What Bow's Tax Rate Means Now That the Coal Plant on the River Is Closed

According to the New Hampshire Department of Revenue Administration's 2025 tax rate table, Bow's total property tax rate is $20.05 per $1,000 of assessed value and Concord's is $29.11. When buyers compare the two towns, they usually multiply a list price by each rate and treat the difference as a yearly savings. That math overstates the gap by a wide margin. The two rates are applied to assessments that sit at very different distances from market value. And part of the history behind Bow's rate sits on 1 riverfront parcel whose future is still undecided.

The rate on the tax bill and the rate on the market price are different numbers

A town's tax rate only applies to its assessed values. New Hampshire towns don't reassess every property every year, so assessments drift away from sale prices between revaluations. The state measures that drift each year with an equalization ratio. In 2025, the DRA put Bow's weighted-mean ratio at 84.2% and Concord's at 61.5%. Put simply, the typical Concord assessment in that study sat at a little over six-tenths of market value, while Bow's sat at a bit more than eight-tenths.

Bow's assessments are closer to market partly because they're more recent. The town's assessing database says its 2024 revaluation is complete, and the one before it was in 2019.

When the DRA converts each town's rate to a full-value basis, the numbers come closer together. Bow drops to $15.86 per $1,000 of market value and Concord to $18.62. On the headline rates, Concord looks about 45% more expensive than Bow. On full-value rates, the difference is closer to 17%.

Here's how that plays out on a home with a $500,000 market value, using the 2025 averages:

• Nominal math, the common mistake: $500,000 ÷ 1,000 × $20.05 in Bow is $10,025, and $500,000 ÷ 1,000 × $29.11 in Concord is $14,555. That's a gap of about $4,500.
• Full-value math: $500,000 ÷ 1,000 × $15.86 in Bow is $7,930, and $500,000 ÷ 1,000 × $18.62 in Concord is $9,310. That's a gap of about $1,380.

Both towns still use averages here. A real tax bill depends on that specific home's assessment, which can sit above or below its town's ratio. So the honest summary is this: Bow's rate advantage is real, and it's worth about a third of what the headline rates suggest.

A third of Bow's history fits on one parcel

Bow's tax picture also has a history that Concord's doesn't. Merrimack Station, the coal-fired plant on the Merrimack River, once generated roughly 70% of Bow's property tax revenue, back when Eversource owned it through Public Service of New Hampshire. A town where one taxpayer covers most of the levy ends up with a low rate for everyone else and a big risk sitting in one place.

That risk showed up in court. As the Concord Monitor recounted in September 2026, a 2018 state Supreme Court ruling found Bow had assessed the plant at $159 million for 2012 and 2013, when it was worth less than $70 million. Bow settled for a $10 million rebate paid over five years and made the final payment in 2024. When the settlement was announced, NHPR reported that Bow expected to forgo about $1.5 million a year from 2020 through 2023, or roughly 11% of its 2018 property tax revenue.

The 2025 DRA table shows how much smaller that concentration has become. Bow's local valuation is $1,809,985,785 without utilities and $1,994,105,469 with them. Utility property, which covers far more than the plant, adds about $184 million to a base close to $2 billion.

The plant closed early, and the tax base had already moved on

Granite Shore Power, the plant's current owner, agreed in 2024 to stop burning coal by June 2028. Instead, it ended commercial operations on September 12, 2025, almost three years early, according to NHPR. Two kerosene-fired generators remain on site.

The closure didn't hit a town that still depended on the plant. In October 2025, Town Manager David Stack told NHPR that Bow had spent about 15 years adapting by changing its zoning and recruiting businesses including DHL and Coastal Forest Products. He said commercial taxes had passed the plant's before it shut down, although the closure came sooner than he'd expected. The Concord Monitor describes the same shift: the plant's share fell as its value dropped, and new commercial development eventually contributed more than the plant did.

So the $20.05 rate a buyer sees today was set after the plant's dominance had already faded. It wasn't propped up by a coal plant on its way out. The DRA finished Bow's 2025 rate on October 24, 2025, about six weeks after commercial operations ended.

Stack also told NHPR that Granite Shore Power hadn't met with town officials about the site's future, and that the town was concerned about the property's valuation without knowing what would replace coal.

What could happen on the river next

The site's future is the one large variable left in Bow's tax picture. Here is how the plans have changed so far:

1. The original plan. The redevelopment idea was a renewable energy park with about 100 megawatts of solar and battery storage. Granite Shore Power's facilities page still describes a 120-megawatt solar and battery project and still lists the 2028 retirement date. Later reporting supersedes both.
2. October 2025. The New Hampshire Bulletin reported that the company was considering "all opportunities" for the site. A later Concord Monitor report said the promised solar project hadn't come to fruition.
3. April 23, 2026. A federal filing shows Granite Shore Power asking Eversource for an interconnection study of a potential 350-megawatt load. The study's estimated cost is $75,000, paid by the customer, and the report is due within 60 days after the study begins. The filing doesn't name a facility type or a location.
4. September 1, 2026. The Concord Monitor reported that a town official had confirmed high-level talks with a company about a data center in Bow. The Monitor called Merrimack Station the most likely site because it already has grid connections and river access for cooling.
5. September 23 and 29, 2026. NHPR covered a town meeting where residents raised concerns and disagreed about whether possible tax relief was worth it. Selectboard Chair Kip McDaniel said no application had been filed. At the September 29 selectboard meeting, he said the town still hadn't heard from Granite Shore Power and had received no application. If one is filed, the planning board will review it.

McDaniel, who serves on both the selectboard and the planning board, described the stakes in tax-base terms:

"In a town with two and a half billion dollars of real estate value, that would be an absolute game changer for our town's tax base."

His $2.5 billion figure matches the DRA's 2025 equalized valuation for Bow including utilities, $2,507,300,674. A large new taxable use would be measured against that whole base. Even so, an interconnection study isn't a land-use permit or an approval, and no application has been filed.

For a buyer weighing Bow against Concord this fall, here's where things stand. Bow's full-value rate is about $2.76 per $1,000 lower than Concord's. That rate was set after the coal plant had stopped running. What happens to the riverfront site could change Bow's numbers in either direction, and as of early October 2026 nothing has been filed that would show which way.

Questions buyers ask about Bow taxes

Did the coal plant closing push Bow's tax rate up? No public figure ties a rate change to the closure. The town manager said commercial tax revenue had already passed the plant's before it shut down in September 2025, and the 2025 rate of $20.05 was set the following month.

Has a data center been approved in Bow? No. As of the September 29, 2026 selectboard meeting, no application had been filed. The April 2026 federal filing asks for a grid study and doesn't name a project type or site.

How do I estimate taxes on a specific Bow home? The usual method is the property's assessed value, from the town's online assessing database, multiplied by the current rate. Bow's 2024 revaluation means those assessments are fairly recent. Multiplying the list price by the nominal rate tends to overstate the bill in either town. Concord's 61.5% ratio means that shortcut overstates the bill there more than in Bow.

Comparing towns on tax rates is one of the easiest places for a buyer to get the wrong answer while doing the math correctly. If you're deciding between Bow and Concord and want help comparing actual assessments on the homes you're considering, Darcy Mantel can go through those numbers with you, property by property. Let's Connect.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.