In keeping with my taxing things theme, this might be a good time to remind everyone, especially Republicans in the NH Legislature, that those among them who supported HB1002 (The public documents tax) can no longer argue for government transparency or accountability. They voted that right away.
And should it become law, you can no longer say, “When you tax something, you get less of it,” because that is true.
When the government attaches burdens in the form of fines, fees, or costs (a tax), you will get less of it. HB1002 allows municipalities to charge citizens for access to public documents. Citizen access to public documents is a legislative check on local executive power. The people are the legislature, and the select board, council, town manager, or mayor are the executive.
Given the power, The Executive will charge for access. In some cases, they will make sure there is a charge. In many cases, it will be prohibitive. In all cases, you will get less transparency and accountability.
You taxed it and will get less of it. If this were physics, it would be an immutable law, like how people most inclined to abuse power are drawn to it – the way pedophiles look for ways to be near children.
You can hide behind the notion that this was a necessary change to address the costs of complying with the right-to-know law, but what it does is make the entire process more complicated and labor intensive, and in the end, citizens looking to hold the government accountable will pay, either through their wallets or the decreases in accountability.
