Jim Creighton ignored the ConVal ruling
ConVal isn’t some distant court case. It represented 19 school districts. It came from communities right here in Senate District 8. Antrim, Bennington and Francestown are communities in the Contoocook Valley School District. Newport and Claremont were also plaintiffs, as was Fall Mountain, which includes Charlestown. A Newport taxpayer later became a plaintiff in the Rand litigation challenging unequal education property tax burdens that won in superior court.
Why so many lawsuits?
Because communities cannot budget themselves into property wealth.
A teacher doesn’t cost less in Newport because Newport has less taxable property. Special education doesn’t cost less in Claremont. Instead, property-poor communities must impose higher tax rates for every mandated dollar they need to raise.
In 2025, the New Hampshire Supreme Court affirmed the ConVal ruling that the state’s base adequacy funding was constitutionally insufficient.
Then came HB1799, a legislative bill responding to the funding problem by substantially increasing state adequacy funding at the level ruled in ConVal and examining alternatives to reliance on local property taxes.
The House killed it.
Representative Jim Creighton voted to kill HB1799. He is now running for Senate in a district containing communities at the heart of this litigation.
Dave Trumble, as a private citizen, traveled to Concord and testified on school funding legislation, advocating for greater state responsibility and relief for local property taxpayers.
Those are records voters can compare.
Our communities went to court and proved the funding was constitutionally inadequate. Now ask those seeking to represent us what they have actually done to fix it before you give them your vote. That is why I am supporting Dave Trumble for NH Senate District 8. I have seen him fight for our communities, our kids and local taxpayers.