Wakefield’s Tax Rate over the years was either #1 or #2, best for any town with a population over 5,000. Rye, NH, was the other town.
The current tax rate for any town with a population of more than 5,500 is: Wolfeboro at 8.36 dollars per thousand, followed by Rye at 8.37, and Wakefield in third place at 8.71 dollars per thousand of property value. I will mention Moultonborough at 5.33 dollars per thousand, with a population of 4,900, according to the NH Department of Revenue Municipal Tax Rates Chart for 2025. See Link below:
2025 Municipal Tax Rates
https://www.revenue.nh.gov/sites/g/files/ehbemt736/files/documents/2025-municipal-tax-rates.pdf
As a contrary comparison, let’s look at our 4 abutting NH neighbors. Wakefield would have a real estate tax burden approximately 50%-75 % higher if we matched the current rates of Middleton ($15.79), Milton ($14.76), Brookfield ($13.15), and Ossipee ($12.77).
What do the first 4 of these towns have in common? Water frontage. So, shouldn’t we be funding their survival as we do other departments that are so vital to our health and safety? As I will show in other documents, all departments depend on 33% of their budgets coming from this one source, the R-2 Zone-OUR lakes.
In 1984, I put out my first letter about taking action to protect the health of the lakes. I got some positive responses and a few that joked, “why worry”, confident that the lakes would heal themselves. The lake associations have done various good works over the years, with efforts at that time such as putting colored tablets down drains in cottages to show where toilets and other gray water sources may be leaking into the lakes and encouraging people to install modern septic systems.
Recently, many of the lake associations have worked with the ACTON WAKEFIELD WATERSHED ALLIANCE (AWWA) to create WATERSHED/Erosion maps. With these maps we can easily identify the areas that need immediate work.
Who is AWWA?
The Acton Wakefield Watersheds Alliance (AWWA) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) charitable organization established in 2005 and dedicated to protecting and restoring the water quality of the lakes, ponds, rivers, and streams of
Wakefield, New Hampshire, and the border region of Acton, Maine. AWWA staff, board members, and volunteers work closely within these communities to strengthen the understanding that what happens on land directly affects the health of our local waters. Healthy waterbodies provide essential benefits, serving as natural resources, wildlife habitat, recreational opportunities, and vital economic engines for our communities. AWWA takes a multifaceted approach to keeping our lakes healthy by coordinating pollution control projects, deploying its Youth Conservation Corps to carry out projects aimed at mitigating erosion, delivering school programs and community education, and serving as a resource for lake associations and municipal boards.
AWWA has brought hundreds of thousands of dollars to preserving our lakes, (see additional AWWA information on their website link: https://awwatersheds.org/
In comparison over the years taxpayers have contributed ($35,000-$85,000) 0.02 to 0.04 percent of the yearly budget toward protecting this NUMBER 1 asset in our town, while some of the other town departments: highway, police, fire/ambulance, recreation, and town offices to name a few, cost anywhere from $250,000-$1,300,000.
So why do we turn a blind eye to this NUMBER 1 revenue generator? There are different trains of thought, (including the popular misnomer that the state will pick up the slack where town funding fails). Unfortunately, the state puts about the same amount of dollars and effort into protecting this HUGE asset statewide that we have locally, NOT MUCH!
I always repeat this one line: USE IT, ABUSE IT, LOSE IT!!
For example, the state may have 3 or 4 field inspectors working in the field at any time. Those inspectors are responsible for MILLIONS of feet of waterfront in the state. We in Wakefield have approximately 300,000 lineal feet of waterfront and miles and miles of roads accessing these lakes, with the majority being dirt or gravel. Why does this make a difference? Because this material, which is usually added to the roads every year before washing into water bodies with rain and erosion, is the leading cause of cyanobacteria and low dissolved oxygen, which are deadly to aquatic life. You can see the effects of low dissolved oxygen levels on lakes in additional literature listed here on the website. To better describe it, the poor numbers you see in 2 of our most valuable lakes, Lovell and Pine River, are indicative of the erosion problems WE CAN CURE.
You can see the very good numbers on Great East Lake. But I can tell you it will eventually have the same problems. The reason it looks good now is that Great East Lake has a maximum depth of 102 feet, and the other lakes are not half that deep. Therefore, the contaminating erosion affecting all these lakes is temporarily masked at Great East Lake, while these erosion nutrients are hiding at the bottom of these depths.
Where do we go from here? In 2021, I mailed a survey to all residents of Wakefield, and a small number of non-resident lakefront owners got a copy of it. The survey asked if you believed that we should create a department similar to the road crew (they do great work on a tight budget in all sorts of weather). This newly created lake road crew would work to control the road erosion around the lakes. I presented the results in a September 2021 selectman’s meeting and showed that over 4:1 people supported the idea. The respondents were required to provide their names and addresses. After much discussion, the selectman, like most of us, expressed concern about costs, but this is a definite case of “you can pay me now or pay me later.” When degradation has led to constant cyanobacteria blooms and the smell that comes with them, people will start coming to the town hall from the lakes to ask for a reduction in their assessed property value. I have spoken to people who have experienced just that at Province Lake. Once that ball starts rolling, that tax burden naturally will go to those who do not live near the lakes.
Back to the 2021 selectman’s meeting. Selectman Ken Fifield raised a concern about the town working on private roads, which is legitimate if a town does not want to end up having to take over roads. But I believed that just like in any real estate deal, you could make an agreement with the private road owner to work on the erosion control to the benefit of all taxpayers. Still, to this end, I contacted then-Senator Bradley from Wolfeboro and proposed that we draft a bill to alleviate that very concern for towns. What an education that was!! After a couple of years, I appeared before the Senate subcommittee and received their unanimous approval. Rochester Senator Gray was helpful in proposing an amendment that improved the bill. I then went to the 20-member house subcommittee, where I was turned down unanimously. One representative thought I was trying to make money with the bill’s passage! Others did not see the need for it, AND ONE REPRESENTATIVE MADE IT CLEAR THAT SHE THOUGHT THE TOWN COULD REACH AN AGREEMENT WITH PROPERTY OWNERS WITHOUT THE NEW LAW, AND THE BILL WAS DEFEATED.
Just remember: Even if you never get your feet wet, these lakes are giving you one of the cheapest tax rates in the state. And I hope this all will give people the knowledge to understand, I repeat, “If you use and abuse it, you gonna lose it.”
Unfortunately, many believe it is not a problem as you can see in articles/links below in which sitting Governor John Sununu at Wakefield’s 2024, 250th anniversary celebration at the town hall stated that cyanobacteria are not toxic.
https://newhampshirebulletin.com/2024/09/06/fact-check-sununu-claims-cyanobacteria-are-not-toxic