Debra Altschiller

Citizens Count Issue Survey, 2026

Do you support the “Education Freedom Account” program, which gives students access to the per-pupil share of state school funding to spend on private school or home school expenses?

"This program is $12.3 million over budget and is projected to be $26.7 million over budget across the biennium. It has been administered from its inception over the past five years through a no-bid contract. The voucher program has diverted state tax dollars to religious schools that have changed their financial aid models to now include state vouchers as part of consideration for aid. Vouchers are used for horseback riding, sports camps, private soccer coaching, acrobatics & circus training, rock climbing gym memberships, lego kits and multitudes of other things that have been added to ever growing 'approved vendor list' created and maintained by a third party vendor. Despite being sold to the public as a vehicle for low income families to attend private schools when they believed their local public school wasn't a 'good fit' for their child and did meet the criteria for a manifest hardship that would facilitate a transfer to another school, the program is dominated by parents taking vouchers to subsidize their private school tuition, extracurricular activities or camp fees. 72% of students taking vouchers never attended a public school in the first place. When the state claims it doesn't have enough money to pay for an adequate education for its students but can spend $77.5 million over the last five years on vouchers, voters should demand better."

Citizens Count Issue Survey, 2026

Should New Hampshire’s anti-discrimination law allow segregation based on biological sex in some settings, such as bathrooms and locker rooms?

"The premise of this question should make any thoughtful Granite Stater shudder, should New Hampshire roll back civil rights to allow segregation? Questions like this indulge in culture wars and manufactured outrage that scapegoat the smallest population in our state with horrifying stereotypes and abuse. Transphobic legislators introduced 16 abusive pieces of legislation just last year forcing transgender members of our community to constantly defend their humanity in legislative hearings while suffering verbal abuse from lawmakers. These bills that encapsulate the question above are civil rights bills. They are public safety bills. That lawmakers in New Hampshire had the audacity to consider codifying discrimination in the chapter of law known as the 'Law Against Discrimination' was obscene."

Citizens Count Issue Survey, 2026

Should New Hampshire ban abortions during the first trimester (e.g. after 6 weeks gestation)?

"Abortion is basic health care that gives people the freedom to fully control their bodies, lives, and futures. New Hampshire must acknowledge that abortion access is critical to ensuring that everyone can live free. That includes securing an affirmative right to get the care they need without worrying about threats to their health, freedom, or well-being. New Hampshire remains the only state in New England that has not stood up to explicitly protect our constituents' right to abortion in our state statute or our constitution, a departure from our state's historic record of affirming personal freedoms and limiting government interference. Because, as Granite Staters watch in horror on the news as states with strict abortion bans result in pregnant women bleeding to death, contracting sepsis, and facing other serious infection risks, they deserve for it to be crystal clear that their elected officials here in New Hampshire would never subject them to such danger and pain."

Citizens Count Issue Survey, 2026

Should New Hampshire ban abortions during the second trimester (e.g. after 15 weeks gestation)?

"Abortion is basic health care that gives people the freedom to fully control their bodies, lives, and futures. New Hampshire must acknowledge that abortion access is critical to ensuring that everyone can live free. That includes securing an affirmative right to get the care they need without worrying about threats to their health, freedom, or well-being. New Hampshire remains the only state in New England that has not stood up to explicitly protect our constituents' right to abortion in our state statute or our constitution, a departure from our state's historic record of affirming personal freedoms and limiting government interference. Because, as Granite Staters watch in horror on the news as states with strict abortion bans result in pregnant women bleeding to death, contracting sepsis, and facing other serious infection risks, they deserve for it to be crystal clear that their elected officials here in New Hampshire would never subject them to such danger and pain."

Citizens Count Issue Survey, 2026

Should NH add an income tax on earned income?

"Against"

Citizens Count Issue Survey, 2026

Should New Hampshire lower business taxes?

"Against"

Citizens Count Issue Survey, 2026

Should the state do more to encourage municipalities to remove zoning barriers to housing development?

"Zoning is an intensely local issue - what works in one town doesn't necessarily work in the city next door. I believe local control matters. The state's role should be to incentivize good local decisions, not override them. The Housing Champions Program, administered through the Department of Business and Economic Affairs, did that well. It rewarded municipalities for removing barriers to housing development - with real results: the 28 communities that earned Housing Champion status were responsible for 45% of all housing units permitted statewide in 2024. Nashua alone used an $828,000 grant to help deliver 206 workforce housing units; Manchester used $322,000 to help deliver 65. In my district, the towns of Exeter, Hampton and Rye are able to move forward with housing projects thanks to this program. Despite that record, Republicans defunded the program in the current state budget and then moved to repeal it outright in the House. I worked to repeal that effort and it subsequently died in the Senate - the program remains in statute, unfunded, and any future attempt to dismantle it will have to come from the next legislature. I support restoring funding to Housing Champions and building on what already worked, rather than stripping local zoning authority outright. Communities respond to incentives, not mandates - Housing Champions proved that. New Hampshire should be putting money behind housing solutions, not walking away from the one program with a proven record of delivering them."

Citizens Count Issue Survey, 2026

Should New Hampshire do more to encourage the development of nuclear power, including small modular reactors (SMR), in the state?

"New Hampshire should be preparing for new zoning and siting regulations now - not after the first proposal lands. We've been here before, just this year. AI data centers arrived faster than our zoning laws could account for, and I authored SB 439 to build a regulatory framework for them before the industry outran the state's capacity to manage it. Small modular reactors are the next version of that same problem - and not a coincidence: SMR development is being driven substantially by the same AI data center demand that prompted SB 439 in the first place. If NH doesn't build siting and impact policy for nuclear now, we'll be reacting to SMR proposals the same way we were initially reacting to data center proposals - after the fact. To date, there are no small modular reactors yet in commercial operation anywhere in the United States, but the federal government is moving to change that fast. The U.S. Department of Energy has committed roughly $900 million to clearing the licensing, supply chain, and site-preparation bottlenecks that have historically stalled domestic nuclear projects. That kind of federal push compresses the industry's timeline. States that wait to build their own regulatory framework until a developer files an application will be negotiating from behind. We don't want to be caught unprepared. New Hampshire has a narrow window to get ahead of that instead of reacting to it. At present, we have four categories that need addressing if we are to adequate prepare Zoning and citing. We don't have a framework for where an SMR could go, what regional impact review looks like, or which communities get a say before a site is chosen - not after. Waste policy. Spent fuel handling and storage policy needs to exist before there's a reactor generating it, not drafted in response to one. Workforce. SMRs require a specialized technical workforce NH doesn't currently have a pipeline for - and neither does most of the country yet, which means whichever state builds that educational pipeline first has a real competitive advantage. Housing and child care. None of that workforce stays without both. This is the same capacity gap that shows up across our economic development conversations - it isn't unique to nuclear, but nuclear makes the cost of ignoring it concrete. If we want to pursue small modular reactors when they become a commercial reality in the US, we need to begin developing policy infrastructure to support it now."

Citizens Count Issue Survey, 2026

Do you support legislation to expand the net energy metering system capacity cap from 1 MW to 5 MW for all residential and commercial customers in New Hampshire?

"Increasing the cap will incentivize larger organizations to introduce solar energy production into their operational plans and further decrease our dependency on fossil fuels. The 1MW cap is an unnecessary limitation on growing renewable energy production in New Hampshire."

Citizens Count Issue Survey, 2026

Should New Hampshire restore funding for the Office of the Child Advocate?

"In 2017, through an appointment from the Governor, I was on the hiring and oversight committee for New Hampshire's first child advocate. We have had two in total, the last one driven out of her position and the office staff cut in half. The mission of the Office of the Child Advocate (OCA) is to be an independent, impartial, and confidential State agency mandated to provide oversight into the State's child serving systems. Gaps in the child welfare system that resulted in fatalities are what brought the legislature to form an Office of the Child Advocate as an important check on the child welfare services in the state. In 2024 the OCA came under fire for advocating against proposed laws that would discriminate and endanger LGBT youth. Additionally the OCA supported proposals to limit prone restraints and seclusion as punishment in juvenile detention settings. Speaking in support of policies that acknowledge basic human rights should never have been controversial. Advocating for the humane treatment of children in our state and providing a check on systems that fail them is vitally important work I fully support."

Citizens Count Issue Survey, 2026

Should New Hampshire guarantee the right to access abortion before 24 weeks?

"Abortion is basic health care that gives people the freedom to fully control their bodies, lives, and futures. New Hampshire must acknowledge that abortion access is critical to ensuring that everyone can live free. That includes securing an affirmative right to get the care they need without worrying about threats to their health, freedom, or well-being. New Hampshire remains the only state in New England that has not stood up to explicitly protect our constituents' right to abortion in our state statute or our constitution, a departure from our state's historic record of affirming personal freedoms and limiting government interference. Because, as Granite Staters watch in horror on the news as states with strict abortion bans result in pregnant women bleeding to death, contracting sepsis, and facing other serious infection risks, they deserve for it to be crystal clear that their elected officials here in New Hampshire would never subject them to such danger and pain."

Citizens Count Issue Survey, 2026

Should New Hampshire reinstate the interest and dividends tax?

"Despite economic forecasts showing a downturn, the current legislative majority decided to eliminate over $187 million in revenue by eliminating - rather than reforming - the interest and dividends tax. They accelerated the elimination of this revenue source without replacing it and then took money out of the state's rainy day fund (the monetary reserves available that could cover state operating costs daily). Before they could finish patting themselves on the back for 'cutting taxes' they told the Department of Health and Human Services to cut $51 million from their two-year budget, the largest cut made in the last 30 years. Money that was taken out of mental health support services, child abuse prevention initiatives, family supports and food assistance. The Office of the Child Advocate staff was cut in half and funding for survivors of sexual abuse at the Sununu Center was stopped. Despite being a demonstrated housing crisis, the most successful program to yield results, Housing Champions (administered by the NH Department of Business and Economic Affairs) was allotted no funding at all. The elimination of revenue without a plan to replace it on the backs of our state's genuinely most vulnerable is not just feckless, it is cruel."

Citizens Count Issue Survey, 2026

Do you support New Hampshire’s current system of public school funding, with about two-thirds of total funding coming from local property taxes?

"The state has been found by the Supreme Court, multiple times, to be underfunding basic adequacy for our public schools. That underfunding has downshifted the financial responsibility of educating our students down to our local property taxes. Most cities and towns pay more than the two-thirds posed in this question because in addition to underfunding adequacy, the state has withdrawn all financial support for the teacher retirement system. The state had previously committed to picking up 30% of the costs and then backed out of that promise, downshifting the entire responsibility to local property tax payers. Now with the Governor's blessing, the Attorney General has filed a suit to overturn all three of the court rulings that find the state has a constitutional duty to pay for an adequate education (Claremont I), that the current funding system is unconstitutional (Claremont II) and that the state has failed to meet its obligations to fund an adequate education including special education and reaffirmed the funding system is unconstitutional (Rand). All of this done at taxpayer expense."

Citizens Count Issue Survey, 2026

Should New Hampshire legalize the recreational use of marijuana by allowing home-growing and private use without sales?

"For"

Citizens Count Issue Survey, 2026

Should New Hampshire legalize the recreational use of marijuana by licensing growers and private retail locations?

"For"

Citizens Count Issue Survey, 2026

Should New Hampshire legalize the recreational use of marijuana by establishing state-run cannabis stores?

"Against"

Citizens Count Issue Survey, 2026

Should New Hampshire require new voters to provide proof of U.S. citizenship, such as a birth certificate or passport, when registering to vote?

"Voting is a constitutional right guaranteed by Article 11 of our state Constitution, which states that all elections are to be free and that every inhabitant aged 18 and older has an equal right to vote. The recent uptick in voter registration concern arises from the specious accusations of election impropriety following the 2020 election. Documentary proof-of-citizenship laws address a problem that barely exists while imposing serious, well-documented costs on eligible citizens. Since HB 1569 took effect, voting-rights advocates tallied at least 244 people turned away from the polls in 2025 alone - before the higher-turnout 2026 midterms even arrived. A federal judge subsequently ruled that eliminating the sworn-affidavit alternative was unconstitutional, finding 'this is the only method of proof available to a significant number of New Hampshire voters.' Those documentary-proof provisions remain judicially blocked while the state's appeal to the First Circuit is pending. Many Granite Staters have testified to the legislature that they lack easy access to citizenship documents like marriage certificates and birth certificates with raised seals to prove authenticity. Getting replacements for them requires time and money, things that should not be barriers to voting. Indulging the fallacy of election tampering in 2020 has brought us years of measurable harm to eligible voters against fraud that remains vanishingly rare."

Citizens Count Issue Survey, 2026

Should New Hampshire allow at least 10% of students in each school district to enroll in a different public school, regardless of where they live?

"Open enrollment fundamentally upends the public school system in the state by separating where a student lives and where they attend school. At the same time, it does nothing to change the reliance on local taxes to fund public schools. Where a student's family lives is still linked to where they pay taxes, but with open enrollment, those taxes can now flow freely to other school districts whose school boards are only accountable to their own voters and whose budgets are only voted on by their own town. If a school has to set aside 10% of its capacity to open enrollment (as this question asks), what happens to students still entitled to a seat at their neighborhood school if the total enrollment is full? Do students in the district get priority? Do open enrollment students get bumped? Where do they go, back to their home district or will another district be forced to enroll them? Will academic or athletic departments be given some of the open enrollment slots to build up their programs? This question raises even more questions, chief among them is whether students are still entitled to a seat at their neighborhood school if that school has reached 'capacity'. If a school has to take 10% of its total capacity in open enrollment students, how is that determined? How will districts establish capacity limits for each school and grade level, will it be a locally determined number or mandated by the state? What happens when a family moves into a school's attendance zone and that school or appropriate grade level is 'at capacity.' How much of that 10% mandate includes students with special education needs? All students deserve a quality education with resources to support it. Moving students around under the guise of open enrollment is a short sighted shell game that may benefit a couple of students at the expense of the rest of the district. Proponents of this scheme purport it creates educational choice, but it is only a choice for those who have another school nearby, who can secure their own transportation, and who can finance the difference between districts' costs, if there is one. Affluent families will likely benefit the most, and sending districts will struggle to manage consistent costs with less income."

Citizens Count Issue Survey, 2026

Should New Hampshire repeal the ban on abortion after 24 weeks gestation?

"Abortion is basic health care that gives people the freedom to fully control their bodies, lives, and futures. New Hampshire must acknowledge that abortion access is critical to ensuring that everyone can live free. That includes securing an affirmative right to get the care they need without worrying about threats to their health, freedom, or well-being. New Hampshire remains the only state in New England that has not stood up to explicitly protect our constituents' right to abortion in our state statute or our constitution, a departure from our state's historic record of affirming personal freedoms and limiting government interference. Because, as Granite Staters watch in horror on the news as states with strict abortion bans result in pregnant women bleeding to death, contracting sepsis, and facing other serious infection risks, they deserve for it to be crystal clear that their elected officials here in New Hampshire would never subject them to such danger and pain."

Citizens Count Issue Survey, 2026

Should state law cap how much local school districts can increase their budget each year?

"This proposal is yet another blow against local control. The state which has been found by the courts (three times) to have abdicated its responsibility to pay for an adequate education,should not be telling municipalities how to spend their tax dollars. Until 2012, the state paid 35% of pension obligations on behalf of local employees, and municipalities paid the remaining 65%. The state eliminated that obligation from the state budget, downshifting the whole cost to local property taxes. The same happens with education funding, for over three decades municipalities have been fighting for the state to raise the adequacy formula to better reflect actual costs. Instead of obeying court orders to do so, the republican led majority of the past decade has refused to meet its obligations and take money away from public schools to start a run-away voucher program. Now that this financial boondoggle is being examined by the tax payers, state lawmakers in the current majority have the hubris to blame local municipal leaders of financial mismanagement. The state has no business telling municipalities that are already picking up the slack from the state government how they can or should raise revenues."

Citizens Count Issue Survey, 2026

Should NH pass stricter gun control laws?

"New Hampshire doesn't have strict gun laws to make stricter - it has some of the weakest gun violence prevention laws in the country. Here's what's missing: 1. Background checks have a gaping hole. NH only requires background checks through federally licensed dealers - private sales require nothing at all. That loophole lets prohibited buyers acquire weapons with zero scrutiny. 2. We don't report psychiatric commitments to NICS. I've sponsored legislation, more than once, to require the state to share involuntary psychiatric commitment records with the national background check system. Republican colleagues have killed it every time. The cost of that gap is not abstract: John Madore, previously committed to Concord Hospital, lied on his purchase form with no records to contradict him - then used that weapon to murder Security Officer Bradley Haas. 3. We have no Extreme Risk Protection Order law. ERPOs let courts temporarily remove firearms from someone in an active crisis - whether that crisis points inward or outward. NH's suicide rate makes that tool urgent on its own. But Berlin showed the other side of the same failure: Marisol Fuentes had a protective order against her estranged husband, he was out on bail facing sexual assault charges, and two days before he killed her he told a friend he was considering suicide and 'kill her off too.' He still had his shotgun and access to buy more guns and ammunition. An ERPO law gives courts a way to act on exactly those red flags before they turn fatal - NH still doesn't have one. 4. We just shielded manufacturers from accountability. Last biennium, NH enacted liability protections for firearms manufacturers - insulating companies like Newington-based Sig Sauer, which has faced hundreds of lawsuits over defects in its P320 pistol, from the kind of accountability every other consumer product industry faces. NH doesn't need stricter gun laws. It needs basic ones."