All Member Posts Tagged 'taxes' (65)

The numbing cold was certainly on the minds of Granite Staters this week as legislative activity was heating up in the State House.



Daytime temperatures in some North Country communities struggled to reach 0 degrees, and, with the howling winds, the wind chill at the top of Mt. Washington got down as far as -87.



Inside the…

By Ken Cosgrove

The recent proposal by Rep. Weed to increase the state beer tax by 33% in order to fund substance-abuse treatment is a well-intentioned idea, but one that is not good public policy for a number of reasons.



First is the murkiness of the proposal in terms of what the money would go for exactly. As initially reported, the idea was to add a small tax on beer to fund alcohol rehabilitation treatment, but subsequent reports have indicated that some of…

By Paul Briand



Gov. Maggie Hassan has to deliver a two-year budget to the state Legislature by mid-February.



In the meantime, there is a lot of speculation about what will be in the budget, particularly on the revenue side of the ledger.



There is low-hanging fruit she can pick from the tree, revenue that, on its face, might be easy to get through the Democrat-controlled House and, perhaps, the moderate Republican-controlled Senate.…

By Mark Provost

A WMUR Granite State Poll finds New Hampshire voters are evenly split on the constitutional amendment to ban a state income tax (CACR 13). 42% of those surveyed support the constitutional ban on a state income tax. 40% oppose the amendment. A two-thirds vote in favor of…

By Mark Fernald

Ms. Kenyon needs to revisit some of her statistics and some of her assumptions.

From 1999 to 2011, the total property tax bill in NH doubled.  The property tax as a percentage of all taxes increased from 58% to 66%.

Using Manchester property tax rates to compare to other states is of limited usefulness because Manchester is a relatively low-spending, low tax city (despite what you hear from the Union Leader.)  If you compare the property…

By Paul Briand

Give Jackie Cilley and Bill Kennedy props for one thing: The two Democratic candidates for governor had the guts to say no late last week to the “New Hampshire pledge.”



Now the question is whether declining the pledge means political banishment.



The pledge is almost an oath -- a prerequisite of sorts -- that you must give fealty to in order to become a viable candidate here. Or so it seems. The pledge simply states that you will…

The pen is mightier than the sword, it’s said. For Gov. John Lynch, will the veto pen be mightier than the words in his State of the State speech?



Two years ago, during his State of the State speech that heralded the beginning of his fourth-term as governor, he didn’t use the word “veto” once.



This year, during his…

Earlier this week, New Hampshire's House of Representatives voted (257-101) in favor of a constitutional amendment prohibiting a state income tax.



I question the need for such a measure. For starters, the anti-tax culture remains prevalent in New Hampshire:

New Hampshire has a long history of opposing an income tax. The House…

Photo (L to R): Tom Thomson endorses Gov. Mitt Romney at the Madison Lumber Mill with his brother Robb Thomson and the famous axe.

Boston, MA –Mitt Romney today announced the support of prominent New Hampshire conservative anti-tax activist Tom Thomson.…

If this doesn’t say it all, I don’t know what would.

For those that may even think about buying the notion that we can just take a

little more from the "rich" to solve our economic problems, watch this.  The next

time you hear someone buying into the liberal philosophy of simply raising taxes

on the "rich," consider showing them the following video. 

There is a massive  misunderstanding by the President, his administration,…

U.S Fiscal advice for underdeveloped countries for the past fifty years can be summed up in one basic teaching: do not get in debt to pay for consumption goods. However, last decade has represented a complete contradiction to such predicament. Harvard Professor Jeffry Frieden explained at UNH…

Today Americans for Prosperity (AFP) New Hampshire Honorary Chairman Tom Thomson is expressing his pride over the number of signatures received on the Presidential Pledge he authored titled, “My Pledge to the American People.”  Thomson’s pledge has been signed by eight of the Republican presidential candidates.…

If you pay attention to politics at the national level, there is one common theme among all the players; no tax hikes.

Unfortunately, that theme isn't resonating at the local level. I was stunned to read of the 2.8 percent property tax increase dumped on Nashua residents in Sunday's Nashua Telegraph:

The…

Editor's note: President Barack Obama spoke at Manchester's Central High School on Nov. 22. Below is the full transcript of his remarks, provided by the White House Press Office. (Paragraph breaks added by editor for sake of readability.)

THE PRESIDENT:  Hello, New Hampshire!  (Applause.)  It is good to be back.  Hello, Little Green!  (Applause.)  It is good to be back in New Hampshire, although I have to say that I feel a little winter coming on…

If the Supercommittee fails to come up with a plan that can pass both Houses of Congress and be signed into law by the President the Department of Defense would be forced to make somewhere in the range of $276 to $600 billion in cuts over the next ten years. I say somewhere because one report stated if the Supercommitte fails DOD would have to absorb 23% of the mandatory cuts which would mean $276B

Mr. Panetta, the Secretary of Defense told members of congress that if the failure of…

Managing Our Government

If we want the economy to improve, to restore the American dream for our children, and to have increasing

faith in our government, we the people need to change. It is our responsibility to manage our government, since the government we buy (our taxes) is the biggest

single purchase most of us make every year.

First, we must let go of the old notions that government spending or reductions in government and taxes can

sufficiently…

Thursday night in the Great Room of Hampton's One Liberty Lane, the unthinkable happened:



Republican presidential hopefuls gathered -- irrespective of their fundraising totals and place in the polls -- for the opportunity to answer questions from a moderator, ordinary New Hampshire citizens and one another. And the responses generally lasted more than 30 seconds.



In many cases, much more than 30 seconds. Yet the tone remained civil, like the civil tone the Live Free or…

As a resident of Nashua, I received a personal invitation (bulk mail postcard) to Senator Kelly Ayotte's Town Hall Meeting.



Not one to pass up a political event in my backyard, I ventured south (a few Everett Turnpike exits) earlier tonight and arrived at the Bicentennial Elementary School. As I…

According to Stanley Fish, speech always takes place in an environment of convictions, assumptions, and perceptions i.e., within the confines of a structured world. Yesterday at the NHIOP auditorium of Saint Anselm College a rather thought-provoking set of assumptions was being discussed: the morose panorama of current US fiscal policy.  One of the most recurrent issues addressed by speakers during the afternoon was hyper-partisanship.



Former N.J. Gov. Christie Todd Whitman started…