Fees Archives - Granite Grok

Recourse Against Local Tyrants?

May 8, 2025 Norm Silber

At a recent celebration of the Pine Tree Riot in Weare, some of the chat turned to the question of what recourse does a citizen have when government actors (“officials”??) infringe on a person’s constitutional rights based upon a claim of a violation of a statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage. While this writer has … Read more

Legal Wrangle Over NYC’s Congestion Pricing Comes to a Head

March 27, 2025 John Klar

The court will settle the tussle between the New York governor and Trump. New York City has been torn apart by a protracted legal wrangle between President Donald Trump and New York Democrats over congestion pricing. Underlying the conflict is a tussle between equity and tax revenue, pitting progressive initiatives against the working class. The … Read more

The Bloated Cost of Car Registration Renewal

August 14, 2024 Julie Smith

I am interested in knowing more about some money trails related to the cost of renewing my New Hampshire vehicle registration. With the price of a stamp jacked up a few cents last month, I’d like to know the costs compared to the current online processing fee they push (should a local vehicle owner want to … Read more

Victoria Sullivan’s Plan for a Fiscally Responsible Manchester

July 8, 2021 Op-Ed

Manchester, NH – Former N.H. House Assistant Majority Leader and Manchester Mayoral Candidate, Victoria Sullivan, issued the following statement on formally announcing her fiscal responsibility plan for the Queen City:

Mayor and Aldermen Plan to Kick Nashua Taxpayer’s While They are Down

December 9, 2020December 8, 2020 Laura Colquhoun

Once again, the mayor and the Board of Aldermen are going to kick Nashua taxpayer while they are down. Tonight at 6:30 PM, there is a special meeting to address a double-digit increase on all sewer use fees over the next two years.

Waste-to-energy is the solution to the trash problem

December 6, 2019December 6, 2019 Doug

Regarding the recycling center in Gilford, this whole project has been a boondoggle of the highest degree. As the entire recycling industry crashes and burns, Gilford dives in headfirst … to an EMPTY pool. Once again, government is a day late and a dollar short in providing a “solution” to a “problem” that doesn’t exist, … Read more

So kids, what did we learn from Wednesday’s House Session (5/8/19)?

May 16, 2019May 16, 2019 Judy Aron

For one thing, we learned that the Canadian Consul General lacks any kind of manners since he came to OUR House and criticized our President’s trade policies in his speech to the House. I mean really…. do you go to someone’s house and complain about how things are run at their house? No, you don’t. … Read more

So kids, what did we learn from today’s House Session (5/2)?

May 2, 2019 Judy Aron

We learned that there will be no shortage of study committees during this biennium! The House passed yet another study bill. This one (SB139) will study options for lowering student debt and this comes on the heels of the House Finance Committee rejecting the Governor’s Budget which included a program to (wait for … Read more

Merrimack’s Democrat Reps Never Missed an Opportunity To Vote The Wrong Way

April 21, 2019 Steve MacDonald

In 2018 Merrimack tried something new. We allowed four Democrats to go to Concord. Which is to say we didn’t turn out in adequate numbers to prevent it. Sometimes “trying new things” is unintentional. I assure you the Democrat’s destruction to our state economy and our rights is deliberate.

Blood and Water – The Return of Democrat Rule in New Hampshire

September 26, 2018November 29, 2012 Steve MacDonald

Skip broke the news (on the Grok) about New Hampshire State Government’s department heads making budget requests that would increase state spending by 26% in 2013. If you had any delusions about who or what state agencies represent, you just got your answer.

It ain’t you. It’s them.

In the current economy, with no regard for whose money they are spending, incoming governor Maggie Hassan would have to raise taxes and fees by at least 19% to fill all the requests. AFP-NH estimates that this would extract around 700 million dollars from the people of New Hampshire to pay for new spending that would never go away. So that’s 700 million from every budget henceforth and anon, plus new new spending each budget there after….these are Democrats if you recall, there is no enough when it comes to spending your money.

And that $700, 000,000.00 (million) is ironically close to another sum we readily associate with New Hampshire Democrats.

Obama Couldn’t Run A Lemonade Stand (Nor could a NH Democrat) And Here’s Why?

September 26, 2018October 9, 2012 Steve MacDonald

When the economy got rough my employer had to cut back staffing. By the time they were done we had dropped about 70% of our staff, down to the bare minimum needed to operate each department. We kept the best people and asked them to do a lot more for the same money, and sometimes less. We went to smaller quarters. We re-thought everything. We looked for fat and cut it. We analyzed how we did things when we were busy and a bit lazy and got into shape.

As it turns out, there were better, faster, and more efficient ways to get the same things done with fewer people, while spending less money. We needed to do that, we did it, and we are surviving. And if ever it comes time to grow again, then we’ll expand with more care and efficiency than before.

If we apply the way Democrats approach Government to business (our lemonade stand) it is the exact opposite.

Remembering Democrat Rule – No Taxes Means More Taxes

February 6, 2025September 15, 2012 Steve MacDonald

In 2007 New Hampshire Democrats assumed complete control of state government. And much like the Democrat rhetoric in the current 2012 campaign, back in 2007, their first budget, New Hampshire’s first budget over 10 billion dollars, was billed by the Democrats as a budget that “addresses our state’s priorities without new taxes.” Addresses our ‘State’s’ … Read more

GrokTV Special Interview-NH State Senator Andy Sanborn (District 9) – Question 4: Administrative based taxes: have all taxes, fees, and fines set by the Legislature?

September 26, 2018July 28, 2012 Skip

Increasingly, we see NH State Agencies setting their own level of taxation (fees, fines, et al) outside of authorization of the Legislature. It is the Executive Branch to self-fund and making itself independent of the taxation authority of the Legislature. And of course, it goes without saying that while Legislators are accountable to the voters, … Read more

Sullivan’s New Hampshire

September 26, 2018January 18, 2011 Steve MacDonald

Sullivan's NH -Burning down the house The ‘Su’ in Suckly, Kathy Lawsuit’ Sullivan, has a regular editorial in the Union Leader. I have no idea why but after reading it and taking a shower to get the brimstone smell off of me, I have to make an arbitrary decision as to whether I should comment. Normally I do not. Her template is the recipe for left wing baby formula and so unoriginal I could probably find it in every other paper in the country with the word New Hampshire replaced with (insert name of your state here.) But this time she closed her ditty with the words…"They are about to destroy the New Hampshire we love."

This is red meat-bait for right wing carnivores. It begs the obvious question, ‘"what New Hampshire do they love," they being Sullivan and the far left democrats, and history has been kind enough to provide us with an answer.