State Sen. Denise Ricciardi met with the Greenfield Select Board on Wednesday during her annual visit to discuss the mounting pressures facing New Hampshire’s smallest municipalities, including volunteer shortages, state mandates, and rising property taxes.
Held at the Greenfield Community Meetinghouse, the discussion focused on the difficulty small towns face in maintaining operations without the staff or administrative resources available to larger communities.
“The state likes to talk about rural charm. When you see pictures of New Hampshire, you see pictures of buildings like the one we’re sitting in right now,” said Select Board Chair Tom Bascom. “Towns like ours are what keep New Hampshire charming. But Concord is not aware of how hard it is for small towns. We need access to resources that will help us survive, and to help keep New Hampshire charming.”
Bascom noted that Greenfield’s aging population and a decline in local volunteers make navigating complex state regulations on infrastructure and zoning nearly impossible.
Bascom said the state’s smallest towns are “at risk if current trends continue.”
“We struggle with expertise on boards,” Bascom said. “It’s almost impossible to navigate the rules and regulations that are constantly being thrown at us. We need help, resources, and people.”
Ricciardi agreed, saying she supports local control for communities rather than more mandates from the state.
“I personally support my smaller towns. I’ve gotten more education funding; I supported the meals and rooms tax reform. I’m very aware of the struggles of small towns,” Ricciardi said.
Other small towns in Senate District 9 include Lyndeborough, Temple, Sharon, Fitzwilliam, Hinsdale and Mont Vernon.
Select Board member Mike Borden said that while larger towns in the region such as Peterborough and Hillsborough have professional planners on staff, small towns rely on volunteers, who don’t have the time or expertise needed to navigate the onslaught of legislation.
Select Board member George Rainier, who served on the Greenfield Planning Board for many years and is currently the Select Board representative to the Planning Board, said a new state law allowing development on Class VI roads is an example of state legislation that creates local hurdles.
“I was very disappointed that the legislature passed that. The State doesn’t know our town or what’s best for our town. We know what’s best for our town,” Rainier said.
Ricciardi agreed, saying she is an advocate for local control.
“I fought against that; I was with you on that,” she said. “They said that law is meant to support affordable housing or workforce housing, but that’s not what ends up happening.”
Rainier agreed, saying that “affordable housing doesn’t get built on Class VI roads.”
“They build mansions, not affordable housing,” he said.
After hearing the board’s concerns, Ricciardi committed to researching the issues raised in the meeting and said she would consider drafting legislation to provide more funding to small towns for planning and other issues before September 21, the deadline for drafting new legislation in this session.
“I can work on some legislation for that. We will look at creating a rural package,” Ricciardi said.
Ricciardi took the opportunity to review her accomplishments in her last term, including leading the effort on restoring the Meals and Rentals Revenue Sharing through SB 99, which required the state to distribute 30% of this revenue to municipalities through a dedicated fund based on the percentage of actual revenue collected in the prior fiscal years.
According to Ricciardi, Greenfield has received an 88% increase in Meals and Rentals Revenue Sharing funds since 2020. In 2020, the town received $ 89,921, and in 2025, the town received $ 169,590.01. The bill repealed RSA 78-A:26, II, which had placed a cap on fund distributions from Meals and Rentals revenue, and allows the full 40% of net income, as established in RSA 78-A:26, I(c), to be distributed back to municipalities.
Ricciardi also highlighted the increase in SWEPT funding for Greenfield, which has increased by $438,352 since 2026, and the 2026 transportation funds, which are estimated at $ 76,473.
The board also raised concerns regarding Greenfield’s tax base. Bascom estimated that approximately $50 million in local property is tax-exempt due to holdings by state and federal entities — such as Greenfield State Park and the North Pack National Wildlife Refuge — as well as nonprofits, including the Crotched Mountain Foundation, which owns most of the conserved land on the south side of Crotched Mountain and Russell Hill, the Seven Hills Foundation, which owns the former Crotched Mountain School campus; Brantwood Camp; the Barbara C. Harris Center, which is owned by the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, and Plowshare Farm.
“It’s just a very unusual situation that we have so much land which can’t be taxed,” Bascom said. “It’s no one’s fault, but it is a burden for our town. If you do the numbers, it comes out to about $2000 for every tax payer in Greenfield.”
“All these nonprofits do fabulous work, and they are wonderful people,” Bascom said. “The Barbara C. Harris center helps us provide housing for people in town who are in transition. But as a town, the only way we can raise revenue is to look at property tax, and we look at all this land, and it can never be taxed, and we could just use some help.”
