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Taxes

A Little Good News, Some Mixed News But Even More Bad News in Concord

Guest Post by State Senator Jeb Bradley 

The recent release of New Hampshire’s revenue receipts simultaneously offers glimmers of hope while raising even more concerns about the State Budget enacted in June.

First the good news: The “Rainy Day Fund” which is the State’s hedge against economic downturns ended the fiscal year with $56 million more of a cushion than anticipated. Governor Lynch froze new hiring, deferred equipment purchases, and curtailed out of state travel to produce these savings. 

Despite the fact that Governor Lynch and Democratic Legislators approved an overall spending increase in 2007 of 11.17% and in 2009 of 10.48%, the Governor’s executive orders curbed the worst excesses of the Legislature’s spending blitz that has increased expenditures from $9.36 billion to $11.5 billion during that time.

This $56 million in the Rainy Day Fund will be a critical one-time buffer if the State loses its NH Supreme Court appeal of the JUA (Joint Underwriting Association) lawsuit. This lawsuit comes from a budget provision attempting to simply “take” $110 million from a fund designed to keep a lid on physician’s medical liability insurance costs. The State’s attempted money grab has already been ruled in violation of both the State and Federal Constitutions by the Superior Court.

The mixed news is that business tax revenues were only 4% lower than expectations. While it is preposterous to call any shortfall good news, in comparison to last year’s business tax receipts that were off by 25%, being 4% below expectations is a slim glimmer of hope. However, it’s also a warning that if the trend continues the State will face a nasty budget deficit.

Despite the good and the mixed news, NH is far from out of the budget woe woods as the bad news dwarfs the good. Other revenue sources are badly underperforming, despite many taxes being increased in the budget. Receipts from the rooms and meals tax, communication tax, and real estate tax are all down by about 9%. The interest and dividend tax is down a whopping 25%. Even tobacco taxes are down slightly.  In the three months since the budget was enacted revenues are down a total of $26 million or 6.4%. Should this trend continue the deficit will only grow.

Now that the state employees union has rejected the proposed contract that would have implemented 19 furlough days, Governor Lynch must begin a series of layoffs to save a mandated $25 million. Whether he will run into roadblocks if the union files a grievance for each position eliminated or political roadblocks from his allies in the Legislature – these savings may be questionable. 

So with all these budget monkey wrenches, it is certainly understandable that its authors are quick to claim that the national economy is to blame and that revenues are likely to rebound when the economy turns around. But that is a cavalier attitude based on wishful thinking rather than rational evidence.

 

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The Road to an Income Tax in NH

Guest Post by Rep. David Hess Years from now if the citizens of New Hampshire are seeing income taxes taken out of their paychecks, they will be able look back to the week of October 19, 2009 in “tax history” as the turning point—a time when the foundation for a broad based tax was laid.  … Read more

Obama’s great middle class betrayal: It’s the taxes, stupid!

 Obama taxes middle class

Guest Post by Howard Rich 

As much as the Beltway chattering class refuses to admit it, Barack Obama’s electoral victory last year had nothing to do with his oft-repeated, generic pledge to bring “hope and change” to Washington, D.C. Sure it sounded good at the time, but Americans have always voted based on their wallets and pocketbooks – not lofty-sounding campaign promises or rhetorical flourishes.

The real key to Obama’s victory a year ago – indeed his “signature” issue – was his promise not to raise taxes on the middle class.

“You will not see any of your taxes increase one single dime,” Obama promised tens of millions of Americans making $250,000 or less. In fact, candidate Obama promised the middle class billions of dollars in tax cuts, part of his whole “spread the wealth around” plan.

“If you’re a family that’s making $250,000 a year or less, you will see no increase in your taxes,” Obama promised. “Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your personal gains tax, not any of your taxes.”

Never mind the fact that Obama’s plan would have hit income and payroll providers especially hard, rendering “middle class tax relief” irrelevant to the millions of workers heading toward already-crowded unemployment lines.

No matter how you look at it, though, what a difference a year makes.

 

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Report: Democrat Health Plan to Cost NH Businesses Hundreds of Millions

  STEWARD STUDY: HEALTH CARE OVERHAUL PLANS INCLUDE HIDDEN COSTS FOR NEW HAMPSHIRE’S BUSINESS COMMUNITY Economists’ Report Tells Granite State Businesses to Brace for Hundreds of Millions in New Taxes CONCORD, NH – New Hampshire businesses would have to pay as much as $229 million to comply with Democrat plans to overhaul America’s health care … Read more

Outside Interests Interfering in Manchester Tax Cap Process

So says Andy Demers:  MANCHESTER, N.H. – New Hampshire Citizens for Sensible Legislation today strongly condemned the actions of the progressive group Keep Manchester Moving and its spokeswoman Zandra Rice Hawkins, who is tryingevery political trick in the book to thwart the will of the people in Manchester. Leading up to the November 2008 election, … Read more

A warning to New Hampshire

  Just in from Paul Jacobs, who notes in the latest edition of Common Sense: Connecticut used to be one of the go-to places for escaping state income taxes. But in 1991, Governor Lowell Weicker hatched the novel idea of burdening Connecticut residents with the same direct tax on income with which Americans have been saddled … Read more

Add a new book to the shelf…

Leslie Carbone’s book, Slaying Leviathan: The Moral Case for Tax Reform has just been released. In Slaying Leviathan, Carbone argues that since the early twentieth century, U.S. tax policy has been designed to mitigate the natural economic results of both virtue and vice. When the government disrupts the natural order through taxation by creating incentives … Read more

Denial. Isn’t that a river in Egypt?

  NH Dems "attacking" budget woes with great vigor… The NHGOP rightfully pans the great "leadership" we are witnessing by Gov Do-Nuthin’ Lynch and his fellow majority Democrats: CONCORD – Six days after a Superior Court ruling blocked the attempted theft of $110 million from the New Hampshire Medical Malpractice Joint Underwriting Association (JUA), Governor John … Read more

Lynch’s Waterloo?

  Has Gov Do-Nuthin Lynch finally met his Waterloo? This presser from the NHGOP reports on the rock and a hard place in which the NH Governor presently finds himself… CONCORD – One day after a Superior Court ruling blocked his attempt to steal $110 million from the New Hampshire Medical Malpractice Joint Underwriting Association … Read more

As Franklin overrides cap, Manchester can’t even vote on one…

From the office of Manchester Mayor Frank Guinta: Mayor Guinta decries yet another effort by Aldermen to subvert the will of the people MANCHESTER (July 8, 2009) – Mayor Frank Guinta blasted members of the Board of Aldermen for “yet another effort to subvert the will of the people” with their vote to send the … Read more

Studying the NH Budget: “A Rising Tide of Taxes and Fees”

(Concord) According to a report released today by the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy, the legislature has so far passed 38 tax and fee increases costing $318 million. The number of tax and fee increases has risen dramatically in recent years from a low of nine increases in 2003-04. The report, "A Rising Tide … Read more

ATTENTION! Message of “change” ends up meaning what it always has: Government knows best

Fred Tausch

Guest post by Fred Tausch

“We must push to bring fiscal responsibility to Washington”

LIKE MOST Americans, I’ve always believed hard work, self-reliance and integrity are all you need to succeed in America. We don’t believe government owes us a living, just the opportunity to succeed or fail by our own initiative, hard work and talent.
 
We want a government that shares our convictions; that does its work, not ours, and does it competently; that manages its budget as responsibly as we manage our own budgets; a government that doesn’t play favorites or use our money to reward the failures of others; a government that earns our trust by trusting us and leveling with us about the cost and performance of its programs.

All we ever seem to get, though, is a government that increases its own prerogatives and power rather than the liberties and opportunities of the people it serves; a government with little accountability and less transparency; a government that tries to do things it was not intended to do and has no idea how to do. And many of the things it must do, it does not do well.

The Republican Party is the party of fiscal discipline, the party that trusted Americans to make their own decisions about how to use their money to build their dreams.  But, when Republican leaders lost their way, they lost me. I voted for George Bush in 2000 because I believed he would be a careful steward of our prosperity. Instead, he and Republicans in Congress turned a budget surplus into a huge deficit. They cut taxes but didn’t make the spending cuts necessary for the government to live within its means. They spent record sums on a bailout of the financial industry that I knew from the outset would be an expensive failure, without giving us any clear idea what the money could be used for and how it would be paid back.

Barack Obama promised to change that, and I hoped he would. He promised to put government on a budget that didn’t exceed its revenues, to be as careful with our money as we are and to take the best ideas from both parties and offer new solutions to the challenges of our time. But as soon as the applause at his inauguration subsided, he began to break his promises.

 

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GOP members of the NH House ready budget cuts

not going to listen

Dems taking GOP input?

At a press conference held yesterday, Minority Leader Sherm Packard, along with a large group of fellow NH House Republicans, released the following document outlining a proposed series of budget cuts totalling $181.9 million that they will introduce should the budget fail to pass today.

“House Republicans Offer Cost-Saving Budget Alternatives”

Concord-House Republican Leader Sherm Packard (Londonderry) stood with HB 1 & HB 2 Republican House Conferees today to discuss the impending budget vote and to propose  several alternatives.

“Representatives Kurk and Scamman offered several spending reductions in the conference committee budget, some were accepted and most were ignored,” stated Packard.  “The fact of the matter is that budgets across the country have seen an average 2% decrease in their state spending and the Democrat majority in Concord has increased state spending by an unconscionable 7.7%.”

“Republicans were not fully involved in this budget process and while a suggestion or two may have been accepted, there are no significant and meaningful cuts in state spending which would defer the need for the additional taxes and fees that Democrats added in the last hours of conference,” added Republican Conferee Representative Neal Kurk (Weare).

No less than a dozen fees were increased, in some cases doubled, with the implementation of several tax plans including tightening belts for LLCs, increasing the Rooms & Meals tax, increasing the tobacco tax for the fourth time in five years and adding a new tax on gambling winnings.

“I am disappointed by these tax and fee increases,” said Republican Conferee Alternate, Rep. Doug Scamman (Stratham).  “We hurt businesses and we hurt the cities and towns of our state.  This is not the New Hampshire way.”

Republicans will be offering a continuing resolution to keep state government going at a fiscally responsible level, should the massive spending and taxing increases contained in House Bills 1 & 2 fail to pass the House in session on June 24 and call on all their colleagues to support this plan. 

 Here are the specific proposed cuts:

 

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Franklin City Council takes first step towards Tax Cap override!

GraniteGrok has learned that a "sense of the council" resolution– a test vote on the budget– taken during last night’s Franklin City Council meeting that would bring new taxes in excess of what that city’s Tax Cap would allow, has passed. According to a message posted on Facebook by Franklin Mayor Ken Merrifield, the council overrode … Read more

Taush’s STEWARD: From mail to radio to TV.

Leaving no media aside, Fred Tausch’s STEWARD of Prosperity fiscal restraint message machine now hits the TV airwaves. If there was anybody left in the state of New Hampshire that HASN’T heard the anti-stimulus, anti-spending, pro-transparency, anti-Obamanomic perspective being delivered with the cold hard economic facts and reasoning combined with a somewhat biting sense of … Read more

Wednesday June 24. The BIG day for NH. IT’S THE SPENDING, STUPID!!!!

Our friends at CPR Action remind us that this week is an important one down in Concord. After all the lengthy debate and careful consideration, arm twisting and deal making… oh, wait, that’s the gay marriage process. Never mind. The big news is that this week the NH House and Senate will make final votes … Read more

“New Taxes Galore”

house of cards

Balanced Budget… Or House of Cards?

Guest post by State Senator Jeb Bradley

After two marathon weeks of discussions between House and Senate members charged with negotiating a budget, early Friday morning a package emerged.  Its fate is uncertain as the full House and Senate must pass it before it reaches Governor Lynch for signature. Counting votes before the June 24th Session will be almost as daunting as reaching this compromise — anything can and may well happen.

Let’s first focus on what is in this package and what is not, then on the impact it will have on people and businesses, and lastly how this budget will affect New Hampshire’s future.

Like any compromise, this budget is a mixed bag of good news and bad news.  Several very controversial new taxes and tax hikes that had previously been approved by either the House or Senate, were dropped. These include the capital gains tax, death tax, gas tax, insurance premium tax, and a specific increase in business taxes by loss of a tax credit. All of these taxes would have directly undermined New Hampshire’s ability to attract businesses, investors, or visitors to our state. Also dropped from the final package were expanded gambling and a controversial plan to use toll revenue for highway improvements all over the state. Several taxes rumored for late consideration never made the final package including an entertainment tax and a tax on mortgage re-financing.

There are new taxes galore however.  The tobacco tax will go up by 45 cents — the fourth hike in five years.  Non-smokers may generally be callous to the impact this tax has, but smokers, especially low income people, justifiably believe they are carrying far more than their fair share of the tax burden.  This increase will also undermine the cross border advantage New Hampshire has long enjoyed – attracting visitors to purchase tobacco products here and fill our revenue coffers. Convenience stores near the borders will be impacted, and meeting our revenue goals with this tax hike is questionable.

Any gambling winnings will be taxed at 10% including those garnered outside of New Hampshire. Will we be sending auditors to Foxwoods and Las Vegas — or charitable events in New Hampshire — to guarantee tax collection?  Under those circumstances, is the $14 million of anticipated revenue farfetched?

 

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Recovery from the disaster in Concord IS possible, but it depends on good people getting active.

lifeline

 

Disaster in Concord

Guest post by Karen Testerman

NH’s General Court is proposing to tax anything that is moving or breathing.  However, you the taxpayer know their focus is misdirected.  The whole of the current administration is looking at the symptoms, what they term, "a lack of revenue."

However, the current economic disaster with a growing $150 million deficit is in reality a SPENDING problem. 

It is a sad commentary that the Governor continues to speak out of both sides of his mouth.  On the one hand he told the residents of this great state that we are facing a budget deficit and he would not approve further spending.  Oh, by the way that was several months ago while the corner office worked with both houses to make social reconstruction the number one issue in our state. 

Taking advantage of a self-created "crisis" to re-engineer the foundational institution of society to divert your attention, while the General Court passed spending measure after spending measure to create the current $150 million disaster.  One wonders what underlying activities are taking place while the attention is now focused on the self created "spending spree" crisis.

And now, to address the created budget deficit, the Governor and both houses are proposing tax increase after tax increase and other potential ONE TIME revenue resources like gambling to make up the difference.

However, any of you who sits at the kitchen table knows that if there isn’t enough coming in (revenue) then some how the spending (proposed budget) must be reduced.

 

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NH Democrats propose “fun tax”

Well, that’s not what they’re calling it, but it’s what they might as well call a tax that basically seeks a cut of anything that ordinary people might consider "fun." From James Pindell’s NH Political Report: State House abuzz over ‘entertainment tax’ concept CONCORD — Lobbyists and budget writers are abuzz over a last minute idea … Read more

The New Hampshire Disadvantage

Eugene Van Loan, Chairman of the Josiah Bartlett Center writes, on the state budget: Oh, gosh, another crisis in Concord. The Governor says we need to steal another $150 Million to plug the hole in the budget. Otherwise, we will have to plug it with gambling (the Senate’s preference) or a capital gains tax (the … Read more

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