“Ostentation is the signal flag of hypocrisy.” —Edwin Hubbel Chapin
Representative Frank V. Sapareto (R) Rockingham District 5 – Derry is this week’s RINO of the Week. But let us be clear about Representative Sapareto. He is not a run-of-the-mill RINO. In fact, as a State Representative, (notwithstanding this one bill he filed), He is one of the more solid Republicans up in the Legislature. In fact, the House Republican Alliance scores him at 86% which isn’t bad at all.
Sapareto is, in all respects, a decent State Representative. But for reasons that defy all logic, Sapareto filed a bill which essential uses taxation to punish Pinkerton Academy, creating an exception in state law so that Pinkerton Academy pays a property tax. No other Private Institution in the state would be bound by this law, just Pinkerton. As Josiah Barlett Center for Public Policy President Charlie Arlinghaus pointed out in the Union Leader:
“HB 1201 doesn’t tax anything else, create a new category of taxation, or change the rules under which the other cities and towns of New Hampshire operate. It merely says that notwithstanding provisions of current law, this one school, singled out by name, has to pay property taxes.”
Clearly it is outside the purview of conservative Republican principles to pass any law that is abusive in singling out any institution that a legislator might have a “bee in his bonnet” over, much less the use of taxation to reward or punish.
Pinkerton Academy is a top notch High School. And I should know, being an alumnus. While Pinkerton is a private school, Derry residents as well as some from surrounding towns are served by Pinkerton. It was that way long before Frank Sapareto came from his hometown of Haverhill Massachusetts.
Frank Sapareto may not be a common RINO, but this bill was not only foolish, but a RINO act spelled with a bold-faced 24-point R. And for that reason, Frank Sapareto is this week’s RINO of the Week.