Group fights against "the tax Pledge"

[KBCraig]

I hardly know what to say. 

http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Group+launches+effort+to+dump+%27the+Pledge%27&articleId=68a4f143-745e-4492-bb21-5387d4accaaa

Group launches effort to dump 'the Pledge'

By TOM FAHEY
State House Bureau Chief

Concord ? A new coalition announced yesterday it will take the fight against the state's reliance on the property tax out of Concord and into hundreds of communities.

The Granite State Fair Tax Coalition plans petition drives to include on local town meeting and school district warrants a resolution that rejects what has become known as "the Pledge." Politicians who take the Pledge promise to vote against or to veto the passage of any broadbased tax, such as an income or sales tax.

Debate on tax reform has stalled in Concord, with Gov. John Lynch and a majority of state senators having taken the Pledge. Now the coalition wants towns to vote on its resolution at the same annual meetings where property taxes are always a hot issue. The resolution calls for tax reform, and says "the Pledge perpetuates a burdensome property tax."

Coalition president David Lamarre-Vincent called the Pledge, "the sacred cow of New Hampshire. There may have been a time for it 35 years ago, but that time has come and gone." He said the Pledge creates a roadblock in tax debates.

With property taxes rising faster than incomes, the tax system is broken, he said. The group plans to draw the connection between the Pledge, rising property taxes and low funding for government services.

Rev. William E. Exner, coalition vice president, said the pledge "is old. It is tired. It is lazy and it is also just plain morally bankrupt." He criticized elected officials for "political parroting of the pledge, year after year, decade after decade."

Charles Arlinghaus, executive director of the conservative Josiah Bartlett Center in Concord, said he doesn't think the campaign will get very far.

"Does anyone in New Hampshire really believe taxpayers didn't have a referendum on the property tax?" he asked. He noted that Democrats Arnie Arnesen and Mark Fernald lost their bids for governor by wide margins when they ran on a promise to push for an income tax.

He said voters have spoken so clearly that the Democratic party threw its support this year only to state Senate candidates who promised to oppose an income tax.

The Granite State Fair Tax coalition includes the League of Women Voters, the New Hampshire Council of Churches, the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire, and the American Friends Service Committee.

The groups generally favor more social welfare spending as part of state budgets.

Spokesmen said yesterday the property tax asks too much of the poor and elderly and too little of the wealthy.

Jane Armstrong of the LWV said, "The current tax structure benefits those who make more than $100,000 per year -- the pie is simply sliced unfairly," she said.

In New Hampshire cities, the coalition hopes to see the discussion drive city councils to consider the resolution. But Lamarre-Vincent said the coalition's main interest is to drive discussion.

"We're more interested in the conversations of voters than in the votes of city councils," he said.

The resolution says, in part, "We believe in a New Hampshire that is just and fair. The property tax has become unjust and unfair. The 'Pledge' perpetuates a burdensome property tax." Rather than urge a specific solution, it calls on elected leaders to, "adopt a revenue system that relieves the local property tax burden."

Lynch's press secretary Pamela Walsh said the governor, "opposes an income or sales tax and will veto one if it passes." She said moving debate to local communities is part of the democratic process of which the state is proud.

Walsh agreed with Arlinghaus that past elections have served as tax referenda.

"The people of New Hampshire have repeatedly made their position clear," she said.

[error]

Spending cuts. Spending cuts. Spending cuts. Spending cuts. Spending cuts. Spending cuts.

[Rosie the Riveter]

I just read that article in the Union Leader as well.  I can't believe it when citizens push for higher taxes. They must be insane.  I see lots of protest opprotunities if they plan to have public community meetings.

[Atlas]

"The people of New Hampshire have repeatedly made their position clear," she said.

So, what part doesn't she get?

[d_goddard]

I think what is needed here is a barrage of reply LTEs reminding the Good Reverend that Communism is "just plain morally bankrupt."

You can send an LTE via a handy webpage to the Concord Monitor, and to the Keene Sentinel.

You can send an LTE via email to the Union Leader and the Nashua Telegraph.

[Rosie the Riveter]

I agree that LTE's are very important. I would also encourge anyone who attends a chuch that is a part of this group "New Hampshire Council of Churches"  to make your position known as it seems like they and the League of Woman Voters are the primary creators of this.

http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061205/REPOSITORY/612050397/1043/48HOURS

[aries]

This made me think about the Fair Tax book... and if NH could do that... Who here would favor a 12% sales tax with a local option up to 5% in lieu of ALL other taxes?

Well, the bad thing is it'd be very bad for the economy, and we'd probably need to make up for it somewhere.

[FrankChodorov]

reminding the Good Reverend that Communism is "just plain morally bankrupt."

catholicism actually condems both state socialism and state capitalism equally.

Pope Pius XI issued Quadragesimo Anno, subtitled "On Reconstruction of the Social Order". Released on May 15 of 1931, this encyclical expanded on Rerum Novarum, noting the positive effect of the earlier document but pointing out that the world had changed significantly since Pope Leo's time. Pius XI reiterated Leo's defence of private property rights and collective bargaining, and repeated his contention that blind economic forces cannot create a just society on their own:

"Just as the unity of human society cannot be founded on an opposition of classes, so also the right ordering of economic life cannot be left to a free competition of forces. For from this source, as from a poisoned spring, have originated and spread all the errors of individualist economic teaching. Destroying through forgetfulness or ignorance the social and moral character of economic life, it held that economic life must be considered and treated as altogether free from and independent of public authority, because in the market, i.e., in the free struggle of competitors, it would have a principle of self direction which governs it much more perfectly than would the intervention of any created intellect. But free competition, while justified and certainly useful provided it is kept within certain limits, clearly cannot direct economic life..."

[Pat K]

This is a load of crap, the people of NH will end up with a high property tax and every other tax they can think of if this is allowed to happen.

Expect them to lie cheat and pull out all the stops to get this through over the will of the people.


I remember years ago in Connecticut when this happened, the governer ended up getting the fucking Kennedy award for courage for passing the tax.

[Dan]

Property taxes are going up, and up.

We need an Income Tax.

Where does this suspension of disbelief come from?  Does it MATTER how taxes are extracted from a citizen, if in fact they are equally distributed? Property taxes are either directly paid by the owner, or passed as rent, thus equally distributed.  Income tax just makes you feel better because you forget the opportunity cost, and collects a little extra from foreign commuters.

The only solution is to tax more, or spend less.  I'd rather option A be as transparent and bald faced as possible, instead of passing the cost of tax collection on to businesses that are busy trying to create wealth.

[FrankChodorov]

as Jason called for at the porcfest it is time folks to co-opt the opposition.

shift taxes off of capital and onto land values (urban locations are woefully under utilized and thus under valued in NH).

call for a $50K homeowner's homestead exemption for everyone (except absentee landowners) and a system of liens for those living on a fixed income to be paid for at title transfer (death or sale).

[money dollars]

as Jason called for ...

Who cares what some bitch P.H.D. from Yale "calls for"?

[FrankChodorov]

as Jason called for ...

Who cares what some bitch P.H.D. from Yale "calls for"?

this should be an interesting conversation - two people on ignore by 99% of the forum participants...

do you know what talk I am referring to?

[Tyler Stearns]

This whole argument is illogical.  Creating a new tax to lower the tax burden?  I'm pretty sure thats not how it works.  We should open up a bank account that is open to donations from these groups.  We can send the money to the state government.  If they want to pay more taxes, let them pay more taxes.

[Lloyd Danforth]

This is a load of crap, the people of NH will end up with a high property tax and every other tax they can think of if this is allowed to happen.

Expect them to lie cheat and pull out all the stops to get this through over the will of the people.


I remember years ago in Connecticut when this happened, the governer ended up getting the fucking Kennedy award for courage for passing the tax.

And then that Bastard went on TV and said 'Well,  you all wanted this"