For 34 years New Hampshire state law has provided that "[t]he real estate and personal property of charitable, nonprofit community housing and community health care facilities for elderly and disabled persons, if none of the income or profits is used for any purpose other than community housing or community health care, shall be exempt from taxation."
But now, through House Bill 1295, legislators are trying to change that 34-year-old statutory tax exemption to require that nonprofit senior communities receiving the exemption "[a]ccept forms of payment that do not cover the full cost of services."
In other words, nonprofit senior communities that were built and renovated, with that construction or renovations financed based on the 36-year promise of no taxes, would now see that promise broken in a way they never could have foreseen or budgeted for. Nor, where residents paid a fixed fee as in a life plan community (also known as a continuing care retirement community), could this new expense easily be passed on to residents who responsibly paid their taxes through their whole working lives and saved in order to be able to, upon retirement, invest in their residency in that senior community. And seniors and those with disabilities in nonprofit apartment complexes are on very fixed incomes, so HB 1295 would deliver a blow to housing this vulnerable population.
House Bill 1295 is bad policy. When government wants new taxes, it must not impose them unexpectedly upon senior citizens and their nonprofit senior communities in the state with the nation's second-oldest population.
Please tell your legislators to vote NO on HB 1295.
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