Eric S. Turer

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 has been a terrible policy that undermines the premise of public education and, the unifying role of a local school district, and the impetus to continually improve our school system. It diverts public funds to private and religious schools with little oversight or accountability. Perhaps most importantly, it fails to offer meaningful 'educational freedom' as most of the recipients to date were already in private/home school settings before the program was enacted. This is further true now that all income limits have been removed. Vouchers lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy of failure in public education systems, as those with the means use public resources as a supplement to support their private decision, and leave the schools with the fixed costs and little ability to adjust staffing in a predictable way. This option was inserted into the budget, rather than being passed by legislators, and has opened the existing education system to costs that have already greatly exceeded the programs' budget."

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?

"NO – These proposals are truly misguided and irresponsible efforts to address problems that have not presented themselves in the state – as Gov. Sununu stated in his veto of such legislation.  I spoke on the Floor in support of that veto and again in support of Gov. Ayotte’s first veto of the same legislation.  She has since had to veto additional bills offering the same language. The Governors’ veto messages also spoke of the division and litigation that these laws would cause.  I have described the completely undefined approach to classifying 'biological sex' and demonstrating it in any practical setting as 'legislative malpractice'.  In other states where such proposals have been enacted, the results have been the exact opposite of what proponents suggest they are protecting against.  Our laws against gender discrimination are working effectively."

Citizens Count Issue Survey, 2026

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

"Any decisions that a woman and her family makes in this area are deeply personal and difficult. They should be made by the woman her health care providers, and those she wishes to involve…… not by the state. Nothing is gained by state intervention in these private family and medical matters. I am firmly Pro Choice, from both a practical and philosophical perspective. Under the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision, a woman's/family's right to make private medical decisions has been abandoned and opened to state legislatures, with disastrous consequences. It has never been more important to have representative in Concord that will honor the rights of privacy and personal choice that women have held for decades. Serving on the Judiciary Committee, I was honored to present two bills (CACRs) to enshrine reproductive choice in our state constitution and defeat many attempts to impose broad restrictions on a woman's choice. I will continue to fight for this as a right in NH, as it has been federally for the past 50 years. I believe the policy should be part of a 'reproductive freedom' guarantee that protects access to treatments to both assist with pregnancy (eg. IVF) and end pregnancy as needed. With respect to the 24 week threshold – this is a ban on a procedure that is literally not performed in our state. This law only exists to open the door to further restrictions by allowing the legislature to lower the threshold in increments – which has been attempted repeatedly with severe restrictions proposed each year. Serving on the Judiciary Committee, I was able to speak directly against such bills and help prevent their passage, but that is small comfort in an ever-changing legislature. Unintended pregnancies, forced pregnancies, and unknown health risks are things that do happen. We can't ban abortions - only safe and medically appropriate ones. Our society is also strengthened by family planning and parents that are ready and able to care for their children to the degree they feel is appropriate. There is also seemingly little appetite for providing greater resources to support children born to families that cannot support them (separate discussion). Nobody is forced to have an abortion - it is a choice and often a difficult one, as it should be. Abortion should be rare, safe, and legal. Privacy and choice over one's body and family should be sacrosanct freedoms, not to be infringed by the state. More could be said here, but I will also add that this is more than an abstract argument to me. My wife is an Ob/Gyn physician who has cared for women in our community for decades, and she has seen the many permutations of these difficult decisions play out in real, not theoretical, terms."

Citizens Count Issue Survey, 2026

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

"NO – The State should have no role in interfering with the medical and personal decisions made by a woman, her family, and her medical team around reproduction.  Such bans are based solely on political ideology, not protections women need for themselves or their families, and they often interfere with access to needed medical care."

Citizens Count Issue Survey, 2026

Should NH add an income tax on earned income?

"I do not support an income tax, but I also do not support our current property tax system that forces the elderly, others on low and/or fixed income, or those that live in rapidly changing communities, to leave their homes due to rising taxes. Tax relief should be targeted at those that need it. I would support expanding and re-targeting of tax relief programs such as the means-based protections on statewide property taxes for those at the lower-end and middle of the income scale, as well as similar programs such as those in place for veterans, the elderly, and the disabled. The basic structure for this is already in place in NH law, but it is crude, narrowly defined, and doesn't provide meaningful assistance at current levels, a solution to inequitable funding across the state, or support to towns to offset the cost. Expanding these types of options could provide key protections to those at risk of being forced from their homes for no fault of their own, without an income tax."

Citizens Count Issue Survey, 2026

Should New Hampshire lower business taxes?

"There are two taxes on business in NH, the Business Profits Tax and the Business Enterprise Tax. Most small and in-state businesses do not pay the Business Profits Tax, so recent cuts to this tax simply allowed large out of state corporations, which will do business here regardless of this tax, to take these needed funds out of our state with no benefit to keeping jobs or economic activity here in NH. The Business Enterprise tax is more relevant as it is paid on the total scope of each NH businesses. The tax rate is less than 1% on businesses over $281K in value, which is a reasonable contribution level, and provides a vehicle for state cuts to support business in the event of future downturns. The non-partisan NH Fiscal Policy Institute estimates that combined business tax rate reductions have led to between $795 million and $1.17 billion in forgone revenue over the past 10 years with little benefit to economic activity. These revenues could have been used to offset local property taxes and provide lagging public services."

Citizens Count Issue Survey, 2026

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

"Affordable housing is a huge challenge for our state. Housing prices in our region are very high and rental availability is very limited. This makes it difficult to attract and retain our retail and service workforce, and for young residents to live in our communities. This is unsustainable. There are a range of effective strategies to incentivize increased affordable housing and avoid gentrification. That said, our community has recently seen the unintended impacts of changes to zoning and building ordinances that threaten the rural character of our town while failing to produce more affordable options. Our Planning Board has taken steps to increase housing supply and our town is, once again, one of the fastest growing municipalities in the state. Encouraging municipalities to adopt changes that promote the development of affordable housing is different than imposing statewide changes that override town planning and zoning boards and remove local control."

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?

"As the impacts of climate change are becoming more apparent each day, I believe that all non-carbon energy sources need to be considered. Nuclear technology has become safer with passive shutdown designs and the prospect of SMR holds some promise but is still far from being a realistic short-term solution. The issue of waste disposal should also be part of this consideration. We should not be on the bleeding edge of implementation for SMR, but we shouldn't put policies in place that will impede prudent adoption going forward."

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?

"I believe the transformation of our energy infrastructure to clean, carbon neutral, and locally produced sources should be supported in every way possible – both for the good of our environment and to foster the jobs and innovation that being a leader in this area brings to our economy. Limits on the expansion of solar energy are shortsighted and will hurt our state in the long run. The need for restrictive caps on net metering may have been a reasonable approach to assuring a manageable transition to alternatives but the need for these is no longer justified."

Citizens Count Issue Survey, 2026

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

"The state needs more, not less, oversight of it's youth-related systems. This office is intended to provide independent, impartial, and confidential monitoring and reporting on systems that have been the source of many terrible failures in our state. The push to cut funding (initially proposed as elimination) were based largely on the lack of revenue resulting from cuts to key state funding mechanisms. The funding of the Office should be restored along with reforms to address issues that have allowed abuses to take place in the past."

Citizens Count Issue Survey, 2026

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

"Any decisions that a woman and her family makes in this area are deeply personal and difficult. They should be made by the woman her health care providers, and those she wishes to involve…… not by the state. Nothing is gained by state intervention in these private family and medical matters. I am firmly Pro Choice, from both a practical and philosophical perspective. Under the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision, a woman's/family's right to make private medical decisions has been abandoned and opened to state legislatures, with disastrous consequences. It has never been more important to have representative in Concord that will honor the rights of privacy and personal choice that women have held for decades. Serving on the Judiciary Committee, I was honored to present two bills (CACRs) to enshrine reproductive choice in our state constitution and defeat many attempts to impose broad restrictions on a woman's choice. I will continue to fight for this as a right in NH, as it has been federally for the past 50 years. I believe the policy should be part of a 'reproductive freedom' guarantee that protects access to treatments to both assist with pregnancy (eg. IVF) and end pregnancy as needed. With respect to the 24 week threshold – this is a ban on a procedure that is literally not performed in our state. This law only exists to open the door to further restrictions by allowing the legislature to lower the threshold in increments – which has been attempted repeatedly with severe restrictions proposed each year. Serving on the Judiciary Committee, I was able to speak directly against such bills and help prevent their passage, but that is small comfort in an ever-changing legislature. Unintended pregnancies, forced pregnancies, and unknown health risks are things that do happen. We can't ban abortions - only safe and medically appropriate ones. Our society is also strengthened by family planning and parents that are ready and able to care for their children to the degree they feel is appropriate. There is also seemingly little appetite for providing greater resources to support children born to families that cannot support them (separate discussion). Nobody is forced to have an abortion - it is a choice and often a difficult one, as it should be. Abortion should be rare, safe, and legal. Privacy and choice over one's body and family should be sacrosanct freedoms, not to be infringed by the state. More could be said here, but I will also add that this is more than an abstract argument to me. My wife is an Ob/Gyn physician who has cared for women in our community for decades, and she has seen the many permutations of these difficult decisions play out in real, not theoretical, terms."

Citizens Count Issue Survey, 2026

Should New Hampshire reinstate the interest and dividends tax?

"The tax on Income and Dividends was in need of some adjustments, particularly to increase the minimum threshold before the tax is applied to protect retirees living off of these funds, but eliminating the tax altogether was a mistake. As it stood, 92% of this tax was paid by the state's wealthiest residents, with some recognizing cuts in excess of $1M individually. This cut removed our state's 5th largest source of revenue, which could have been used to offset local costs and lower property taxes for many. We live in a time of enormous wealth inequality, and asking those with the most accumulated wealth to pay a small tax on the additional money their wealth is generating was very reasonable policy."

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 flaws in the current education funding system are more than fully documented, and have been the subject of multiple state Supreme Court cases which have refuted the system as not just flawed, but unconstitutional. Another pair of NH Supreme Court decisions on a case filed in 2022 further found that the state has failed to address the underlying problems. Our town pays a much higher tax rate for our schools as a direct result of this flawed formula. NH contributes the lowest portion of state funding to education of any state. The non-partisan NH School Funding Fairness Project has done a great deal to outline the issues and potential solutions, but fundamentally it requires a greater ability for the state to address the inequalities that result from a local property-tax based system by providing a true 'adequate education' base for all students."

Citizens Count Issue Survey, 2026

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

"I believe that citizens should be able to grow, purchase, and possess marijuana with appropriate age and product controls, but I am opposed to policies that lead to organizations that have an interest in actively promoting initiation or increased use of THC products. The only difference between the marijuana industry and big tobacco is the federal ban on moving the proceeds though the banking system. This federal law will likely be repealed in the near future, which could open the door to a new profit-driven public health crisis. I believe sales and distribution should be accomplished through strategies that use the connection with consumers to educate them on the risks, hold use to a minimum, and target revenues first to the associated costs to the state. The benefits and risks of THC should b studied like any other drug. Marijuana sales should not be viewed as a new general-revenue stream, as this undermines the government's role in oversight and control of the product. The state has not lived up to its role in similar areas, where funds collected through alcohol, tobacco, and legal gambling are not used to address the known and predictable consequences of these 'products', ignore the related costs of these products to our state, and use the funds derived to mask expenses rightfully borne more broadly. If the state is to be directly involved in the distribution of marijuana, it must be first to act in the public interest and not simply to avoid the need to raise revenue through other more traditional and broadly shared means."

Citizens Count Issue Survey, 2026

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

"I believe that citizens should be able to grow, purchase, and possess marijuana with appropriate age and product controls, but I am opposed to policies that lead to organizations that have an interest in actively promoting initiation or increased use of THC products. The only difference between the marijuana industry and big tobacco is the federal ban on moving the proceeds though the banking system. This federal law will likely be repealed in the near future, which could open the door to a new profit-driven public health crisis. I believe sales and distribution should be accomplished through strategies that use the connection with consumers to educate them on the risks, hold use to a minimum, and target revenues first to the associated costs to the state. The benefits and risks of THC should b studied like any other drug. Marijuana sales should not be viewed as a new general-revenue stream, as this undermines the government's role in oversight and control of the product. The state has not lived up to its role in similar areas, where funds collected through alcohol, tobacco, and legal gambling are not used to address the known and predictable consequences of these 'products', ignore the related costs of these products to our state, and use the funds derived to mask expenses rightfully borne more broadly. If the state is to be directly involved in the distribution of marijuana, it must be first to act in the public interest and not simply to avoid the need to raise revenue through other more traditional and broadly shared means."

Citizens Count Issue Survey, 2026

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

"I believe that citizens should be able to grow, purchase, and possess marijuana with appropriate age and product controls, but I am opposed to policies that lead to organizations that have an interest in actively promoting initiation or increased use of THC products. The only difference between the marijuana industry and big tobacco is the federal ban on moving the proceeds though the banking system. This federal law will likely be repealed in the near future, which could open the door to a new profit-driven public health crisis. I believe sales and distribution should be accomplished through strategies that use the connection with consumers to educate them on the risks, hold use to a minimum, and target revenues first to the associated costs to the state. The benefits and risks of THC should b studied like any other drug. Marijuana sales should not be viewed as a new general-revenue stream, as this undermines the government's role in oversight and control of the product. The state has not lived up to its role in similar areas, where funds collected through alcohol, tobacco, and legal gambling are not used to address the known and predictable consequences of these 'products', ignore the related costs of these products to our state, and use the funds derived to mask expenses rightfully borne more broadly. If the state is to be directly involved in the distribution of marijuana, it must be first to act in the public interest and not simply to avoid the need to raise revenue through other more traditional and broadly shared means."

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?

"It is already a crime for a non-citizen to vote and voting by non-citizens is a very rare problem. Conversely, the documentation to prove citizenship is not readily available to many, particularly for same-day registrants, those with name changes, and those that don't need such documents routinely or know how to get them. The new (2024) law requiring such documentation in NH was recently struck down as unconstitutional by the federal government for these reasons. The 'affidavit' system for declaring your citizenship adds further legal implications for anyone attempting to register illegally and is more than sufficient to deter illegal registration."

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?

"Some states have recognized benefits from limited and well-designed open-enrollment policies, but this should not be mandated and should not be rushed into. A study commission on this policy was proposed, which could have worked toward striking this balance, but this was defeated in favor of a rushed implementation. As a result, many districts – like ours – set the threshold at 0 students to protect against the potential impacts of this forced policy. Open enrollment can benefit some students, but it can also lead to the rapid failure of many struggling school districts and the consolidation of remaining ones into structures that aren't responsive to local needs."

Citizens Count Issue Survey, 2026

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

"Any decisions that a woman and her family makes in this area are deeply personal and difficult. They should be made by the woman her health care providers, and those she wishes to involve…… not by the state. Nothing is gained by state intervention in these private family and medical matters. I am firmly Pro Choice, from both a practical and philosophical perspective. Under the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision, a woman's/family's right to make private medical decisions has been abandoned and opened to state legislatures, with disastrous consequences. It has never been more important to have representative in Concord that will honor the rights of privacy and personal choice that women have held for decades. Serving on the Judiciary Committee, I was honored to present two bills (CACRs) to enshrine reproductive choice in our state constitution and defeat many attempts to impose broad restrictions on a woman's choice. I will continue to fight for this as a right in NH, as it has been federally for the past 50 years. I believe the policy should be part of a 'reproductive freedom' guarantee that protects access to treatments to both assist with pregnancy (eg. IVF) and end pregnancy as needed. With respect to the 24 week threshold – this is a ban on a procedure that is literally not performed in our state. This law only exists to open the door to further restrictions by allowing the legislature to lower the threshold in increments – which has been attempted repeatedly with severe restrictions proposed each year. Serving on the Judiciary Committee, I was able to speak directly against such bills and help prevent their passage, but that is small comfort in an ever-changing legislature. Unintended pregnancies, forced pregnancies, and unknown health risks are things that do happen. We can't ban abortions - only safe and medically appropriate ones. Our society is also strengthened by family planning and parents that are ready and able to care for their children to the degree they feel is appropriate. There is also seemingly little appetite for providing greater resources to support children born to families that cannot support them (separate discussion). Nobody is forced to have an abortion - it is a choice and often a difficult one, as it should be. Abortion should be rare, safe, and legal. Privacy and choice over one's body and family should be sacrosanct freedoms, not to be infringed by the state. More could be said here, but I will also add that this is more than an abstract argument to me. My wife is an Ob/Gyn physician who has cared for women in our community for decades, and she has seen the many permutations of these difficult decisions play out in real, not theoretical, terms."

Citizens Count Issue Survey, 2026

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

"Local school districts already have the option to propose a tax cap and present it to the voters. Few districts have opted to do so, and those that were put before the voters failed by large margins. We do have a problem with education funding in this state but simply mandating slower growth when real costs are rising and state support is lagging does not solve that problem but instead creates new ones. Voters in each district already elect the officials that set school budgets and also vote on those budgets. This provision had been inserted into the proposed 2024-6 budget and was removed on the House floor by a bipartisan majority."

Citizens Count Issue Survey, 2026

Should NH pass stricter gun control laws?

"I do support a range of reasonable changes to our gun control laws to address the disproportionate issues with gun violence in our society compare to others. We will not solve all issues with gun violence, but we can do much better without impinging on anyone's rights. I believe the second amendment does provide for the individual right to own firearms, and as a practical matter that will always be the case as well. The second amendment does, however, start with the phrase, 'A well regulated militia...' so I don't feel it precludes sensible regulations, which should not interfere with a responsible individual's gun ownership, but which would prevent issues stemming from those that should not have had access to a weapon, or the availability of weapons that have no place in civil society. I view it similarly to how cars and driving are regulated in terms of registration and licensing, but also to include universal background checks. Even the first amendment has limits. Classically, you can't shout 'Fire' in a crowded theater.... because it would endanger public safety, and the same is true for this right. I further believe - as affirmed by the Supreme Court in the Heller ruling – that the second amendment is '…not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever.'"