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HB 1799 Failed

$675 Million Tax Hike for Education

158 Democrats voted FOR a $675 million tax increase

What This Bill Does

HB 1799 would have required the state to provide $675 million in new education funding annually. The bill did not specify a funding source, but at that scale, the only realistic options are a broad-based tax — income tax, sales tax, or statewide property tax — or massive cuts elsewhere. The House killed the bill 185-159 (ITL motion). Not a single Republican voted for it. Not a single Democrat voted against it.

The Full Story

This was a perfectly party-line vote: every Republican voted to kill the bill, every Democrat voted to keep it alive. The bill's $675 million price tag — roughly a 15% increase in total state spending — would have been impossible to fund without a major new tax. This is the same legislature where Democrats voted against banning an income tax (CACR 10), where a Democratic-aligned advocate proposed a $2 billion income tax (the Volinsky "3-3 Plan"), and where Democratic leader Alexis Simpson claimed "Democrats will not support an income tax." Rep.

David Preece (D-Manchester) praised the Volinsky plan, saying it "works well for 80 percent of NH's taxpayers." Former State Senator Mark Fernald (D), the 2002 gubernatorial nominee, said: "Local school property taxes are unsustainable and unstable. Pretending otherwise is costing New Hampshire its future." The pattern is clear: Democrats say they don't support an income tax, then vote for bills that can only be paid for with one.

Party Breakdown

Republicans

184 Yea

1 Nay · 29 Absent/NV

Democrats

0 Yea

158 Nay · 19 Absent/NV

What Voters Think

71% of NH voters oppose a state income tax; 58% strongly oppose

Saint Anselm College Survey Center, March 2026 (n=1,491)

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