As it strives to get past what it sees as “performative politics” and “hyper-partisanship,” the New Hampshire Forum has identified several key issues — housing affordability chief among them — that need bipartisan fixing by legislators.
The recently formed New Hampshire Forum has been whittling down — from 18 to four to one or two — important issues that will be addressed in the 2027 session of the state Legislature.
The New Hampshire Legislature. (File photo by Dan Tuohy/NHPR)
Standing right now at the top four are:
They will be further refined during community conservations that start June 17 in Concord.
From there, the top issues will be honed even further at a civic assembly September 25-27, during which some 50 lottery-selected delegates at the Grappone Conference Center in Concord will decide on proposals for action by New Hampshire’s state representatives and senators in 2027.
“The majority of people, although identifying with one party or another, are more in the middle and really just want to see government work for them and solve problems,” said Donna Soucy, forum co-chair and former Democratic state senator from Manchester.
“I certainly saw many times in the Legislature where a good idea might fail just because of the name attached to the legislation, and that’s unfortunate, given all of the issues that we’re facing,” she added.
Her Republican co-chair, Kevin Smith, former state representative and town manager in Londonderry, sees that people are “exhausted with the hyper partisanship in today’s politics, the performative politics on social media.”
Smith described the Forum as appealing “to people on both sides of the aisle who are not on the extremes and who want to see their elected officials work in a productive way, work together and find solutions together, and meet in the middle if they have to. That’s an art that seems to be gone in today’s political environment.”
The political majority of registered voters here is more centrist than right or left.
As of May 4, according to NH Secretary of State numbers, of the 956,346 registered voters in the Granite State, about 40% are undeclared, while 28% are registered as Democrats and 33% are registered Republicans. It’s those undeclared voters and those Republican and Democratic voters edging more toward the center who aren’t being heard, according to both Smith and Soucy.
“If the majority of people are center right, center left, why are the extremes taking up all of the oxygen in the room,” Smith said. “I think that’s why the New Hampshire Forum is going to be a really powerful tool, because it’s giving a voice again to those folks who are center right, center left, and really wanted to want politics to be about issues and not about the partisanship.”
The New Hampshire Forum was initiated in April by Andrew Shue, “Melrose Place” actor and a Dartmouth College alumnus, who created the nonprofit here and in Nevada and South Carolina as a way to get people talking to each other about issues, not past each other.
The group used social media and online connections to garner from people the issues that they felt need addressing.
Soucy was pleased with the level of engagement.
“We had, I believe it’s in the ballpark of 25,000 people taking action on the site, meaning they participated in some way,” Soucy said. “The first phase of this was very organic. People literally just typed out a couple sentences about what they thought was the most pressing issue, or the issue that could readily be solved.”
Eighteen issues were presented online, and four rose to the top, with housing/affordability and property taxes being a very close No. 1 and No. 2.
That didn’t surprise either Smith or Soucy: current housing prices make it difficult to buy a home, property taxes in some communities make it difficult to stay in the home.
Smith made note of the fact that the price of a median-priced single family home in New Hampshire reached a record $580,000 in May. (See related NHBR story)
“It’s a real problem, and it’s not only a problem for people looking to buy a home for the first time,” Smith said. “It’s a real problem for our seniors as well … your property taxes are based off of what your home valuation is, and with the market being driven so high, it drives up home valuations, and seniors who are on fixed income are just not being able to keep up with their property taxes.”
Soucy made note of the fact that in her hometown of Manchester, as in many communities across the state, municipal budgets are fueling intense discussions about property taxes.
The community conversations start on Wednesday, June 17, between 6:30 and 8:30 p.m. at the Bank of New Hampshire Stage, 16S Main St., Concord. That will be followed by online discussions later in the month. (See event and registration information here.)
Soucy has an expectation of how these discussions might go with some questions serving as guides.
“These are the topics. This is the issue,” she said. “What potential is there to introduce a discrete piece of legislation? What would that look like? What part of affordability can we tackle and what can we build consensus around? What issue experts do we need to bring in to help us to further refine that and get it to a point where it could move forward?”
According to Soucy, there is a group of agreeable legislators who, once the issues are narrowed, are willing to file legislation on their behalf come the 2027 session.
“There’ll be some strategy conversations with those legislators, as well, whether something should originate in the House versus the Senate, if it has money attached,,” said Soucy. “Those kinds of conversations will have to occur, and that’s why we have the legislative advisors that we do.”
The recently formed New Hampshire Forum has been whittling down — from 18 to four to one or two — important issues that will be addressed in the 2027 session of the state Legislature.
State lawmakers reached an agreement Thursday, May 28, on a bill that would authorize parents to enroll their children in any public school in New Hampshire, but Gov. Kelly Ayotte said she would not sign the legislation if it reaches her desk.
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With the number of applications down and a demographic cliff looming over higher education, administrators at the University of New Hampshire projected earlier this year that they would enroll about 100 fewer students this coming fall than last year.
ApprenticeshipNH, a workforce training program of the Community College System of New Hampshire (CCSNH), LandVest, a national leader in integrated real estate, land investment and forest management services, have partnered to create a new Registered Apprenticeship Program (RAP) to meet growing workforce needs for LandVest’s Forest Management division.
There is a critical need in the Granite State for nurses, and the market has responded with more supply, with more interest than ever in nursing.
On April 9, 2026, ApprenticeshipNH, a workforce training program of the Community College System of NH (CCSNH), partnered with area employers to host the “Pre-Apprenticeship Connection Summit” at NHTI – Concord’s Community College.
The Community College System of New Hampshire (CCSNH) and Lakes Region Community College (LRCC) received approval for a $1.2 million Training for Residential Energy Contractors (TREC) grant from the New Hampshire Executive Council to meet workforce needs for energy contractors.
UNH is creating a hub for collaboration with business and government
