have a mind to point out everything that’s wrong in the world you can do so until the end of time.

But what’s frustrating is that we keep getting stuck in the wrong conversations, and I’m not entirely sure who’s putting us there and why we let them. We talk about politics and elections like they are sporting events that can be won, but the asterisk hangs above all of us, equally and all the time.

We should be willing to discuss inequities in our tax systems and be open-minded about what a solution might look like. We should ask whether our millionaires and billionaires are returning their fair share to the societies that built them. We should introduce all political candidates to our struggling family of four, who are neither Republican nor Democrat, and ask what will be done for them. Above all, we should demand that our leaders stay focused on the asterisk.

We’re told there is no common ground anymore. Common ground is all there is.

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