“I want to represent the people really struggling in this state,” said Jon Kiper, the Newmarket restauranteur vying for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, who proclaims “New Hampshire deserves a working-class governor.”
Kiper is the maverick and the long shot in a race paced by former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig and sitting Executive Councilor Cinde Warmington. Unlike Craig and Warmington, who have both taken the pledge to veto a sales or income tax, Kiper has shunned it. “I’m not proposing a broad-based tax,” he said, “but I’m not taking the pledge because it’s stupid.”
And unlike his rivals, both of whom have raised more than $1 million, Kiper is running on a shoestring, reporting receipts of less than $37,000 and expenditures of less than $32,000 as of June.
Kiper, 42, grew up in Stratham, graduated from Exeter High School in 2001 and studied audio engineering in Australia before returning to New Hampshire where he pursued a career as a musician and writer, earning an award for his first children’s book in 2012. Two years later, he opened Jonny Boston’s International on Main Street, where he lives upstairs with his son, Ollie, and partner, Emily.
In Newmarket, Kiper has served on the Town Council, Zoning Board of Adjustment and Energy and Environment Committee and was co-founder of the Alliance for Substance Abuse Prevention. He is raising funds to erect a monument to Wentworth Cheswell, a son of Newmarket believed to be the first African American elected to public office in the United States.
Housing
Calling housing “the cornerstone of civilization,” Kiper considers overcoming the housing shortage and balancing the housing market the most urgent priority. “People who grow up in New Hampshire should be able to stay in New Hampshire,” he said, “but they are being priced out of the market.”
Last week, the NH Union Leader reported that one of every four homes on the market are listed at $1 million or more. Rents have risen steadily over the past decade. NH Housing reports that, to afford the median cost of a typical two-bedroom apartment with utilities, a renter would need 137% of the statewide median renter income, or more than $70,600 a year.
Kiper noted that the state contributes just $5 million of the more than $210 million raised by the Real Estate Transfer Tax to the Affordable Housing Fund, and this year lawmakers shelved a bill to double the amount. Instead, he proposed legalizing the sale of cannabis through a state enterprise and allocating a major share of the revenue, which he estimated at between $100 million and $200 million, to investment in affordable housing.
At the same time, Kiper said local zoning ordinances must be loosened to permit greater densities, while water and sewer infrastructure must be built to support more housing both for sale and for rent.
The short supply and high cost of housing, Kiper said, weighs most heavily on young couples and families. Meanwhile, New Hampshire is the nation’s second oldest state and continues to age, he said, warning that without adequate housing there will be neither a sufficient workforce to sustain economic growth or enough caretakers to meet the growing needs of the aged.
Asked about the border crisis at a forum at Exeter Town Hall, Kiper replied, “I’m much less concerned about poor people coming here to work than I am about rich people coming here to retire and not work.”
Kiper said, because New Hampshire is the only state where lawmakers are not paid, “the older, wealthier and retired” represent a disproportionate share of lawmakers, while the interests and perspectives of the younger, working people and those of modest means are underrepresented. “With a paid Legislature, we can enjoy true representative democracy,” he said, suggesting legislators be paid a stipend of $500 a year to begin, which can be done simply by increasing the existing mileage allowance.
Education
While Kiper joined Craig and Warmington in vowing to do away with the Education Freedom Account program, he took a step further by calling for an overhaul of the system of funding public schools. In particular, he said the 70% share of the total cost of education funded by local and state property taxes must be significantly reduced. Property taxes are regressive, he said, and place the greatest burden on those least able to bear it.
“This is a system that was built a long time ago when property values were not so high and the disparity between the rich and the poor was not so high,” Kiper told Manchester Ink Link. “At the end of the day, it’s the rich paying less and the poor paying more.”
Kiper explained that the disparities in property values among cities and towns lead to inequitable educational opportunities for school children and place disproportionate burdens on property taxpayers. ”To support our public schools, our school funding model needs a 21st-century redesign,” he said,
“That is why I have not taken the pledge,” Kiper said. Without advocating either an income or sales tax, he said that, with two school funding suits before the courts, there is nothing to be gained by foreclosing options that may be required to overcome the inequities of the current system.
Other views
Although the state’s abortion statute is not the foremost of Kiper’s priorities, his position is forthright and unequivocal. “I don’t think the government should play any role in reproductive health at all,” he told voters in Exeter. “Whether we’re talking reproductive rights, medical cannabis, or trans rights, New Hampshire remains the ‘Live Free or Die’ state. Privacy and autonomy in medical decisions is a cornerstone of our state ethos, and the Legislature should stop playing doctor,” he says.
With long odds against candidates with greater name recognition, governing experience and financial horsepower, Kiper’s showing will depend on tapping the vein of the most liberal Democratic voters. In the 2016 Presidential Primary, this block of voters enabled Bernie Sanders to carry all but three towns in toppling Hilary Clinton, the darling of the party regulars, and four years later Andru Volinsky abandoned the pledge but ran a close race for the gubernatorial nomination against a candidate who embraced it.
