Where New Hampshire Democrats Pretend They Want to Protect You From Taxes - Granite Grok

Where New Hampshire Democrats Pretend They Want to Protect You From Taxes

taxeslgDemocrats are blaming Gov Sununu for failing to appear at the special session of the legislature. It is their contention that the legislation meant to put a stop gap on other states taxing New Hampshire business after the Wayfair decision could have passed the house had he appeared to support it.

No, it wouldn’t. Here’s why.

The problem with the effort was what ‘leadership’ crammed into the bill and rubber stamped.

“…the language the committee used to draft the proposed legislation could hand some measure of “tax administration rulemaking” over to an out-of-state third party.”

They would have killed it anyway.

So, it must be the Democrat Party position that New Hampshire should craft statutory rules that might make the state beholden to some out-of-state entity? Yes, it is. The Regional Greenhouse Gase Initiative the rammed through state government more than a decade ago gave taxing authority to an out-of-state third party. Powers that were meant to add a charge on estimated emissions’ that translated to rate increases by government fiat which benefitted the government in the form of revenue, without the legislature every having to vote on the changes.

The opportunity for more tax revenue without ever having to stand up and vote for it.

What could be more “Democrat party” than that?

Democrats are, after all, tax advocates not taxpayer advocates.

So, special session legislation including another potential third-party out-of-state enforcer is right up their alley.

VII. “Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement” means the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement as adopted and amended from time to time by the Streamlined Sales Tax Governing Board.

Rules adopted and amended without the consent of the citizens elected legisaltive body. Tax changes made without a vote of their elected representatives. What could be more Democrat Party than that?

How about how unconstitutional it is?

Dan Itse counts the ways it would violate the constitution here and notes that legislators are working on a solution that keeps the levers of control as close to the people as possible.

In the meantime, According to the Union Leader,

Sununu has authorized the state’s attorney general to put the highest priority on efforts to detect scams in which individuals impersonating tax collectors from other states try to extract payment or customer data from New Hampshire merchants or service providers.

The New Hampshire Department of Justice has assigned staff to research what other states or legitimate taxing jurisdictions might be doing to collect sales taxes from New Hampshire businesses.

Any New Hampshire business contacted about sales taxes by someone claiming to be a taxing authority has been asked to call the Department of Justice at 888-468-4454 or 603271-3643.

Democrats are (naturally) critical of this.

“While legislators were meeting in the special session called by Sununu, debating how to best protect New Hampshire businesses, the governor was in Aspen at a partisan event raising money from out-of-state corporations,” said Sen. Dan Feltes, DConcord, deputy minority leader.

“Sununu’s special session ended up being a waste of taxpayer money and his meaningless executive actions don’t protect taxpayers,” he said.

Maybe he should have created a “Blue-Ribbon committee” instead?

I confess that I find it amusing that New Hampshire Democrats are acting like they are the party fighting tax increases while running on a platform of rolling back all the Republican tax cuts at both the state and federal level.

They are not shy about wanting more of your money so you’ve no reason to believe they are sincere in their opposition to Wayfair, which (by the way) is still bouncing around in the courts and remains unresolved. That means that states can’t really tax other state’s business. Not yet.

But it makes for a delightful irony to see the same political party that insists “you didn’t build that” pretending it wants you to keep more of the wealth you didn’t create in New Hampshire. The fact is, they think it all belongs to them and they are just looking for the best way separate you from it and haul it off the Washington DC where it can be laundered properly before they take credit for getting some of it back.

Someone should call the AG’s new staff to let them know that New Hampshire Democrats are running a scam to extract payments from New Hampshire businesses.

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