GSFTC – Granite Grok

The New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Instutite Doesn’t Like CACR 6 or CACR 13

Why would we give a damn what Jeff McLynch–Executive Director of the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute–thinks about Republican efforts to push CACR 6 and CACR 13? It’s a great question.

CACR 6 is a constitutional amendment that would require a 3/5 vote of the legislature to pass any new taxes. CACR 13 would change the state constitution to prohibit a personal income tax.

Jeff McLynch is “concerned, but Jeff McLynch is a Democrat, the former State Policy Director at the Soros/left wing funded Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP)–which pushed for an income tax in the Granite state (see also here), and Jeff is also an avid Obama supporter.

The New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute he runs is the New Hampshire chapter of the State Fiscal Analysis Initiative, which is a state by state project of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP). CBPP is a left wing group that promotes the Democrat parties social and economic justice agenda through budget based think tanks and policy organizations with support from the cranky Progressives over at the Bookings Institute and deep pocketed left wing foundations like Ford, Rockefeller and George Soros’ Open Society Institute. So Jeff isn’t working too far out of his known circle of “friends.”

So if you have not yet connected the dots, NHFPI looks all smart and sophisticated but it is really just another socialist/Democrat front group, using the cover of a welfare-state based (we’re the ones who really care) tax-and-spend-budget policy agenda (Social and Economic Justice) to advocate for the progressive creep of bigger government and the higher and broader revenue streams needed to fund it.

Why Has The Granite State Fair Tax Coalition Changed Its Name?

by Steve MacDonald

GSFTC has a new name- Granite State Prioroites- I mean Pick Pockets Exposing the Granite State Fair Tax Coalition (GSFTC) as just another left wing front group for Christian Socialism and the Democrat party tax and spend agenda was easy. (Here, here, here, here, here, maybe here, here as well, and don’t forget here.)

But will it be any easier to unmask their newest facade? That’s right, the GSFTC is dead but not gone. It has been replaced by the exact same organization, all the same Liberal/Progressive players, but with a shiny new name. GSFTC is now Granite State Priorities (GSP).

How do I summarize this transition in a nut shell? Same old whore, new dress.

Left Wing “Fair Tax” In Trouble?

by Steve MacDonald

It is no secret that the Granite State Fair Tax Coalitions (GSFTC) is a hive of left wing Democrat tax and spend socialists trying to hide behind a so-called bi-partisan front group. It is run by leftists (here and here), colludes with leftists, and seeks to advance Democrat party tax policy under the false notion that our current system of taxation in New Hampshire is some how not fair.

But the evidence continues to confound their false narratives.

Despite the GSFTCs misrepresentation of facts and the spinning of data to mislead, whatever our tax system is in New Hampshire, it continues to provide a better quality of opportunity than any other state in the Nation. The US census reports that New Hampshire has the lowest poverty rate in the country.

Well how the hell did that happen? I thought things were so unfair here? How could our "unfair" tax system still allow for the best economic environment for people to thrive in? And in this lousy economy to boot? We have the lowest poverty, one of the highest standards of living, and one of the safest to live in as well. Could it be because our current system also provides one of the lowest overall tax burdens in the country as well? Can we argue that low overall tax burden–the result of our so-called "unfair" system of taxation, is somehow more effective at keeping people above the poverty line than any other state in the country?

Hell yeah.

Do Students Like Re-Distribution or Not?

by Steve MacDonald

In what may well be the best independent video I have seen in a while, some savvy college students ask their peers (typical tax the rich types) if they would sign a petition. The plan? Redistribute GPA points from the high achievers so that other students can use them to pass classes they are doing poorly in.

GSFTC Member Organization Spotlight -NH Citizens Alliance

by Steve MacDonald

There are a number of groups that the Left wing Granite State ‘Fare’ Tax Coalition highlights on it’s web site. It’s your typical collection of "non-non-partisan" interests like the State Employes Union of NH (That’s the local SEIU 1984). The AFSC-which is the NH Chapter of a global leftist movement supported by all the nicest left wing foundations. The League of Women Voters of course. And there is even a who’s-who of left wing, NH social justice churches and their political arms, all promoting socialist activism and statist policy from the pulpit down to on the ground left wing activism.

All of these groups warrant, and will receive, a proper vetting, but today I would like to focus on a special cog in the leftist machine of the so-called non-partisan GSFTC, one that happens to be very active in New Hampshire on its own; the NHCA. The NHCA is the New Hampshire Citizens Alliance. (You may remember their executive director, Sarah Chaisson Warner? She received some unwanted attention after some remarks she made back in March of 2010. See also Here from the NHTPC.) The New Hampshire citizens alliance is…(drum-roll please)

…a statewide nonprofit, nonpartisan organization devoted to social, economic, and political justice.

A Non-partisan organization devoted to social, economic, and political justice? Too bad that’s just not possible. There are no right wing groups seeking these ethereal ends. These are buzz-words, Orwellian constructs, created by statist agenda-driven socialists to mislead people. So the NHCA couldn’t be "non-partisan" if they tried. But you don’t have to take my word for it. Just look at who they associate with and what they support.

The Very Partisan Granite State Fair Tax Coalition Part II

by Steve MacDonald

GSFTDNC%202.jpg The Granite State Fair Tax Coalition (GSFTC–Greedy Socialists Frisking TaxPayers Cash) is a partisan non-profit, which for years has insisted it is a non-partisan group advocating an income tax in New Hampshire. But the GSFTC is non-partisan the way MSNBC is. They use the dark side equivalent of the Jedi mind trick. ‘The force can have a strong influence on the weak minded.” And while there is nothing wrong with being a left wing partisan group, started by a social-justice driven religious organization, to advocate for a top down income tax, there is something wrong with acting like this is a non-partisan effort.

Our first look at the partisan make up of the GSFTC (God Says Fleece Taxpayers for Christ) was a rundown of their advisory board. This revealed a panel of progressive and left wing water-carriers, who provide cover and material support for a specific leftist agenda: a state income tax. They are democrats and democrat supporters, willing to use class warfare and a faux-morality-cum-guilt complex media campaign, to advocate for that state income tax. Fish swim, birds fly, democrats spend and so must tax. To insist they are non-partisan suggests a mental state that is non compos mentis. Or to be a bit more colloquial; They are just a bunch of typical leftists.

Bar Stool Economics

by Steve MacDonald

Left wing tax policy and the class warfare rhetoric they use to advance it crumbles in the face of even the most simplistic analysis. Take the left wing war on the wealthy. They argue that the rich do not pay their fair share even though the rich pay most of the taxes. Here in New Hampshire the Mark Fernald wing of the democrat party apes this ridiculous technique on the matter of New Hampshire property taxes, a notion upon which the social justice mavens and the Granite State "Fair Tax" Coalition are meant to agitate. But neither claim holds water and this cross post from CNHT explains why.

Bar Stool Economics

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100 and If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.

The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that’s what they decided to do.

The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve.

Is The Granite State Fair Tax Coalition Just Another Left Wing Front Group?

by Steve MacDonald

The Granite State Fair Tax Coalition claims to be a non-partisan, non-profit group whose mission is to convince the people of New Hampshire that we need a broad based income tax.

What that works out to is using percentages and formulas with a focus on deception, misdirection, and Alinsky-like class warfare rhetoric, to corral (see also ‘Guilt’) enough support to dismantle a system that for years has made the state of New Hampshire one of the best places to live and work in the nation; for quality of life, low overall tax burden, health, safety, low crime rates, job opportunity and freedom.

You might ask yourself why someone would start a non-profit to mess with that kind of success? What kind of crank sees a state ranking on top in almost every category and decides, let’s mess that up? The answer? Democrats and social justice junkies who can’t advance a a massive and nearly irreversible spending agenda without a broad based tax.

So to get to Moscow on the Merrimack the partisan, left leaning, New Hampshire Council of Churches formed what is now known as the Granite State Fair Tax Coalition (GSFTC). It is run to this day by social justice-activist clergy and radical leftists and progressives ‘attracted to the idea’ of pretending an income tax would not ruin the New Hampshire Advantage.

Of course the only people it “attracted” were tax and spenders.

There is not one person on their staff, their advisory board, or leading their list of affiliated groups that is not either a democrat, working for the democrat social-justice agenda, or who is not a large dollar donor to democrat candidates or causes. How you can possibly claim to be ‘non-partisan’ under these circumstances defies belief, yet they continue to make that claim and it is time to call them out on it.

My mission here, and in posts to follow, is to show you who runs this scam so that you can grasp what their real motivations are. To grow the size and reach of government by defining ‘fair’ to mean more taxes and more spending on the radical left wing agenda.

Part I The GSFTC advisory Board: “More Progressives than you can shake a stick at.”

Words Are Not Necessary

by Steve MacDonald

The Right To Your Money: Nothing ‘Fair’ About It.

by Steve MacDonald

Tax Dollar Black Hole The Granite State Fair Tax Coalition, discovering that it’s "percentage of income model" argument against property taxes really applies to all things, and that lower income people pay a higher percentage of their income on everything, (a problem resolved through hard work and perseverance to which we apparently do not have a right) has announced that it is looking for a way to make "Rich Bastards^TM" pay more for everything.

One example?

How about Marriage. Now that we’ve determined that Marriage is a civil right, (unless you are too young, too closely related, are already married, to uncivil to be or stay married, or want to remain single) why does a decent wedding (or any wedding) have to cost low income workers as much as 100% of their annual income while "Rich Bastards^TM" only have to pay 25% to as little as 2% of theirs? The answer is of course a Statewide wedding tax on higher income wage earners to subsidize the constitutionally protected right of marriage–because you can’t help who you fall in love with.

The plan could create a State Bureau of Weddings and Funerals, staffed by at least a dozen bureaucrats, (with taxpayer supported wages, benefits, pensions, office space, paid vacations, supplies, and protest signs that actually come with sick notes attached; for days when they need to go the State House and make demands of the taxpayers elected-officials on matters of workers rights etc,). These fine individuals would be charged with handling questions and processing the paperwork and fees related to the weddings and funerals tax placed upon job creators, and the Rich Bastard population in general, (“Rich” to be defined by the collectors of the tax based on their perception of revenue needed) for the distribution of said revenues to those less fortunate seeking lavish weddings that have nothing to do with love, everything to do with impressing people whom you never see, and who are really just there for the free meal, and with any luck, an open bar.

One potential issue to the new Bureau’s mandate, however, is the rights of single people who would not benefit from the tax, or maybe this is just a rhetorical device on my part to segue into my next sarcastic rant.

A Silber In The Minds Eye

by Steve MacDonald

So in the face of this economic catastrophe, which the democrats happily sold as a disaster not unlike a Biblical plague, what did NH Democrats do? They decided that despite that we were going to take in 23% more revenue than we did when times were “good” and went on a grow government spending spree. You could call that a revenue problem, but I think it is really more of a democrats are selfish, ideological, tax and spend A-holes problem.

Taking All The ‘Air’ Out Of “Fair”

by Steve MacDonald

The Nashua Telegraph spent most of the election season giving up huge chunks of their Sunday commentary page to the mouth-pieces of special interests promoting left wing causes like health care deform, so why stop now that the election has passed? This week we get the implausible assumptions of Cathy Silber, the coordinator of the Granite State Fair Tax Coalition (GSFTC), who upon seeing the blood in the water on November 3rd, has attempted a preemptive strike for her pet special interest project–an income tax for New Hampshire.

Silber has been fighting "The Pledge," an oath signed by Granite State candidates who promise to vote against any sales or income tax should they meet that big bad wolf tax on the way to Grandmothers house, or anywhere else. So Silber is the "Anti-pledger," plying class warfare rhetoric dressed as "fairness" in her quest to drag New Hampshire down the broad based tax rabbit hole, with the lie that it would take pressure off property taxes and create a more fair redistribution of wealth…oops I mean a more fair distribution of the tax burden. Wait. I had it right the first time.

What, you don’t think GSFTC is seeking the redistribution of wealth?

Take a look at who is in the "fair tax" coalition. Union heavyweights; the NEA-NH, SEIU-1984(NH), and the NH State Employees Association, our state government employees union. Who else? How about a slew of social justice groups like the Unitarian Universalist’s and the NH Council of Churches, anti gun, pro-global warming, supporting redistribution of wealth, all left wing causes aided in their minds by a new broad based tax.

Takes all the ‘Air’ out of Fair, don’t you think?

What Tax is Fair?

by Steve MacDonald

The Granite State Fair Tax folks are back trolling for a broad based tax on the idea that it is more fair? Fair to whom? That’s always the question but it never tries to address why we need a tax, and why we need to control how much of it the government can collect, or how easily they can grow it.

And back in May of 2010 I once again tried to make the case for property taxes as better way to control the flow of revenue into the government. It may or may not be my most persuasive but it is my most recent.

May 25 2010 ‘Why Property Taxes’

I have argued at great length on why relying primarily on local property taxes is the best mechanism for keeping government small. But no matter how often I bring it up someone always tries to make the point that it’s not fair. Why should the people who actually own the physical land in the state have to bear the burden of the costs associated with the governance of that land and the people who live on it? (That’s not exactly how they say it, I’m just translating it into common sense.)

I happen to think that question answers itself, and as I’ve stated before should act as a necessary mechanism for filtering out unnecessary spending and over aggressive revenue seeking by busy bodies at every level of government. Yet I am still confronted with the issue of New Hampshire’s unfair property tax burden–to which I now respond, what burden?