Alternate Title: So, what’s the difference between “bailouts” for forestry and “bailouts” for Government schools? None – they both raise taxes and benefit only a few.
Related: NH Democrats reluctantly stop salivating – NH Businesses will NOT see a tax hike this year;
Sheesh. Just sheesh. Sorry, Tom Thomson of “Axe the Tax” fame and son of “Low spending results in low taxes” late NH Gov. Meldrim Thomson, you can’t have it both ways. You can’t rank on Arnie Arnesen’s Op-Ed in the UL:
Tom Thomson: ‘The Pledge’ can’t be scrapped, take it or don’t
In her column, Arnesen says, “What better time than now to question New Hampshire’s political shackle known as ‘The Pledge’? The 50-year-old tax pledge, concocted by two reactionary conservatives, represents the ‘for me, not you’ mentality that prohibits healthy and constructive growth.”
Arnie must have missed all the great news of the recent record-breaking growth and prosperity, with an all-time record of those employed, under Gov. Chris Sununu and President Donald Trump just before the coronavirus hit our economy.The only reason I’m responding to this article is that she is calling out my late father, former Governor Meldrim Thomson, who served New Hampshire for three terms from 1973 to 1979 and is not here to defend himself; and I know he would have done a much better job than I.
Sidenote: I beat you to it “Arnie Arnison – Life’s a mess so give Governments more of your money“)
…and still be guilty of advocating for getting Government money for yourself and your cronies in the Forestry industry up north:
Hey, Tom “Axe the Tax” Thomson – No one OWES You a Living!
I know I’ve blogged about the biomass bill, HB183, several times in the past. The bill in which Government would dictate that we pay higher electric rates to subsidize a marketplace engaged in Crony Capitalism to sustain itself. Higher rates for us shoveled off to another “protected class” – the biomass generating companies and the forest “companies” supplying them with low-grade wood products.
…Now, Thomson and others say Wednesday’s veto result could be the final blow for major parts of the industry. Facing difficulty competing with lowered prices from natural gas and out-of-state energy alternatives four out of six of the biomass plants are already in effective shutdown status, according to industry representatives. Beyond the biomass plants themselves, the low grade wood that fueled them, and the industry that harvests that wood, will all be affected, according to Thomson.
And to have gotten that bailout, a lot of State spending out have to have happened. Yet, that’s that Tom Thomson was advocating for – an entire industry simply because market conditions and market changes made them obsolete – wood chips can’t beat natural gas. I’ll repeat it again – no one offered MY marketplace a bailout when the computer industry changed when the PC and workstation-class of machines started to wipe out the mini-computer manufacturers (and then PCs wiped out the workstation-class manufacturers).
Such a hypocrite. For years he advocated for low taxes/low spending but when HIS industry started to go belly up, out went the hands “Government, spend your money to SAVE US!”.
Sidenote: while I believe that the money being spent on Wu Flu bailouts is gonna bite us in the end, one could say that it was “Government, you broke it, now you have pay for it”. No market forces in play – Government took full control of EVERYTHING and just broke it. Your mileage will vary on a discussion.
So, I’ll wait for Thomson to square his circle of flip-flopping on Government spending. I won’t hold my breath, though.
