Taxes sustain communities

I recently spoke with a long-time Peterborough resident who complained her family would move upon retirement because of the high taxes. They pay about $7,000. I asked why she thought the tax bill was high. The response was that $1,800 paid for schools and the cost of education in New Hampshire was around $18,000 per student. She thought all these things were outrageous. I live outside the town demarcation line and when we compared tax bills she could not explain why mine was not proportional. While there are issues of what is included in tax burden numbers, according to CNN, New Hampshie is number 50 in total tax burden. According to another source, it is 36th while the other sources are in between. What do all residents get for our taxes? An education system that has a completion rate equal to the national average (six years ago it was above) at a per-student cost of approx. $17,500 which is slightly less than the national average. We all also get a police department that has no need for deescalation training, a responsive fire and rescue department, a great public library, immediate access to MCH and services provided by other town departments. What she gets is city water, city sewer, sidewalks and plowed streets. Living on a private road, I pay for those services. We moved from a state where our property taxes alone equaled our total Peterborough tax bill. We also paid 6% sales tax and income tax. Most of our property tax went to the public schools. Taxes are what we pay to sustain a community. We should consider a Homesteader tax credit for long-time Peterborough residents. They are an important community resource and every effort should be made to enable them to stay. 

DeWitt S CalrPeterborouh=gh