New Hampshire lawmakers are pushing a plan that would bar colleges from charging students out-of-state tuition if they reside and vote in the state.
The Republican-backed proposal, which was heard by the Legislature’s Education Committee on Tuesday, would prohibit Granite State public colleges and universities from charging out-of-state tuition for any students who cast ballots in local, state or federal elections.
Under current New Hampshire law, a college student must have lived in the state for at least one year before attending college or university – and for a purpose other than attending school – in order to qualify for in-state tuition rates.
“New Hampshire is unique in that we allow students who live here nine months of the year to vote and claim the university is their home,” state Rep. Tom Lanzara, R-Nashua, one of the bill’s primary sponsors, told the committee. “If students are voting in our elections and potentially paying taxes, but still paying out-of-state tuition, that is not a just practice.”
Another co-sponsor, Rep. Cody Belanger, R-Epping, told the panel that if a student is living and voting in New Hampshire “they have a right to in-state tuition.”
But representatives of state and private college systems in New Hampshire have pushed back against the plan saying it will cost money and create logistical nightmares.
A fiscal note attached to the House proposal estimated that if all out-of-state students were registered to vote, the state’s college system could lose nearly $140 million a year.
Tom Cronin, director of government relations for the University of New Hampshire system, told committee members that the proposal would cost the system a tremendous amount of money that might need to be offset with in-state tuition increases and a reduction in financial aid. He said about 50% of UNH students come from out-of-state.
“We would largely need to cut financial aid significantly,” Cronin told the panel. “That is more likely how we would address revenue shortfalls.”
Shannon Reid, a spokeswoman for the Community College System of New Hampshire, told the committee that only about 6% of community college students who are registered to vote in New Hampshire are from out-of-state. But she said the requirements of the proposed law would create logical challenges to track incoming and out coming students.
“Running those checks to cross-check our student database against the voter database would have to take place very frequently throughout the year as new cohorts of students register and pay tuition,” she said in testimony. “So there would be a significant amount of work involved in running those checks.”
The difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition at New Hampshire colleges is substantial. A non-resident student attending the University of New Hampshire in Durham can expect to pay $53,968 a year in tuition, room and board and other costs, according to the university’s website. By comparison, a resident student can expect to pay $34,978 a year.
Republicans have chaffed over the impact of a state law that allows students who are temporarily living in the Granite State to claim residence and vote. New Hampshire has more college students per capita than any other state.
Students are a sizable chunk of the electorate that helped tip the state’s vote to Hillary Clinton in 2016, and to Joe Biden in the recent presidential election.
Ahead of the November 2020 election, the state’s Republican Party called on then-Attorney General Gordon MacDonald to declare that students from out-of-state who are studying remotely are not eligible to vote in the state.
MacDonald declined the request, citing the state law that prevents local clerks from removing students who are established residents from the voter rolls.
